Squid Game puts you on the edge of your seat with plot twists that you don’t see coming, taking seemingly innocent childhood games to the next level with deadly consequences. The TV series was released on Netflix on Sept. 21, 2021, and ever since then, that’s been all anyone has talked about. The question is … is Squid Game really worth the hype?

Squid Game is about a Korean man, Seong Gi-Hun (#456), who finds himself in extreme debt, desperate to earn more money. He soon gets an opportunity to earn 45.6 billion won (39.05 million US Dollars) by competing in childhood games along with other debt-ridden people. They soon realize that the games are more dangerous and deadly than was let on.

While Squid Game is in Korean, many viewers are able to use English captions and the English dub. The voice-over is effective in ensuring you’re not constantly fixated on the words not matching up. Although some people do prefer to only use the English captions and the original audio so they can listen to the original emotions in the actor’s voices.

While you’re watching Squid Game, you’re constantly wondering what the next game will be and whether the strongest or smartest will win, with tragic twists you don’t see coming.

One of Squid Games’ deep underlying questions is, what are people willing to do for money?

Junior Victoria Walker thinks one of the biggest reasons why Squid Game became so popular is because “[…] it makes commentary on society as a whole and the whole concept of class and what you would be willing to do for money in a desperate situation. I think it takes the whole situation to an extreme and in that way, comments on society.”

Throughout the series, you get to know more and more about the characters and their personalities. Soon, alliances begin to form, and even friendships in the uncertainty of it all. Despite these alliances, there’s betrayal because, in the end, it’s everyone for themselves.

“I feel like it has a lot of interesting aspects […] whether it be the dramatics, or the plot, or character development it […] has a lot,” senior Victoria Zhu commented.

Squid Game has been passed around by word of mouth from student to student and has even made it to teachers at State High with everyone raving about how fascinating it is to watch.

Chemistry teacher Doug Schunk recently started watching Squid Game thanks to Jimmy Fallon and his students,

“I think I was watching clips of Jimmy Fallon and he was talking about Squid game and interviewing the people in it and I just kept hearing more and more people talking about it and I asked my students and some of them were like ‘yeah I was really into it,’ so I figured I would check it out and I got into it a little bit,” Schunk said.

Squid Game is one of those shows that has you constantly watching and not being able to pull your eyes away. It soon becomes obvious that people in the lowest class of society are so insignificant that barely anyone even notices they’re gone.