The Inside Into Netflix’s “Squid Game” Rise to Fame
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 games and Korean dramas (K-dramas) alike, “Squid Game” comes as a sort of unprecedented release, climbing the charts and becoming viral on the internet. But what can be attributed to its success in the U.S? Well the globalization of Korean culture within the U.S made it easy to introduce, but it’s amplified and direct visualization of capitalism and debt-ridden individuals desperate enough to participate in the dangerous game that can solve their economic problems is what calls and retains the American viewers attention.
From K-dramas, Korean pop music, to Korean food, Korean culture has begun to have a prominence in America, it is no longer an unknown or distant culture, rather one that more and more young people are learning about and enjoying. Media plays a big role as “American popular TV streaming services including Netflix and Hulu have also made Korean television more accessible to Western viewers by offering it as one of the genres in their lineup, which has led to a dedicated cult following in the United States among” (Lee, Sage Journals) Netflix has both played a part and taken advantage of this phenomenon, both in supplying content and using this interest to gain more subscribers, since 2016 where it introduced 80 Korean films and series and doubling its K-drama views and invests millions to make shows watchable by providing subtitles and even more important to American audiences — dubbing. Its success is proceeded with an investment of $700 million investment from 2015 to 2020, even budgeting for half a billion dollars for this year. This means many viewers already had an introduction to K-Dramas and Korean culture in the U.S, but there are some who were first time viewers and even more non-speaking Korean Speakers. Social media helped in this aspect.
“Squid Game” was also able to come across people’s minds because of social media and the people who already enjoyed the show and those who were already a part of people that enjoyed Korean content which helped people have access to it. As NBC News writer Kalhan Rosenblatt notes “… the series was marketed in South Korea and other Asian countries, there was no serious push to advertise it in the U.S. Instead, its unique concept electrified social media, where Twitter and TikTok users have voraciously posted about it.” word of mouth both in person and through social media sites had people talking about it and having people try an episode — at least so they could be in the know and say they watched it. Memes and tik-tok videos also helped spread word of the show and persuade people to give it a try. But no one had thought that “Squid Game” specifically would be such a hit outside of Korea, so how does it make it different than any other Korean drama on Netflix or streaming site? The platform that Korean content certainly helped, but the message and themes within “Squid Game” is why people started talking in the first place, and why it resonated with the very core of America’s current issues and American audiences saw that.
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 are starting to see why it doesn’t work. This is seen reflected both in their own lives and that of the characters. In the game, main character Gi-Hun is able to leave the first round of Squid Game, however in returning home he finds his mother gravely ill and in need of medical attention. Without insurance, the cost would be incredibly high, something neither Gi-Hun nor his mother could afford. And so he returns back to the dangerous game. American viewers could empathize with this dilemma. In a country that doesn’t offer universal healthcare, a hospital visit could be the event that puts them into debt. Aspects like this is are why American viewers can relate and vehemently root for their favorite characters, hoping for them to win the game, it’s their because it’s their “Win it all” moment to fix issues that the infrastructure cause. Afterall if Gi-Hun’s mother had been able to get the care she needed, he wouldn’t have gone back. Likewise, his own path to debt is own many Americans fear. Gi-Hun had given a decade of his life to a company, who in turn with ill managed financials, had to shut down leaving Gi-Hun jobless when he had a child on the way. Americans know that you can give your life to a company and have them throw you away like nothing. Which is perhaps why despite his own evident faults, audiences cheer on for Gi-Hun as they can relate to him. But how can this be when it means the death of hundreds of others? Well they’re only background characters right? America’s individualistic values can also be attributed to the retention despite the gory implications of the game. While America certainly has a “rags to riches” belief which can be seen throughout history, in it’s worst light it also has a “you or me” individualistic approach to life which impacts the viewer’s perspective, where winning it all at the expense of others is not out of the ordinary.
These past two years, Americans were able to see both the infrastructure and society they live in more clearly for what it really is, and relate to “Squid Game,” more than ever despite it being proposed for production a decade ago. Back then, “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) With the hit of covid-19, the disparity between not only the rich and poor, but middle class and rich was put on display. The rich were able to hide away on luxurious — and incredibly expensive- vacation spots and multi-million dollar homes away from people, 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. Even when vaccines started to become available, economic status was a factor on who received the vaccine. In Florida, Governor “DeSantis’ earliest efforts, particularly his high-profile visits to the opening of “pop-up” vaccine clinics around the state, favored wealthier, whiter communities — which also happen to be his voting base.” (Date, HuffPost)
While seniors were the priority to get vaccinated, rich white senior citizens were getting the jab at a rate of 4 percentage points higher than the rest of the state, ending with only 6.4% of the state’s vaccines going to African Americans, even though they account for 17% of the state’s population. Not only we’re the ultra-rich scrambling to get the jab first, but local governments had given richer white communities more access to vaccines than other communities, often lower income communities of color. The Governor took care of his voting base first and foremost, going once again into the individualist characteristics that shape American society. It is this disparity and lack of unity against the common threat of an unjust infrastructure that gives plausibility to the indifference to the rest of the participants in “Squid Game” who are not the main characters. Lower class Americans have been the background characters in real life, that for once even through a show they are winning through the main characters.
America has been promising its citizens a finishing line of a better life that in reality hasn’t even been placed. And “Squid Game” has captured the road that American audiences are on to that supposed finish line. It’s economic distress and implications of “winning it all” and individual characteristics within the show are in reality some of the very fabrics of America that the audiences can relate to and why it has been able to climb to the top.
