Competition series Squid Game: The Challenge has debuted on Netflix. Based on the hit drama from 2021, it sees 456 players enter and try to win $4.56 million.
Five episodes of the series are available November 22. Four more come out November 29, and the season finale premieres December 6.
Squid Game came out in 2021. The Korean series from Hwang Dong-hyuk features a divorced father with a gambling problem and a bit of debt. One day, a mysterious man offers him a golden opportunity: Play some children’s games and have a chance to win millions.
The father, Seong Gi-hun, is picked up by masked guards in a van and drugged into a coma, then wakes up to find himself in a dormitory with 455 other contestants.
The winner gets the jackpot, but the losers get executed.
Lee Jung-jae plays the father.
When the reality show was announced last year, Brandon Riegg, Netflix VP of unscripted and documentary series, said: “Squid Game took the world by storm with Director Hwang’s captivating story and iconic imagery. We’re grateful for his support as we turn the fictional world into reality in this massive competition and social experiment. Fans of the drama series are in for a fascinating and unpredictable journey as our 456 real-world contestants navigate the biggest competition series ever, full of tension and twists, with the biggest ever cash prize at the end.”
Reviews for the reality show are a mixed bag. USA Today called the series “morally despicable (and really boring).”
“No one asked for this. No one wanted this. And yet, here it is,” it reads.
CNN called Squid Game: The Challenge “a super-sized Big Brother.”
The Financial Times, for its part, called the show “an irresistible reality show.”
Netflix has committed to a second season of the scripted Squid Game.
