What a view | Haven’t seen Squid Game on Netflix? It’s not too late to binge-watch the K-drama hit
- Hundreds of destitute entrants compete in a series of deadly games for a life-changing sum of money in Squid Game, the hottest K-drama to come from Netflix
- In Amazon Prime’s The Grand Tour Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May – confined to Britain by pandemic regulations – drive around Scotland
A Kafkaesque nightmare besets Seoul’s most desperate citizens in the surprise global hit that is mystery thriller series Squid Game (Netflix, season one streaming now).
To bring those who are late to the game up to speed, the competition, cynically named after a children’s playground pastime, comprises lethal tasks attempted by hundreds of entrants, all destitute and coveting the pot of cash literally dangling before them.
Billions of won (tens of millions of US dollars) are temptingly suspended, beyond reach, in a Perspex piggy bank above the barracks-style accommodation housing an initial 456 players – a number radically reduced with each task.
The contestants’ psychological stress escalates as a clock counts down each activity, which is understandable when murder may be moments away courtesy of machine-gun-toting guards in anonymous black masks and jumpsuits. Ramping up the disconcerting surrealism are the oversized pieces of “play” equipment in garish colours: a gigantic doll, a towering slide and a monstrous roundabout, plus M.C. Escher-style stairs to illustrate the bind in which the players are trapped.
Circumstances have caused the players to enter the game voluntarily, although keeping its nefarious aspects secret means they must be taken unconscious to a distant island from which they can’t escape.