Generation Squid
At this point, you’d need to be living under a rock, or in a geography not served by Netflix, to not know about Squid Game. Squid Game, the ultra-hyped, incredibly violent and completely addictive South Korean export has taken the world by storm. Its entrance into the zeitgeist is so swift and pervasive that I saw dozens of costumes emulating the game’s referees throughout the Halloween weekend on children and adults alike.
At its heart, Squid Game is a social commentary on the divide between the rich and the poor. It explores how the few control the masses, and how deadly greed can be. It illustrates humanity at its best and its worst, and this is probably why so many people have watched and made it Netflix’s top show, ever. A staggering 1.65 billion hours of viewing followed the initial 28 days from its launch on September 17, according to Variety.
While many critics have focused on the overarching themes of inequality, which are at the core to this series’ success, few have discussed the generational themes at play just below the surface. Spoiler alerts follow for those of you who haven’t seen Squid Game yet.
Two characters, Oh Il-nam (In Korean: 오일남) and Seong Gi-hun (In Korean: 성기훈), transfixed me from the beginning of the show. Oh Il-nam is introduced as a doddering old man suffering from inoperable brain cancer. The tumor is so invasive that it causes him to become demented at times. There’s even a scene where he wets his bed.
Seong Gi-hun, on the other hand, is a bankrupt divorcee who can’t seem to catch a break. His life is in ruins thanks to a crippling gambling addiction, which has left him divorced from his spouse, estranged from his daughter, and living with his mother, who is suffering from diabetes and cannot afford basic health care.
These two men strike-up an unlikely friendship, which is so strong that Oh Il-nam refers to Seong Gi-hun as “gambu” or best friend. They end up surviving for most of the game. However, Seong Gi-hun violates this friendship to save his own life by taking advantage of the old man’s dementia during a game of marbles. Viewers are led to believe that Oh Il-nam is executed when, in reality, he has been the antagonist all along. Oh Il-nam is the wealthy architect of Squid Game, which offers a great twist and leans into the other narrative about older people; they have gobbled up all of the riches and refuse to share.
In the end, Squid Game is a highly entertaining roller coaster that keeps viewers on the edge of their seats from start to finish. However, like all things, if you viewers take a moment to look beyond the obvious and explore themes that may not be apparent to the critics, they may just find more complex narratives in the show. Squid Game does that, and that’s why it's a masterpiece.
