Squid Game: The Challenge - A Reality Competition

November 30, 2023 6:34 PM - Season 1 (Full Season)

Squid Game: The Challenge is a British reality competition television series based on Squid Game, the South Korean drama. The show features 456 players competing for US$4.56 million, the largest single cash prize in game show history.
posted by dianeF (14 comments total)

This show is pretty evil and fun to watch. $4.56 million is too much money to dangle in front of these people. The contestants also seem to be confused as to whether people are actually executed upon being eliminated.
posted by dianeF at 6:39 PM on November 30, 2023

$4.56 million is too much money to dangle in front of these people.

? Once of my immediate concerns with this show was that it edges into real "poverty porn" (as opposed to the fiction of the originating show) but I'm not sure what it is about the contestants here that makes the prize pool "too much money". Why aren't they worthy of $4.56 million?

The contestants also seem to be confused as to whether people are actually executed upon being eliminated.

The show leans hard into the elimination-as-execution idea with the use of paintballs and encouraging the contestants to lie down and act dead, as well as doing some editing to have people disappear neatly from certain challenges (the glass bridge comes to mind), and that fiction extends into how the contestants are encouraged to talk and behave, but I don't think anyone is confused about what is going on. It's Survivor on steroids, where people don't get voted off the island, they are just unceremoniously removed, generally without the chance for a goodbye speech or post-exit interview. The drama comes from the relationships that develop over the course of the game (or in one case, was present coming in), how the players behave, and some editorial choices made to give us heroes and villains amongst them.

I did like the fact that while we are given heroes and villains, the show never really pauses at their eliminations - they are just gone. Catharsis is entirely left to the viewer. I was uncomfortable with watching people manipulate and screw each other over to win money, but the that's the truth of so many reality style shows these days, and why i dont generally watch them. I think maybe it's the buy-in to the idea of elimination-as-death that makes it work, both as a game show and (if you look at it from the right angle) as a critique of the Survivor-style game show by taking it to the (for now) extreme edge- are we not entertained?

I did like when the show changed up the expected challenges (battleship instead of tug of war was brilliant), but not sure I would watch another season.
posted by nubs at 6:02 AM on December 1, 2023

and (if you look at it from the right angle) as a critique of the Survivor-style game show by taking it to the (for now) extreme edge- are we not entertained?

Just want to expand on my thinking of this - in the fictional Squid Game, it is revealed that the game is for the entertainment of the ultra-rich, who relax in hedonistic comfort while watching the contestants. Here, there is no such layer - we are the audience being entertained.
posted by nubs at 6:28 AM on December 1, 2023

I couldn't get into this. Either I felt terrible for the contestants or I hated them, and it made me feel worse about myself either way. But it might all have been worth it if a pair of them, like the mom and son, declared that their every move is the new tradition, which was what I hoped to happen in the real show, and refused to compete against each other. Don't see it, though.
posted by Countess Elena at 10:57 AM on December 1, 2023

.....People know that the original SQUID GAME was satire, right?
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 11:15 AM on December 1, 2023 [4 favorites]

I’ve never seen people sob hysterically on a reality game show before. They’re so upset because it’s too much money and they’re too hyped up on pretending people are being killed. I have no opinion on their ‘worthiness.’
posted by dianeF at 12:29 PM on December 1, 2023

Seems like I've given offense without meaning to. I'll see myself out.
posted by nubs at 5:57 PM on December 1, 2023 [1 favorite]

No offense taken. I shouldn’t have put ‘worthiness’ in quotes, sorry.
posted by dianeF at 6:23 PM on December 1, 2023 [1 favorite]

The set design on the show is amazing. I know that they had the original drama to use as a template but the degree to which they have done so is remarkable. Moreover since this is, my strong feeling, destined to be a one off show - the games largely work by appearing as a surprise that usually does not play out in the same way as the drama. The dormitory room, in particular, is a real achievement.

I would like to hear an account of the show from the contestants; what did it feel like? The original show takes place entirely inside with no notion that contestants can leave for its duration. What was the shooting duration of the reality show and did a day pan out in the way it was described? There were several games in which the number who would be eliminated was unknown - so there must have been a lot of on the fly planning. Kudos to whoever did the not quite deadpan voiceovers under these circumstances.

Finally: I like the way that the focused set of characters changes from one episode to another. It would be too obvious to pick out the eventual finalists at the beginning and then never have the experience of losing them.
posted by rongorongo at 1:53 AM on December 5, 2023 [2 favorites]

Well, the original Survivor has a $1m prize in 2000 ($1.79m in today's money) and I think $2m for the champion of champions format. Obviously this is more than that but it's not the first show of this format with a prize which is "quit your job" high.

I think some of the high profile talent show formats have prizes of recording contracts notionally worth more but that's based on the producer's valuation of the contract, it's not a cash prize.
posted by atrazine at 2:45 AM on December 6, 2023

Overall, I enjoyed it, even though this game show version effectively neutered the original. This was light, passive viewing, with only some hints of darkness with people's backstories, meant to be inspirational. It's a different thing, and I didn't mind Squid Game Lite.

The production values were great, and the narrative structures were well done, too.

That said, I didn't care for the ending, where the final two games were largely a matter of chance. That was a letdown, even if probably the right person won.
posted by Capt. Renault at 7:22 AM on December 7, 2023

That said, I didn't care for the ending, where the final two games were largely a matter of chance
I’m not sure about them being completely chance games: the symbolism of the three shapes corresponded to their values: the three sided triangle for staying at three; grey. The four sided square for excess; elimination and the circle for the value of one; the one who would be the winner. Likewise, Rock-Paper-Scissors can be viewed as purely a chance game: or as one where one’s opponent may have biases which can be gamed. Mai seemed to be the finalist who best grasped those subtleties. I hope she changed the PIN on her bank card!
posted by rongorongo at 2:58 AM on December 9, 2023

My brother in law did the sound for this show, it turns out. His notes:
1. The show claims to have the most cast members of any ever made. For him that meant nearly 500 radio mikes at the start - each with its own batteries to run out unexpectedly.
2. There were 81,000 applicants - so the producers had a massive task in narrowing the list - but plenty of interesting back-stories to choose from.
3. Filming of "red light green light" took place in January and the set was freezing cold to the point where some contestants reported getting hypothermia..
4. The location used was mainly Cardington Studios - two hangars which were built to accommodate Zeppelins and which provide one of Europe's largest indoor spaces.
5. Squid Game, the Challenge has a awe-inspiringly thorough Wikipedia page (with all the spoilers, of course)
posted by rongorongo at 11:32 AM on December 9, 2023 [2 favorites]

I'm still angry at the lady who arbitrarily decided she wasn't going to follow the group's plans on the glass bridge and got the son eliminated. Then people got upset at Mai for holding a grudge against her! WTH.
posted by graventy at 6:47 AM on December 13, 2023 [4 favorites]