For or against Squid Game: the challenge on Netflix?
Should we get into the reality TV that has just started and which sordidly apes the scathing Korean series? Or does the cause of entertainment justify anything?
And ? What would you be willing to pay for $4.56 million? It is with this very practical premise that the game arrives Squid Game, launched on Netflix this Tuesday. A premise ultimately applicable to any reality TV, a genre that was built on this idea from Big Brother Or Loft Story : people are willing to do anything in front of a camera for a quarter of an hour of fame and a little money. There, they are asked to pretend to die, in a facsimile of Battle Royal, where anything goes, especially those planned by production. The sum at stake is colossal (5 million euros, it changes a life) and justifies all possible low blows, to be captured from all angles, to better show subscribers the most vile aspects of Humanity. Did you say discomfort?
AGAINST
Morally sordid
Squid Game: the challenge undeniably causes some form of discomfort. There’s an obvious moral discomfort watching 456 contestants running fear-filled towards a giant doll in a Korean variation of “One, Two, Three Suns.” Especially since each time a candidate is eliminated, a capsule of imitation hemoglobin – which has been stuck to his chest beforehand – explodes under his t-shirt, reproducing the impact of a bullet. And to accentuate the matter, the production had the good idea of asking all the losers to fall to the ground, like a live death. Yes, it’s unhealthy. When we know that the idea behind Squid Game, the series, was to denounce the perversity of the entertainment society or the manipulation of the less fortunate, devouring popcorn in front of real-life sacrifices causes anguish and perplexity…
FOR
Spectacularly staged
No need to act like a frightened spectator. The show exists, and it must be recognized that, for all its cynicism, it was produced with impressive ambition. Each setting in the series has been reproduced identically, with numerous details. The games are (almost) all the same and are crazy intense, offering a basis for spectacular confrontation, which we wait for as we wait for the immunity tests on TF1 in Koh Lanta.
AGAINST
Narratively confused
Except that in Koh Lanta, there are (most often) two teams, the yellows and the reds. The rules are clear. The first team to cross the line wins the event. Period. In Squid Game: the challenge, there are 456 candidates on the starting line. That’s 456 teams. And we haven’t seen half of it! In an improbable chaos, they all rushed without anyone understanding who was who. The first test of the first episode was, in this respect, a disappointment. In a visibly random manner (at the direction of the client?), production eliminates 250 candidates in 20 minutes of broadcast, at the end of a particularly confusing “One, two, three suns”.
FOR
Solidly incarnated
That being said, there were still 200 candidates left after that. Including some notable personalities. Trey and his mother, for example, could perfectly be characters in season 2 of the series. Bryton, the terrible number 432, makes a perfect villain, both scathing and full of himself. A wickedness justified by a painful childhood. And then there are the good guys (“the Gganbu gang” led by the veteran of the show), the rebels, the vicious… A complete gallery.
AGAINST
Stupidly radical
But a gallery that has difficulty sustaining itself over time, due to the basic concept: the eliminations follow one another at high speed. And if the production tries to make this or that figure stand out among the crowd, it can do nothing when the latter breaks her biscuit in two during the Dalgona test… As much, in Koh Lanta, it is always possible to imagine an annex island to fish out the candidates we want to keep. However, there, the elimination is brutal. In these conditions, it is almost impossible to become attached to anyone in this reality TV that does not leave time for it.
FOR
Carceral sociologically
Fortunately for Squid Game: the challenge, the game is stronger than those who play it. Decorum is sufficient in itself. The trials, of course. But also this gigantic dormitory, where the candidates spend most of their time. A cold loft, with raw lines, basic furniture and white light. Prison atmosphere, enhanced by the numbers assigned to each player and which often act as a surname. In this huge room, you can’t really hide. No privacy. Everyone on their bunk bed looks at each other from one end of the room to the other. Clans are formed. By affinity. By default. And today’s alliances are not tomorrow’s truth. From betrayal to low blows, the internal eliminations (outside the tests) have the air of punches dealt between two inmates when going to the shower. An absolutely fascinating prison atmosphere, which comes out naturally, even more than in the fictional series.
AGAINST
Unfortunately too American
We regret that the participants are almost all from the United States. To add insult to injury, there isn’t even a South Korean. If we understand the need to speak the language of Shakespeare impeccably, Squid Game: the challenge was initially presented to us as an international competition, with a cast from the four corners of the planet. But apart from an Italian and an Englishwoman here or there, the game is limited to a clash between the States of Uncle Sam, sometimes even insisting on the opposition between those from deep America, having a revenge to take on those of coastal America… This limits the possibility of identifying with candidates for the rest of the world.
BALANCE SHEET
Ultimately entertaining?
Ultimately, Squid Game: The Challenge somewhat collapses in on itself. From episode to episode, the anarchist and so incorrect concept ends up withering away. And the show falls into line, turning into a pure reality TV program, somewhere between OZ, Secret Story And Koh Lanta. It’s sometimes fascinating, sometimes annoying, often mesmerizing. The characters do tons of it, because the cameras are rolling and everyone now knows what they can get from such media exposure. The game Squid Game and all the philosophical reflections that go with it are crushed in the mill of entertainment. Waiting for season 2 of the series.
WHEN WILL THE LATEST EPISODES OF SQUID GAME: THE CHALLENGE ?
Season 1 has 10 episodes in total. A first burst of 5 episodes was put online on the 22nd. 4 new episodes will be visible on November 29. The grand finale is scheduled for December 6.
