Squid Game (2021) is a Korean survival drama television series on Netflix. The series revolves around a contest where 456 contestants in financial debt join in what they think is a harmless contest, but instead is a gruesome elimination game. In order to win, they have to pass by completing each task successfully. If uncompleted or unsuccessful, it results in their death. 

The fans came to the agreement that the production had a very engaging plot. Skylar Oland and Peyton Whyte, students at OHS, had the same statement that the actors portrayed their characters realistically. 

Oland, junior, gave her true opinion about the show, “The show was very interesting in that it showed how money can largely affect people and what it makes us willing to do. It was crazy seeing all the connections between characters and the amount of people killed by the game hosts and the other participants.”

Whyte, a sophomore, expressed a similar opinion, sharing, “Overall, I feel like it’s a really good show and there is a lot of emotion. You can tell that there was a lot of work that was put into it; hence why a lot of people like it so much. It really drags you and sometimes you feel like you can’t stop watching.” 

After episode 6 in the series, the watchers discussed the characters’ emotions and how it really had a toll on them. Multiple people expressed how heart wrenching it was after watching the death of participant Ali Abdul. 

Whyte claimed to have a strong connection with the character: “I relate to Ali the most because I definitely would have fallen for somebody’s trick in the game since I am very gullible, so I think that if I was in one of the games, someone definitely would have tricked me into believing them.”

Oland claims that her favorite character is also Ali Abdul: “He cared so much for his friends in the show and never let the greed get to him enough to hurt others.” 

According to ScreenRant, Ali has been ranked as the most likeable character amongst the other characters. 

On October 22, 2021, Squid Game was ranked #1 for the most popular TV shows on Netflix. But should we really be giving Netflix all the credit?

Whyte and Oland both stated to have seen many videos about the series on TikTok, a popular video-sharing app. 

“The trailer and videos kept showing up on TikTok about it,” Oland messaged.

Overall, this heart-wrenching drama series really shows not only strong emotions, but shows the harsh reality of how the fight for money can really reveal someone’s true colors. So much so that a second season has been confirmed.