Inside Netflix’s “Squid Game” Rise to Fame In The US
Hit 2021 Korean survival drama “Squid Game” has become one of Netflix’s top 10 shows. While Netflix and other streaming services have carried other survival game and Korean dramas (K-dramas) alike, “Squid Game” comes as a sort of unprecedented release. For a show predicted to maintain it’s success only within Korea, it climbed Netflix US charts and became viral on the internet. But what can be attributed to its success in the U.S? It’s representation of the desperation and anxiety caused by economic disparity retains the American viewers attention as it resonates with the very core of America’s current issues
With an all but interesting plot line, the fact that the “players” in this game are participating because of debt and with a chance to “win it all,” resonates with the American audience as the “rags to riches” trope is virtually a part of American ideals. Mantras like “Work hard enough and you’ll make it too” embedding our societal thinking to believe that being part of the millions of Americans in debt, scared of debt, and an accident away from debt, is something personally controllable rather than a cause of a larger infrastructure that has been working against the people for years and allows for higher living costs and no increase in pay, climate change continuing to worsen and impact people’s lives, and where the ultra-rich legally evade what should be their contribution to society just like the rest of average Americans paying their taxes. American viewers live under this infrastructure, and many have believed this idea hoping to improve their own lives, and so Squid Games let’s people play out this ideal and see their favorite characters go from “rags to riches,” however while the concept may have intrigued Americans (besides the gore and interesting sets) enough to watch the first episode, they can’t tear their eyes away when they start to realize why their characters were in rags to begin with (“rags to riches” certainly losing its appeal) and that they can resonate with them.
Certainly not all characters are ones the audience can resonate with and many of their stories aren’t shared in the game, such as the gang member who stole money from his boss or the many of other players, we never learn more of. However, the characters of Seong Gi-Hun, Abdul Ali, and Kang Sae-Byeok storylines provide different perspectives into the desperation people can fall into under despite living in a “developed” and “First world” country — its “universal themes it explores — specifically its implicit critique of capitalism and exploration of class anxiety.” (Hess, Vogue) drawing in American audiences. In the beginning of the show, Gi-Hun is portrayed as a drunk, irresponsible father with a gambling addiction. And so while people certainly are at the edge of their seats waiting to see how far he’ll make it in the suspenseful and engaging show, it’s not until Gi-Hun is given the opportunity to leave the first round of Squid Game and return home that American audiences begin to question how similar the man’s situation and their own lives are. Upon returning home, Gi-hun finds his mother gravely ill and in need of medical attention because of her diabetic condition. Without insurance, the cost would be incredibly high, and something neither Gi-Hun nor his mother could afford, which is why they are forced to return home with his mother untreated. It is also what forces Gi-hun back into the life-or-death game. Afterall, if Gi-Hun’s mother had been able to get the care she needed, he wouldn’t have gone back. American viewers could empathize with this dilemma because despite being in different countries, his own path to debt is own many Americans fear. In a country that doesn’t offer universal healthcare, a hospital visit could be the event that puts them into debt. And it’s through the gradual progression of the show that viewers begin to see there is much more depth to the character and similarities, which is perhaps the scariest part. Having given a decade of his life to a company, who in turn with ill managed financials, had to shut down leaving Gi-Hun jobless at a time when he had a child on the way. After putting the blame on its working, employees began to unionize to get what they were due. This led to repercussions such as being harassed by the police and his friend dying in a confrontation. And so viewers learn the reason for Gi-hun’s fall into his bad habits was demanding justice for himself and his coworkers. Aspects like these are why American viewers begin to take this beyond a “battle royale” game and why it translates so well for American audiences. While not living to the extremes of joining a life-or-death game, viewers certainly are living the under the same situations of the characters. Americans know that you can give your life to a company and have them throw you away like nothing and that trying to fight for your rights runs large risks. Trying to unionize in America can lead to loss of employment, both for attempting to unionize to the loss of hours trying to organize a union. And with the economic struggles in this day an age, being out of work is one of the scariest things to occur, which is perhaps why despite his own evident faults, audiences cheer on for Gi-Hun as they can relate to him. Ali and Sae-Byeoks lives carry their own turmoil, and ones American audiences also resonate with.
Ali and Sae-Byeok, while intriguing characters at first, with Ali having an almost opposite character presentation compared to the rest with his kind and hopeful outlook and Sae-Byeok with her mysterious and solidarity aura, it’s their background stories that are often unseen in Hollywood media that provides a chance for American audiences to resonate with. As Kang writes for the Washington Post, “Hollywood has by and large yet to grapple with the intractability of economic inequity…Television and film can serve as a distraction from these urgent issues…but audiences are clearly clamoring for something more.” Ali is an undocumented immigrant in Korea who does not receive compensation after being injured on the job (resulting in the loss of some of his fingers.) Unable to pursue legal action because of his immigration status and his employer stealing his wages and refusing to pay him any sort of compensation, Ali is cornered into continuing the dangerous “Squid Game” for a chance to win the money to improve the lives of his wife and young son. Many Americans can empathize with Ali’s struggle, whether that be through their own personal stories or the stories of someone in the lives. Ali’s storyline does well to portray the disenfranchised American communities that are often left without a voice and are left to be abused in the American legal and corporate systems. Ali’s story resonates with the American viewers aware of the struggles disenfranchised groups such as immigrants and people of color face in the workplace and in a country where social mobility is basically non-existent.
Sae-Byeok’s own storyline is similar to Ali’s and that of American viewer’s. Sae-Byeok and her family make an escape to South Korea from the North. While her younger brother and her manage to arrive to the South, her father was killed in the perilous journey and her mother was sent back to the North. Sae-Byeok participates in the life and death game in hopes of winning the money to provide a life for her and her younger brother who is forced to stay in an orphanage, and pay for her mother’s voyage to the South. America is built on the dreams and hard work of immigrants, all searching for a better life. And so, Sae-Byeok’s journey plays into the similarities of American immigrant families, who like Sae-Byeok want better for their families, undergo dangerous situations, and are antagonized. The U.S legal system for immigration is expensive and incredibly slow, making it incredibly difficult to get citizenship and even apply for a visa, let alone get one approved. People who need to escape dangerous situations cannot afford to wait years for the legal system to take their case and to approve it. And so Sae-Byeok’s storyline parallels that of many American families who have made the journey to America or are waiting for the day their family can join them. The lack of financial resources hindering both them and Sae-Byeok as they fall into desperation due to the circumstances.
Ali and Sae-Byeok’s characters provide an even deeper look into the struggles that occur when financial resources and support are virtually nonexistent. American viewers can see parts of themselves in these characters which helps make the show so transferable from Korea to the US and what also makes viewers care for the characters. Additionally, the time at which Squid Game was released to American audiences mixed it with it’s message also holds an implication for why it transferred well.
These past two years, Americans were able to see both the infrastructure and society they live in more clearly for what it really is, relating to Squid Game, more than ever. Squid Game speaks of almost taboo realties in “developed” countries, as Mark Johnson, a lecturer in digital cultures at the University of Sydney, notes in an interview with the guardian, “the genre is, at heart, a critique of the “central implicit idea of the late-capitalist world, that everything is hard work, everything is skill, everybody gets to where they belong in a perfect global society. All those claims are shown to be nothing.” And this is seen to transfer into American audiences with the hit of covid-19; the disparity between not only the rich and poor, but middle class and rich put on display. Many like to believe and like to teach that everyone is equal in the US — your future is reliant on the choices only you make for yourself and anyone can rise to the top. But we see various times that it isn’t true. The rich did not work harder than the middle or lower class Americans, yet they were able to hide away in luxurious — and incredibly expensive- vacation spots and multi-million dollar homes away from people (aka possible covid-19 exposure.) Many posting similar lines of “we’re in this together,” despite working class people having to risk their own lives to work in order to feed their families and avoid evictions because the government had not prepared nor had a plan in place to help support families. When vaccines started to become available, economic status and race were factors on who received the vaccine, which again plays into the themes of Squid Game. A decade prior when it was rejected, “potential investors and actors bristled at the brutal killings and implausibility of individuals competing to the death for money. But two years ago, Netflix thought the class struggles outlined in “Squid Game” spoke to reality.” (Yoon, Wall Street Journal) The Covid-19 pandemic was [and still is] essentially a more subtle and less violent killing than that of the ones in the show, just that instead of money they were fighting for vaccines. The ultra-rich scrambled to get the jab first, and local governments had given richer white communities more access to vaccines than other communities, (often lower income communities of color) as they resided in their voting districts. Politicians and other high holding officials selectively chose who’d get the vaccine in order to profit from it in the future, this rings to the themes in Squid Games where players often try to profit off the death and unluckiness of others to get farther in the game, and furthermore wealthy VIP’s can benefit (in the show’s case enjoy) from the games, such as the politicians and others in the American context. It is this evident class disparity that lack of unity against the common threat of an unjust infrastructure that gives reason as to why Squid Game transferred so well to the US, the conditions in the US are bad enough to where they could easily drive — and currently are — people into the pits of debt and desperation such as those in the hit show were in.
Squid Game has captured the failings and desperation possible to anyone living under a country with economic disparity. It portrays some of the realities that make up some of the very fabrics of America and brings the anxiety Americans previously felt concerning economic disparity to the top. In the end it didn’t matter that it was a foreign tv show, Squid Game’s character storylines and meanings surround economic disparity were why audiences could relate to it and why it has been able to climb to the top.
