Squid Game
NETFLIXIt is somewhat of a surprise that creator Hwang Dong-hyuk's Squid Game is leading an enormous amount of success on Netflix's platform. A streaming service that is, slowly but surely, realising narrative documentary is the way forward. Yet, its audiences are seemingly stacking up to binge such non-fiction entities, presumably a response due to the saturated market of what Netflix perceives to be its strength in producing.
That is one part of the unanswerable question of why audiences are flocking to Squid Game, but another reason why this should be questioned is that Squid Game is not all that effective post-screening. Nothing particularly lives long in the memory nor impacts the viewer after each episode or series finale, with the latter a rather large indication of the anti-climatic nature to proceedings showcases in a nutshell. Nevertheless, in the moment, Dong-hyuk's series is quite a thrilling and immersive experience. Breaking itself down into eight easily digestible and fun episodes, it is not necessarily the characters that prolong interest but the scenarios themselves – however, that is for another time.
What makes Squid Game quite interesting, on a personal level of someone who rarely but has consumed larger scale television series such as The Walking Dead or Lost, is that Dong-hyuk's show takes the norm away from the conventional narrative. Flashbacks for narrative exposition and stagnant storytelling are gone and almost undetectable here. Narratively speaking, Squid Game does something fascinating. Once it places its characters inside this environment of the game, it takes them back out due to the players choosing and continues its story outside of this game. The interest here is not only contextually how this affects the story but also the decision to do a non-conventional narrative trick. Granted, this story element has been done before in later season of Lost. Still, Squid Game's decision to do such is key to better writing and waving of sheer boredom of what had come before, as in the Abrams ABC show that rooted itself stuck and waiting for inevitable death. This element in Squid Game does not last too long, but it rather wonderfully furthers the characters’ present in why they truly need to attend this game and win it. It is almost genius to a point by creating more character immersion and depth but never stagnating the game itself and set pieces.
Thankfully, this notion is upheld by the charismatic performances from the cast, but specifically lead Lee Jung-Jae, who does a fabulous job of treading the line of insufferable but emotionally rich character of Seong Gi-hun. His character's plight is nothing necessarily new in terms of convention but is executed terrifically well in the actor's performance abilities, specifically in terms of depth and charisma. The enigmatic nature of the character of Jung Ho-yeon and the mystery of the character from Park Hae-soo equally build immersion and entertainment in the height of the trauma and often brutality of what the series set-pieces provoke.
Granted, this is where the praises ultimately stop, and the normality of the situation arises. Many viewers and publications have been noted a 'seismic' twist within Squid Game, and on reflection, it is hard to distinguish what is so effective by its inclusion truly. Granted, it adds a new layer to proceedings but, in actual fact, undermines the severity of the series's whole emotional core and feels wildly derivative and dull. In the moment, said reveal is somewhat left-field but again, on reflection feels incredibly weak and unimaginative.
For seven hours, the series is hotly compelling in the moment. Nevertheless, this dip ultimately occurs and derails the structure by the finale episode. Squid Game is remarkably rushed, with story and narrative that over-blows the reveals as well as the audience immersion. Cramming in what feels like two or more hours into fifty-five minutes of television, and it is that exact excitement and unpredictability of what made the aforementioned narrative interesting seismically dull by the end of things. There is fun and entertainment to be had here, but what starts of feeling fresh and unique – even in its conventional methods – soon squanders the opportunity and results in a tired, conventional and ultimately anti-climatic finale that once again in this format uses a question mark instead of a full stop by the series end.
