Netflix’s most-watched TV series — really its most-watched content of any kind ever — remains Squid Game, the fascinating and terrifying Korean drama about a secret life-or-death game played by 456 contestants, one of whom will win a massive cash prize while the rest will wind up massively dead. It’s a pretty bold premise for a fictional drama — and an even bolder idea for an actual reality series.
Enter Netflix’s Squid Game: The Challenge, a game show that takes the premise of the contest-within-the-show on Squid Game and makes it real. Well, presumably the mass murder part is not real. But the idea of taking 456 players and offering a gigantic prize to 1 winner ($4.56 million in this case, that is definitely in there in this reality show version.
As you can see from the trailer, Netflix has done a genuinely impressive job capturing the vibe of the original series in this new spinoff…
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To their credit (wait, is it to the creators’ credit?), they have really made something that, at least in this trailer, feels genuinely depraved and dystopian. Just look at some of these images!
Here is the series’ official synopsis:
456 real players will enter the competition show in pursuit of a life-changing reward of USD $4.56 million. As they compete through a series of games inspired by the original show – plus surprising new additions – their strategies, alliances, and character will be put to the test while competitors are eliminated around them.
Squid Game: The Challenge premieres on Netflix on November 22. New episodes premiere weekly after that. Do people want to watch a game show this cutthroat and bleak? I guess we’ll find out soon enough! A second season of the fictional Squid Game is also currently in the works from Netflix as well.
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