IT IS currently the most popular show on Netflix. Squid Game is a nine-part drama that is, by turns, thrilling and revolting viewers. It is the first South Korean show to top the ratings in the US. The dystopian TV series has already prompted the Daily Mail to ask: "Is this the most twisted show on TV?"
So, what is Squid Game and do the RSPCA know about it?
It's not cephalopods that have to worry. Squid Game is a drama in which 456 cash-strapped competitors agree to take part in a series of kid's games – think Tug of War and Grandma's Footsteps – for a huge cash prize (£28 million or thereabouts).
The only downside is that if you fail in the tests you get killed. And a lot of people do.
That's a bit much. You wouldn't get that on Pointless.
Exactly. That's the thing about Squid Game. It's violent, violent, very, very violent, it's very violent.
You've been watching too much TV.
That has been said. Squid Game is the brainchild of writer-director Hwang Dong-hyuk who has been developing the show since 2008. It's been compared to Hunger Games and the Japanese film Battle Royale and even Stephen King's Running Man, but what it brings to the table is an added fizzy taste of class-consciousness.
Squid Game is alive to the same social inequalities in his homeland that powered fellow South Korean Bong Joon-ho's Oscar-winning film Parasite.
The movie Donald Trump didn't like?
That's the one. "Can we get, like, Gone With The Wind back, please?" he said after Parasite won the Best Picture Award last year.
But as far as I recall, Parasite didn't have guards murdering hundreds of contestants.
This is true. And it's the ultraviolence that has offended some viewers. There are a lot of murders in the series. Oh, and a dissection scene. Did we say it was very violent?
You did. Who are our heroes?
That would be gambling addict Seong Gi-hun (played by Lee Jung-jae), disgraced banker Cho Sang-woo (Park Hae-soo), and North Korean pocket Kang Sae-byeok (Jung Ho-yeon).
Do they all survive?
Ah, no spoilers, but let's just say we wouldn't bet on it. That's what got some of them into Squid Game in the first place after all.
Are there plans for a second series?
Nothing concrete yet but given its success we'd be surprised if there wasn't. It's not just the winner of Squid Game who is likely to come into money.
To be honest, we might stick with Antiques Road Trip.
Of course, though we wouldn't turn our back on that Izzie Balmer. She plays a very mean game of Knuckles, or so we've heard.
Squid Game is streaming on Netflix
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