Releasing on September 17th 2021, Netflix’s Squid Game has vaulted to the epicenter of pop culture. Between last and this weekend I was able to finish all 9 episodes. The show is in Korean but you can choose to have English subtitles or have it dubbed over in English. The show is a survivor thriller with the gore and gruesomeness of the Hunger Games while still having great characters and some surprisingly heartwarming moments. Squid Game follows a Korean man who is at an all time low, his wife left with him and took his kid, he has a major gambling problem which has racked up his debt to hundreds of millions of won he has no real way of  paying this debt off besides the measly money he makes chauffeuring. After being approached by a mysterious man he gets offered to partake in paid high stakes games, desperate for the money he agrees. Seong Gi-hun gets picked up in a van where he steps in and quickly gets gassed. He wakes up in a mysterious room with almost 500 other people, he is told that he and the rest of the people will be partaking in a series of games to win an astounding amount of money. He soon finds out that these games that he once thought were harmless are part of a deadly tournament where there can only be one winner.

Squid Game has been sitting atop the Netflix top ten shows of the day for the entirety of the three weeks it has been out. Colin Nelson (9) says, “I would recommend it to anyone who likes gruesomeness and suspense”. I would agree with Colin in the fact that I don’t think it’s for everyone but I think the binge ability and suspense is what keeps the show at the number one spot on Netflix. While I can rave about all the good things for days I have to admit there are some glaring problems. The main thing that took away from my watching experience was the fact that it was dubbed. The acting was spectacular with great performances from Lee Jung-jae as Seong Gi-hun and Jung Ho-yeon as Sae-Byeok but the fact that it was dubbed really took away from the experience, i’m sure that in Korean nothing felt forced but with an abysmal dubbing job the scenes that were supposed to be serious and suspenseful sometimes ended up being comical. The ending also felt very rushed while it showcased what you would expect at the end of a show like this. It ended with what felt like a very forced twist that I think ruined the end of the show. Despite my problems I would definitely recommend Squid Game to anyone who enjoys action, suspense, and horror.