Squid Game: Everything you need to know about Netflix's most popular TV show

At the beginning of September, no one thought that Netflix would debut its biggest original TV show ever. Yet, on September 17, 2020, the streaming service debuted Squid Game, a show from South Korea, with almost no publicity. It quickly became an international hit, including in the US, and now everyone is talking about this show.

Read more: Best Netflix original series

If you somehow missed the boat and want to learn more about the show before you dive into binge watching the series, then here’s everything you need to know about Squid Game on Netflix. You can then sign up for the service at the link below if you haven’t already.

What is Squid Game?

The series is a nine-episode show that was written and directed by Hwang Dong-hyuk in his native South Korea. He is a filmmaker who has already made several movies in his home country. In an interview with the Hollywood Reporter, he stated that he came up with the idea for Squid Game back in 2008. He said he was inspired by reading Japanese manga comic books about people forced to participate in games to the death. He was not in a good financial situation and thought that he might join in such a game for the chance to win money if offered the opportunity.

See also: Movies and shows like Squid Game

After he created his idea for Squid Game as a movie, it got rejected by the major South Korean movie studios for its violent content. Netflix, which was looking for ways to expand its original shows and movies to other parts of the world, approved of the concept but asked that it be extended to a TV series.

The show itself centers on Seong Gi-hun, played by Lee Jung-jae. He is in desperate need to get some quick cash to help support himself and his daughter. He’s asked by a mysterious person to play a series of children’s games for an increasing amount of money as the grand prize. He accepts but is then knocked out. He awakens in a mysterious building with 455 other people. In fact, he appears to be the last person selected as he wears a jumpsuit with the number 456. Like Seong, all of them agreed to play in this game for the chance to win millions of dollars. However, he and the rest of the players soon learn that you also lose your life if you lose one of these games. He and a group of other players try to team up to survive this brutal “game” and discover its secrets.

How big of a hit is the show?

After it dropped on Netflix on September 17, it quickly became an international hit. That includes Netflix’s biggest market, the United States, where it has been in the top five most watched shows since its debut, and often at number one. One of the reasons why it is a big US hit might be because the show is dubbed in English in addition to the option of watching it in Korean with subtitles.

When it announced its latest financial results in late October, Netflix said that in its first four weeks, Squid Game was watched by a whopping 142 million households worldwide. It was the number one watched Netflix show in 92 countries at one point. Netflix also confirmed that it is working to release retail products based on the show. We suspect that they could be big for holiday gift-giving.

Will there be a Squid Game Season 2?

Good question. It’s so good, in fact, that we made our own article to try to answer that question.