The fact that seemingly the whole world missed the point of Squid Game and just thinks "oh cool, fun games" makes me really uncomfortable.

Kids were dressing up in Squid Game costumes, Mr Beast and his whole thing, now this...

Maybe I just don't get it.

Yes this is just SAW, right? I liked it alot more than the SAW sequels tho.

So the original squid game is a critique of capitalism, but this reality show is modeled after the show (minus the actual death part), with 456 contestants competing for 4.56mm, put up by Netflix, and we're surprised that actual contestants have been harmed during filming?

That's more money than most of them and their entire families will see in their entire lives.

We haven't seen the squid game sequels yet... I believe they're coming.

The pound has surely plunged recently.

"Netflix announced it would invite 456 people to battle for US$4.56m (A$6.4m, £3.7bn)"

Isn't the point of Squid Game that even good people would do anything for a life-changing amount of money? Take a regular person and put them in a desperate situation, and they will turn on their friends and family. Gi-hun might be the incorruptible hero trope (in the end), but the show isn't really about him, it's about the spectacle of the game and inviting viewers to decide what they'd do in every round.

Plenty of people found the fight for money and survival relatable (since it framed money and survival as the same thing). Don't know about S. Korea, but 65% of the US lives paycheck to paycheck and the average American is 90K in debt. Remember that in the show, all the players voted to leave the Game and then returned of their own free will -- and this was a massively relatable moment for the audience. It conveyed that the Game is inescapable and that we are all already playing it. The show also gave people permission to think about how brutal they'd get if put into this type of situation by making it seem like everyone else would be just as cutthroat.

The reality show is just a PG version of this dark fantasy.

All solid points.

I guess for me my takeaway was a sort of moral shaming of the elites who prey on our desperation.

So to willingly participate in these recreations is like almost giving your approval to these people to exploit you.

But you're right in that even in the show, they chose to come back. I totally forgot that part. People willingly took part in their exploitation, just like real life.

I guess it's a case of art mirroring life, and it's uncomfortable for me to see it depicted so bluntly.

Kids dress up as Darth Vader and Joker too. People have always liked "bad" things

People like the costumes because they're easy to coordinate into a group.

The thing is, I find it very unrealistic that you could create a game show experience with that many people and a number of them not get hurt. Especially since some of the games being played were modeled after literal death traps.

Haha okay that makes sense. Still makes me squirm, but I get the convenience factor.

True. I guess for me what makes a difference is Darth Vader and Joker are both purely fictional characters. It would be like me getting mad at people who like GTA and saying they're promoting drug dealing.

But Squid Game is too close to reality for me to comfortably engage with or make light of.

It's like Nosedive (I don't know if you watch Black Mirror.) If someone copy pasted the housing system in real life just cause they liked the pastel aesthetic. I'd be like... you missed the whole point of what the creators were trying to convey. Yeah, pastels are cute, but wtf dude.

there's a difference between cosplaying a fictional villain and actually doing their villainous actions

Not just that, everyone stopped talking about this the after children in North Korea where shot to death because....they brought this show home (after vacation) and showed to other classmates, and the supreme leader was not amused

On top of that, iirc families where send to work in mine (aka slaves for life)

techers and other employees from said school (who were completely unrelated..) where dismissed and send who knows where

Kinda reminds me of the time when Upton Sinclair wrote The Jungle intending to highlight workers conditions at the time but instead lead to food safety legislations and angencies instead

Not quite. At least, not by my estimation.

SAW was (at least originally) about a self-righteous psychopath pushing people to face their own failings and prove they had the will to live, in order to encourage them to not waste their lives. There was, of course, the underlying motivations of said psychopath's own anger and judgement, but entertainment was not a motivation.

Squid Game was about a group of wealthy elite taking advantage of people in dire financial situations - situations created, either actively or passively, by the behavior of a culture that serves those wealthy elite - and killing them for entertainment. Those wealthy elite aren't psychopaths, they simply believe themselves above moral concerns and the people they set up to die.

Honestly because we only saw on the show that having the money doesn’t solve everything and most of the time with similar things the camera stops recording when the prize is won

> It would be like me getting mad at people who like GTA and saying they're promoting drug dealing. > >

There are people out there who would argue such a thing I.E. Jack Thompson and people who think like him.

That's kinda normal for people to miss the point right? Remember when Rambo I was the story about how society mistreats veterans and war is hell and the subsequent movies are "haha, war is fun!".

I'm also curious how they deal with that many people. Squid game pretty much killed off like 80% of the contestants in the first 2 games and one night, with that one game explicitly meant to have the pool altogether.

wtf why is this getting downvoted

That's what concerns you, not the mass shootings? Not the political rights being stripped away such as Roe vs Wade?

This is a show, entertainment. That's all. There's plenty of fucked up.shit, like people who openly embrace the hate of Republicans in the United States.

I'm far more worried about the continual attacks on energy infrastructure.

>and we're surprised that actual contestants have been harmed during filming?

I think there's a misunderstanding, no one was surprised by this. They had medics all ready to go.

What Netflix is saying is that the injuries weren't "serious", not that they're caught off guard by them.

3 out of 456 people having injuries seems extremely realistic in any slightly risky circumstance. Like that seems pretty close to going hiking on a rough trail.

I don't know if they've already wrapped filming but if not I would think more would get hurt. They only mentioned red light green light and there were lots of games in the show.

True but still. I would think a higher percentage of elementary kids get some level of injury on field days.

And if it's truly as bad as people claim then I would expect to get some kind of hard evidence at some point.

I've never even heard of this!!

You keep worrying about that. I'll keep being concerned about this. The planet is big enough for both of us, thank goodness.