#Squid game writer capitalism series
#Squid game writer capitalism tv

But like most big-budget media properties that try to critique the systems they exist in, Squid Game ends with a fundamental ambivalence-one that flinches from its own critique at the last minute with a “fantasy” ending that undercuts its own key message.

#Squid game writer capitalism tv

Squid Game comes in the wake of a number of movies and TV shows that use potent, gripping metaphors to dissect capitalism, like the train in Snowpiercer or the upstairs/downstairs dynamics of the house in Parasite, both directed by Bong Joon-ho, to the up and down spaces of Rian Johnsons’ Knives Out or Jordan Peele’s Us, to the work-as-slavery plot in Boots Riley’s Sorry to Bother You, not to mention the death game blockbuster that dominated the 2010s, The Hunger Games.Įvidently, it’s in vogue-and highly lucrative-to produce entertainment criticizing the wealth inequality and unfairness of today’s culture. In this plot about forcing the financially desperate to gamble their lives for a shot at riches, Squid Game literalizes the traps that capitalism sets to keep citizens obeying its cutthroat rules, even as they’re deprived of security, respect, and their own bodies.

#Squid game writer capitalism series

The series follows Seong Gi-Hun, a deeply indebted gambler who’s so hard up for money he agrees to play a series of deadly children’s games for a prize of 45.6 Billion Won, or about 38.3 million US dollars. Korean thriller Squid Game is a massive overnight hit, Netflix’s biggest show of all time, but why? On top of its game-play, gore, and gripping can’t-look-away “death game” plot, it’s also a critique of capitalism and inequality-and fiction in this particular subgenre is in.

Popular examples include the upstairs/downstairs dynamics of Bong Joon-Ho’s Snowpiercer and Parasite, the work-as-slavery plot in Boots Riley’s Sorry to Bother You, and the death game blockbuster The Hunger Games. Korean thriller Squid Game is a massive overnight hit, potentially Netflix’s biggest show of all time! Squid Game comes in the wake of a number of movies and TV shows that use potent, gripping metaphors to dissect capitalism.