If you never watched “Squid Game,” it was a runaway success for Netflix a few years ago. The basic idea was that 456 people with desperate financial problems are invited to a contest at an undisclosed location, where they all participate in a bunch of children’s games like “Red Light, Green Light.” The winner gets $40 million. Then, when they get there, they realize that if they don’t win the games, they get murdered.
The show’s popularity didn’t come down to its plot, or any kind of deeper meaning. There wasn’t much to it. You could spin it as a metaphor against capitalism just as easily as you could spin it as a metaphor against communism. It was basically just well-executed torture porn. You had to enjoy watching these characters fight for their lives in these bizarre, occasionally creative deathtraps — kind of like the “Saw” films, with a little more…
