[silvester23]

> For some reason people seem to feel the need to say they enjoyed it for reasons other than just enjoying inventive, competitive death games

I guess that's because otherwise you are kind of taking on the role of the sadistic spectators. I'm not saying that's true but it might feel like that to some people.

I kind of enjoyed Squid Game but I totally agree with you, I do not think it had much to offer in terms of social commentary, it's pretty one dimensional.

Personally, I prefered 'The Platform' (also on Netflix), which is a bit of a different take on a similar theme, although it is not any more subtle about its metaphor.

[hnbad]

What I think distinguishes Squid Game over The Platform most was that Squid Game directly portrays (and thus critiques) the society outside the "game" whereas The Platform is a self-contained allegory.

(Spoilers galore)

In both participants sign up without initially knowing what they're signing up for and in both there are volunteers who join despite understanding the violence and death, thinking they can "win" (i.e. the returning participants in squid game and the bureaucrat in The Platform). But while in the latter the only reason anyone would subject themselves to the system is suggested to be extreme naivety, in the former we are shown the desperation and hopelessness the participants face outside the game that drives them to such an extreme decision simply for the promise of a chance at getting out of their situation.

Both systems are set up to disrupt solidarity and cooperation (where The Platform even goes so far as to claim the exact opposite). Both pieces of media demonstrate those systems succeeding but end with an act of self-sacrifice.

But Squid Game gives us a motivation for participating in such a suicidal system and the most horrifying aspect of it is that it is not some kind of sci-fi dystopia but what TV Tropes would call "20 seconds into the future": a setting that feels mildly detached from our present but you could easily imagine being set in the present day in a Western country not unlike your own. Yes, the squid game itself feels excessive and has sci-fi or at least fantastic undertones, but the world outside it feels unsettlingly familiar.

[silvester23]

That's a very interesting point, I think you are probably spot on about why Squid Game seems to resonate with people more.

Funnily enough, the inclusion of so much of the outside world is actually one of my bigger personal gripes with the series. The game itself seems so detached from reality and just formulaic that I cannot suspend my disbelief enough to reconcile that with an outside that, as you say, is so close to our own.

I think for me, such a setting works better if it is mostly self-contained, like The Platform or Cube from 1997.

But I guess that's just a matter of taste. Thanks for sharing your perspective.