Lessons in Storytelling from Squid Game Season One

How did this show so effectively capture the world's attention?

Popular Speculative Fiction

Season Two of Squid Game released today, so what better time could there be to look back on what make helped the first season succeed on the world stage? No spoilers for Season Two here as I have yet to begin watching it.

Squid Game is a Korean dystopian thriller TV show first released in 2021, featuring hundreds of deeply indebted individuals participating in a battle royale for a massive cash prize. The show examines a real world issue, Korean (and global) individuals in crushing debt, through the lens of the 'game system' that has grown incredibly popular through Battle Royale, The Hunger Games and video games like Fortnite.

Squid Game is Netflix' most successful show ever, gaining global interest and propelling actors Lee Jung-jae and Jung Ho-yeon to worldwide stardom. How (aside from a little luck) did it get there?

Audacious Atmosphere

A mysterious, compelling, provocative setting is one of the fastest ways to hook me into a story. It's so easy to imagine Squid Game taking place in a bland, grim setting like just about every other dystopian show – after all, the audience is here for the action and characters, right?

The Pastel, Meandering Hallways of Squid Game's Prison

Instead the show's creators established a visually striking world where otherwise cute, soft colours, objects and children's games are intrinsically associated with violence, terror and oppression. In his article on the setting, architect Romullo Baratto points out the inspiration from Escher and Piranesi which lends an unsettling air to the structure.

The same can certainly be said for the faceless and emotionless villains, who three years later I still think of as cheap Darth Vader and his PlayStation buttons. Masks are a powerful shortcut to making a villain inhuman and alien in addition to simply adding mystery, which is part of why masked villains are so common in visual media.

Front Man and the Masked Men, Squid Game

Playing with Emotions

The most memorable and compelling part of Squid Game has to be the damn Marbles episode. The soft lighting, the open-ended challenge, the deeply human conversations... and the sure knowledge that only one of each pair will survive? It still stings to think about it.

Ji-yeong and Kang Sae-byeok, in Episode Six of Squid Game

Part of what makes this episode work so well is simple moments of characterization throughout the show up until this point. We as the audience had seen characters like Ali and Oh Il-nam overcome intense situations and grow from them, even coming to see them as part of the 'safe' core cast in spite of how that flew in direct contrast to the show's premise.

Of course these tense-yet-friendly-in-the-face-of-death scenes can really only work the once, so Squid Game put it all into this episode. This is arguably to the detriment of other episodes – the Tug of War game, with all main characters against all nobodies, and even the finale feel pretty lacking in comparison – but I think it goes to show that one powerful and lasting impression can sometimes be most effective.

This echoes the Rue scene in The Hunger Games both in the depth of emotion it evokes and for how much more memorable it is than later, arguably more plot-important, conflicts.

Areas for Improvement

It could just be me, but Hwang Jun-ho's (the police officer's) storyline consistently had me disengaging with the show. Speculative fiction has to tread carefully around viewers' suspension of disbelief at the best of times, and this plot did almost nothing to help me believe he was successfully infiltrating the backstage of this organization (let alone keeping his phone charged for a week).

Hwang Jun-ho, by Krisronart

Even getting a look at the mysteries of the place through his eyes took away from the experience rather than feeling like a boon. The same is true of the VIPs, whose arrival only toward the end of the competition is still baffling to me.

Their acting has been discussed to death online, but again I'll simply argue that their time on screen ultimately lessens, rather than heightening, the atmosphere and tension that the show worked so hard to establish.

The VIPs arriving in Squid Game

In my ideal world, Hwang Jun-ho's trip backstage comes later in the season and resembles Dany's visions in The Shining more than anything: carefully crafted images of absurd, corrupt opulence that add to the mystery rather than normalizing it.

Of course, the writers had no way of knowing they might want to build up this world for a second season; though the first season does end with the hint that more is to come, it feels more last-minute and rote than truly hopeful.

Shooting the Apple

My greatest hope for Squid Game Season Two is that we begin to see a meaningful disruption of the system, both from within the game and without. After all, this is yet another story about the wealthy treating other peoples' lives like disposable playthings.

From The Hunger Games

That idea has been in the media lately, so now would be the perfect time for a powerful story examining the common people closing the gap and reminding the VIPs that we're not actually so different.

Thanks for reading, and enjoy Season Two! Until next time <3