Squid Game: The Challenge

I have read like 20 reviews with a score of 1/10 and all of them were "I watched half of the first episode" or "barely went through the first one, HoRrIblE". That is not a review, that is a whine that should never be seen. I watched all five and I will watch till the end.

I give the haters point for one thing - most of the characters are unlikeable and the ones you like will be "killed" in a matter of few episodes anyway. But that is the beauty of Squid game - you don't know who will survive or why.

There will be many twists and turns you won't be expecting. I gave it 7 out of 10 just because I think it is slightly rigged to some point just to eliminate people producers want to eliminate. You know - for the drama.

I worked on TV for many years and did this rigging myself many times. Despite that the show is really entertaining and I can recommend it just as a fun thing to watch.

First of all, this game show was approved by the creator of Squid Game and he was excited for it too, especially to fill in the time while we wait for season 2 of the actual show. HOWEVER, I do agree with a lot of the negative reviews about the casting. I don't know why all these networks are constantly casting actors/social media influencers in their game shows now. Even the actors in the actual Squid Game show seem more authentic and real than many of these contestants. I don't like how Netflix in all of their reality/game shows always focuses on a select few actors instead of everyone equally. Also, when they said this is a global competition, I was hoping for more people from around the world but the majority seem to be obnoxious and loud Americans while giving zero attention to the other country cast.

Aside from the casting, the game and show itself is AWESOME. It's intense, the set designs are impressive and match the actual show, and they introduced new games and twists to ensure the contestants can't copy the tactics used in the original show, which brings a new dynamic and makes it even more addicting.

I would easily rate this show 10/10 if it weren't for the annoying casting, because everything else is perfect and super fun.

This is bad because anyone thought it as "sequel" of Squid Game - no one thought of that after 5 mins of watching it - but it's a 1 out of 10 on its merit as reality show.

I usually enjoy reality shows, which are over the top by design but this dumb show dialed that up to 100 (not 11). People's reaction is so exaggerated to the point that it's actually hurts to watch. Contestants are screaming at the camera in the fakest way possible to create a stake or drama but it's so badly written to the point no one believe it... like it introduce a contestant 2 mins before eliminating him and other contestant acting like they lost their family member or something... and viewers are supposed to care?

I had more cringe watching this show for 2 eps (had to give because it's so bad) than my entire life time up to this point. It's hard to describe how bad it is and not enjoyable kind of bad. If the show doesn't have any relation to Squid Game, I'd still gave it a 1 out of 10 but let's be real... no one would have watched it if it didn't have Squid Game in the title.

Why do I find the contestants so irritating? I dislike this American approach. They come across as annoying individuals.

It's challenging to discern whether these people are genuinely behaving this way or if it's all staged to mimic the original season. The effort to replicate the original show seems forced.

It appears scripted, and their focus on imitating the original movie is rather absurd. They seem more concerned with acting than actually winning the prize money.

This could have been one of the best reality shows, but it probably became the worst. I just stopped watching this. I can't see this people.

Well its basically all completely random, none of the challenges require any real skill the vast majority are just completely random. Im not sure who this is aimed at, there is no real drama, no real game show elements, just a bunch of unlikeable people who by the time you reach the end you couldnt care less who wins. There are too many people at the start to get any real interest in the characters without using editing that would make it blazingly obvious who is going to end up at the end.

I think most interestingly though is that Netflix has decided that they want to be the evil corporation from the original Squid games, they though hey thats us we should lean into the soulless evil corp that wants to exploit desperate people. Yet this is where we are in the world now, little by little we have eroded and remaining semblance of ethics and this is what we are left with.