Culture Crash: The Sensational “Squid Game”

In recent months and years, it feels like so many of the biggest hits have been extensions of pre-existing intellectual property. The Mandalorian and WandaVision are two of the biggest hits Disney+ has launched, and they are obviously extensions of Star Wars and the MCU. Warner Brothers is launching a new Batman movie, MGM is looking for a new James Bond. You get it, it’s nothing new.

But it’s that never-ending tsunami of franchise and IP content that makes something like Squid Game, a new show from Netflix, so exciting. The show is an original property from South Korea, and it has gone to show that people will find high-quality entertainment, even if it isn’t a continuation of IP and honestly, even without it being in the English language.

In fact, the streaming service told CNN that Squid Game had the company’s biggest launch… ever. In just a few weeks, Squid Game has reportedly drawn views from 111 million accounts, demolishing the impressive 82 million households that watched Bridgerton in its first 28 days on the service, and beating out Stranger Things, The Witcher, House of Cards, Orange is the New Black and countless others.

Squid Game is a brutal, dystopian show about a group of hundreds of individuals who play a series of children’s game for the promise of unfathomable wealth. However, the cost of losing is death. The show is capital-V- violent, but it’s also a compelling look at late-stage capitalism, economic desperation, and a portrait of humanity and the lengths people would go to socially climb in today’s world.

After the booming success of Parasite a few years ago, also an original title, as well as the German show Dark and now Squid Game, I’m growing more and more excited that, even if many American creators and studios are relying more and more on IP and existing titles, international markets may be able to capitalize on that exhausting trend by serving global audiences exciting new titles to discuss with friends and meme into oblivion online.

Squid Game is now streaming on Netflix.