Netflix’s Squid Game reality show misunderstands one crucial aspect of the original series.
This article contains spoilers forSquid Game: The Challengethrough episode 5.
Squid Game: The Challengegets a lot of things right when it comes to its namesake.
Like the 2021 classic series before it,Netflixs ambitious reality competition is all about the details.
Escher staircases perfectly recreating the iconic look ofSquid Game.
The competitions, still based on childhood games, are exciting and profoundly stressful.
No, were not talking about the fact that the players arent killed, that would be insane.
What were referring to is all the, for lack of a better word,bullshit.
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The real appeal ofSquid Gameis its steadfast aversion to any bullshit.
While the world ofSquid Gameis cruel, it is also fair in its own perverse way.
There is no trickery inherent to that premise because its unnecessary.
All the twists are already built in.
You win, you survive; you lose, you die.
Its extreme but thems the breaks.
Here you are all equal, with equal opportunity and no discrimination.
We promise to prevent such misfortunes from happening again.
We truly apologize for this tragedy.
The same can not be said for the 456 players inSquid Game: The Challenge.
This does not feel like equal opportunity with no discrimination.
It feels like a reality show looking for a way to spice up the moments in-between games.
And the bullshit continues throughout.
Episode 2 finds player 198 eliminated because he cant convince someone else to pick up a phone.
InSquid Game: The Challenge, its rewarded.
And between-the-games intrigue is an obvious go-to for any reality competition series looking to spice things up.
Squid Game: The Challengeepisodes one through five are available to stream on Netflix now.
Episodes six through nine premiere on Wednesday, Nov. 29.
The 10th and final episode premieres Wednesday, Dec. 6.
