“Squid Game: The Challenge,” whose final episode is out Wednesday, is currently the most-watched show on Netflix in the U.S this week. It is the reality-TV version of the 2021 scripted Korean hit “Squid Game.” Much like in the show, contestants in “The Challenge” duke it out against one another in a series of cutthroat and disorienting games for a chance to win $4.56 million. Watching it, you can’t help but think the show’s creators are equal parts inspired and sick.
Watching it, you can’t help but think the show’s creators are equal parts inspired and sick.
The scripted series, in which those eliminated from the ruthless game are killed, is a damning critique of the so-called social darwinism of late-stage capitalism, the exaltation of money and the concomitant zero-sum construction of relations that such a system demands. This is symbolized by the enormous, transparent piggy bank that hovers above the contestants’ living quarters and upon which those contestants gaze with longing. Because with each elimination more money is added to the piggy bank, every contestant is literally worth money. Again, an apt metaphor for ruthless capitalism.
However, because “The Challenge” features real people, many of whom are in dire financial straits and are desperate for the money, the show loses its ability to offer any meaningful critiques. In this case, as contestants longingly look up at a real-life version of the piggy bank and connive to get one another eliminated, we are immersed in the sad reality of the dehumanizing system we’ve created. The show celebrates the worst facets of late-stage capitalism, which privileges money above all else, even, or especially, at the expense of community and human connection. The premise of the show exploits many of the most vulnerable members of society, who have suffered from a lack of social safety nets, and it fetishizes their struggles.
As on “Squid Game,” each “life” on “The Challenge” is…
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