A recent Saturday in which there were no barn chores or children around allowed for something that is not often done in our house, an official binge on a Netflix series. The series on tap was Squid Game, a Korean show that was released in September and has already become Netflix’s most watched show ever. No small feat when you consider that Netflix has become so ingrained in our culture that even the idea of watching TV for hours to consume a ‘season’ of television in a day has been normalized to the point of being given its own terms in our vernacular.
So was it a mindless day of TV watching, or was there something to be learned from what turned out to be some very smart writing across the nine episodes? In the beginning it felt like someone just wanted to put a modern spin on Richard Connell’s The Most Dangerous Game, first published in 1924, but it did not take long for that lazy analysis to be dispelled.
Unlike Connell’s classic short story, Squid Game involved willing participants, simple games, and a significant prize for the winner. It is not easy to layer in what could be learned without spoiling things for future viewers, so if you are in the tiny intersection of the Venn diagram of people who enjoy Korean film/TV and The Ivory Silo, consider yourself warned and stop reading here.
Still here? Let’s carry on…
The second episode finds the participants free to return home after the first episode in which the players learn the life or death stakes on the line during a bloody game of red light, green light. That first game showed that losing was more than missing out on the prize, it resulted in the death of the player. Following the shocking realization that this was not a simple child’s game, players democratically vote to end the game with no prize money being awarded.
The main character returns back to find his mother needing surgery and angry debtors still looking for their money. Each player is reminded how hopeless their financial situation seems and in the end, most choose under their own volition to chase the multi-million dollar prize. As the games progress alliances are formed as players seek to survive each game to get one more round closer to victory. In the sixth episode we learn that the main character is not beyond a ‘white lie’ to win, choosing to take advantage of an elderly man who appears to be forgetting his bets in a game of marbles. In an unexpected twist the old man calls out the lying, but does not protest the outcome regardless of it meaning his own death is imminent.
There are many small offshoots that display both our foibles and virtue to be found throughout the series, but the final episode leaves some haunting unanswered questions. The conclusion of the game itself had some Rom-Com cheesiness, the two finalists being childhood friends and as the presumptive winner, the main character attempts to stop the game to save both their lives (complete with emotional back and forth during a rainstorm). Said cheesiness quickly melts away when the friend stabs himself in the neck instead of taking up the offer of grace; leaving our main character as the winner with the blood of his childhood friend on his shoes.
This particular sequence left me uncomfortable. Our main character was financially destitute and unable to support his family after a series of both external and self-inflicted maladies.
The only thing that could fix his problems was money. When faced with a solution to the financial woes he was confronted with the empathetic desire to save his friend despite the continued financial hopelessness that decision would entail. The childhood friend, knowing that if they quit the game both would still face their problems and neither would have the financial wherewithal to face them, decided to sacrifice himself in hopes that the main character would come good on the promise to take care of his aging mother.
There was no outcome where all rode off into the sunset together. It was the visceral reality of real life on full display reminding us that there are more impossible choices that leave us with figurative blood on our shoes than happy Hollywood endings.
The Disposable Nature of the Working Class
Ultra Rich VIPs who gamble on the outcomes of games are introduced in Episode 6. The participants are not human to them, they live merely for the entertainment of the rich. The anger shown when a participant dies is not for death itself but for a loss of a wager.
The contempt shown for the lives of the players is a good reminder for us regular folk that the Jeff Bezos and Elon Musks of the world care about nothing beyond their own enrichment.
We shouldn’t forget that people like Bezos would rather spend billions on their own rocket to space than ensuring the very workers who created his wealth can afford to eat supper.
***
Stewart Skinner is a local business owner, former political candidate, and has worked at Queen’s Park as a Policy Advisor to the Minister of Agriculture, Food, and Rural Affairs. He can be reached at stewart@stonaleenfarms.ca or on Twitter: @modernfarmer.
