‘I am good at everything, except the things I can’t do.’
— Mi-nyeo, Squid Game Season 1
The first half of this memorable line uttered by a key character in the fall of 2021, when a wave called Squid Game swept the global entertainment landscape, summarises this smash-hit Netflix show. The latter bit, however, doesn’t. In the three years since its smash-hit debut, Squid Game, one of the most-watched shows ever, has consistently illustrated that its quick rise to becoming a pop-culture phenomenon was no flash in the pan. The South Korean series that came about a year after Parasite swept the Academy Awards, winning in categories that a film not in the English language had never scored in before, found viewers (which quickly translated into staunch followers) in geographies as diverse as France to Fiji, Germany to Guatemala.
Playing out over nine episodes, Season 1 of Squid Game — a survival drama in which hundreds of debt-ridden citizens risk their lives to play a series of children’s games, now given a sinister edge in a do-or-die situation, in a bid to take home 4.56 billion won — became a binge-watch favourite. It rose to become Netflix’s most-watched series, reaching the top-viewed programme in as many as 94 countries. The show attracted a viewership of 142 million member households during its first four weeks, surpassing the streaming giant’s 2020 British costume drama hit, Bridgerton. To put it simply, it became a show that pierced the zeitgeist like a needle through a honeycomb wafer — one of the games the series has made famous even outside it — and with an estimated audience of more than 140 million worldwide, it became Netflix’s most-viewed show of all time.
According to Bloomberg News, the first season — produced on a budget of $21.4 million — was estimated to be worth $900 million for the streaming giant. Bloomberg also reported that about 132 million viewers had watched at least two minutes of the show in its first 23 days, easily breaking the record set by Bridgerton, which was streamed by 82 million accounts in its first 28 days. Google reported that Squid Game was the most-searched television show on its search engine in 2021, while Twitter has revealed that Squid Game was the most-tweeted-about television show that year.
What worked for Squid Game, in retrospect, with hundreds of articles seeking to decode its success written in the three years since Season 1 took over the world, was, first and foremost, its premise. The series operated in a thrillingly dark world similar to that of the dystopian drama, The Hunger Games, but took it a notch higher, tempering the tone with a tinge of capitalism and perfectly attuned to cross-cultural anxieties. This helped it resonate almost everywhere, especially in a world struggling to stay afloat in the middle of a pandemic, which it hadn’t quite left behind at that time.
That most countries of the world, including South Korea, battle a personal debt crisis of epic proportions, and economic inequality is a global scourge, found resonance with viewers of Squid Game on a global level. The show’s edgy theme of survival of the fittest is offset by a candy-coloured visual aesthetic akin to Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory, appealing to a wide demographic of viewers.
Over the years, pop culture has been heavily influenced by Squid Game, more than any other show in the recent past, perhaps only on a par with Stranger Things, yet another global blockbuster from Netflix. The South Korean garment industry, which had been on a decline even before the pandemic, got a lifeline, with factories flooded with orders for the familiar green-and-white tracksuits as well as the pink jumpsuits shown in the series. Similarly, sales of the white slip-on Vans worn in the show spiked a whopping 7,800 per cent since the series premiered, and according to reports, have only grown since.
The cosplay world, in particular, acted fast, already busy with recreations — the guards in their bright red-pink overalls, the Front Man with his geometric mask and black overcoat, the participants in their green jumpsuits complete with tousled hair and bruises from the stress of the games and, of course, the massive singing doll with swivelling eyes, an unmissable motif of the ‘Red Light Green Light’ task.
“It took 12 years to bring the first season of Squid Game to life last year. But it took 12 days for Squid Game to become the most popular Netflix series ever,” Hwang Dong-hyuk, the creator-director of the show, had said in the months following the release of Season 1. With no initial plan to make a second season — Dong-hyuk has expressed regret for bumping off some significant players in Season 1 — the raging success of the show ultimately meant that Season 2 was a shoo-in.
THE GAME IS BACK
This month, on Boxing Day to be precise, Squid Game is ready to pack a punch once more with its much-awaited Season 2 streaming globally. The new season is set three years after Seong Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae) won ‘Squid Game’ but gave up on going to the US, returning with a new resolution in mind — to track down the mastermind of the game. He once again dives into the mysterious survival game, starting another life-or-death duel with new participants gathered to win the grand prize.
A few weeks ago, t2oS found itself chatting across a computer screen with Lee Jung-jae. As Player No. 456, aka Gi-hun, the unshakeable protagonist in a cast comprising a rich ensemble, the veteran Korean actor has been at the forefront of not only Squid Game’s massive worldwide popularity but also a catalyst in the Hallyu wave that has swept the globe.
When I asked Lee Jung-jae what he thought accounted for the glorious popularity of Squid Game, he reiterated that the concept and format of the series are what had hooked viewers, something that he hopes will continue in Season 2. “I liked the concept of the game. The performances were very good and so was the music. I also think the concept of playing children’s games with their lives on the line was something that was very new and refreshing for the audience. The grand visuals and the mise-en-scene worked,” Lee Jung-jae, looking spiffy in a fawn-coloured suit, told t2oS from Italy while in that country attending a promotional for Season 2.
When asked to elaborate further, Lee Jung-jae added: “I think the music had very catchy melodies that everybody could really sing along and I just really like the fact that it was very simple and easy and self-explanatory but it also has a deeper message and it could be very entertaining to the people watching the games. That is why it transcended borders and appealed to people of all cultures.”
When it became a rage, many wondered whether Squid Game would end up as a one-off pandemic pop culture anomaly or it would mark the beginning of a new age of non-English language film and TV ascendency around the world. Thankfully, it translated into the latter. Its success spurred a surge in Korean content across streaming platforms, with a large portion of their investment being chalked down to a Korean slate covering a wide variety of genres and sub-genres. The show’s widespread localisation, with subtitles in 37 languages and dubbed versions in 34 languages, helped to capture an international audience.
Squid Game is the first non-English television series to receive nominations and to win Primetime Emmy Awards.
It received 14 nominations, winning six of them, including Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series, Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series, and Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series. The winning of these awards respectively made actor Lee Jung-jae, director Hwang Dong-hyuk, and actress Lee Yoo-mi become the first Asians and Koreans to receive Emmys.
“Winning six Emmy Awards would definitely count as a defining moment for me and the whole team. I was very proud to see director Hwang Ho Dong Hyuk and Lee Jung-jae win the Emmy as the first non-English-speaking director and actor respectively. That is a memory that I hold really dear to my heart,” Wi Ha-joon told t2oS.
In an interview to The New York Times, Lee Jung-jae attempted to articulate the impact of Squid Game in paving the way for future content from the country: “I have seen some reactions on social media and on YouTube, and I have been trying to wrap my mind around them. I watched a lot of YouTube reaction videos, videos of the viewers themselves watching Squid Game in real time. I had never seen these so-called reaction videos before in my life. I hope for other Korean content to come, because Squid Game has done such a good job in raising awareness of Korean TV series and films, which I hope will now find a wider audience.”
Last year, Squid Game: The Challenge, a reality show featuring real contestants competing in games similar to that shown in the original series, also turned out to be a winner for Netflix. Like the parent show, Squid Game: The Challenge had 456 players (the largest cast in reality TV history) competing for $4.56 million (the largest single cash prize in reality TV history). The show was No. 1 on Netflix’s list of Top 10 English-language shows for the first two weeks after its release. It had 20.5 million views in its first week, 11.4 million in its second, and 6.6 million in its third, with a total of over 224 million hours watched within the first 21 days. A second season is on the anvil.
HIGH STAKES
Wi Ha-joon, like Lee Jung-jae, agrees that the stakes — both within the show’s storytelling and the expectations from the audience — are incredibly high as Squid Game the series dives into its sophomore season. “Squid Game talks about people at the crossroads. It talks about human nature, the values that we have to have as humanity. All of these are very well portrayed in the series and I think that’s what made it so relatable to the global audience. Season 2 takes it up further,” he told t2oS via a translator.
Like his co-star, Wi Ha-joon believes that the paradoxical mix of the innocuous and the insidious, which lies at the heart of Squid Game, is what continues to make it appealing. “The show found a good way to convey the deep nature of people as well as of the human values that are gradually disappearing due to desire. Essentially using children’s games as ‘killing games’ in situations of life and death was something that was very shocking to the global audience. It sent out a shockwave and everybody was very interested at the outset.”
While Season 2 is expectedly shrouded in secrecy, director Hwang said in an interview with The Times that the second season may focus more on the story of the Front Man as well as incorporate more about the police. “I think the issue with police officers is not just an issue in Korea. I see it on the global news that the police force can be very late in acting on things — there are more victims or a situation gets worse because of them not acting fast enough. This was an issue that I wanted to raise.” He has also said that he wanted to explore the relationship between the cryptic Front Man and his policeman brother Hwang Jun-ho, as well as the background of the salesman/ recruiter character (portrayed by Gong Yoo).
In his chat with t2oS, Lee Jung-jae did provide a framework of Gi-Hun’s graph in the second season. “Gi-Hun has changed a lot in Season 2, he is hardly the same person. He can’t help but change. But I can fundamentally relate to the spirit of energy that says that we have to stop the actions of people who commit evil deeds. There are many different sides of him that are exposed to the world as he strives to survive in the game. There is a purpose and goal to the absolute end. Among the characters I have played so far, Gi-Hun is the one with a broad spectrum of emotions. I don’t know how much more work I will be doing, but Gi-Hun will remain in my life forever.”
Lee Jung-jae reiterates that it is Gi-hun’s metamorphoses and yet his relatability that will form the crux of much of the action in Season 2. “You will get to see quite a different Gi-hun in Season 2. But he is still a very identifiable person because he is fixated on stopping the games... he knows that these people are doing very atrocious things to these participants and that is something that we all can relate to. There are so many different aspects and facets of Gi-Hun. He starts off as this very naive childlike person but as the story unfolds, he goes through these heinous things and then he knows that he has to sometimes cooperate with others. For a while, it is very difficult for him to do so as he has to win the game in order to survive and he undergoes a huge emotional spectrum,” sums up Lee Jung-jae.
A third and final season of Squid Game has been announced for 2025, but as of now, all eyes are on December 26. Let the game(s) begin!
