Squid Game The Challenge, a Netflix Original Series, Has Viewers Questioning the Show’s Authenticity

Squid Game fans are still waiting for the second season of Netflix’s massive television smash. Meanwhile, as fans wait for more lethal drama, the streaming service has a meta version of the program available for everyone to watch: Squid Game: The Challenge.

Squid Game: The Challenge follows the same idea of the program (which is fiction), with 456 actual individuals competing for a $4.56 million prize purse. The program incorporates many of the same games as the drama, but with a few changes here and there (and, of course, no actual bodily damage to individuals). It’s startling, to say the least, given the South Korean drama’s not-so-subtle criticism on the affluent and powerful entertaining themselves by watching players make deadly mistakes. Squid Game: The Challenge, like any other competition program, is as much about the heartbreaking failures as it is about the joyous successes. Whoever wins the program will have an incredible trip to one of the largest cash rewards in television history.

People watching the weekly series are undoubtedly thinking how similar it is to Squid Game. The original program is a South Korean sleeper smash, but Squid Game: The Challenge is located in the UK and stars Hwang Dong-hyuk, the author of the Squid Game drama. People may ask, before seeing the show, if Squid Game: The Challenge is real or if it is contrived like the drama that inspired it.

Don’t be deceived, Squid Game: The Challenge offers real individuals competing for a chance to win $4.56 million by playing a series of childhood games. The program is not meant to be planned or scripted in any manner. Nonetheless, there have been several problems surrounding the show in the run-up to its launch.

Eliminated competitors commented about their experiences on the show in a Rolling Stone story. They alleged the tournament was manipulated and the circumstances participants were subjected to were hazardous. While Netflix has rejected the charges, they have undoubtedly increased interest in the show as it airs.

A frigid and “inhumane” climate was also described in a Variety piece. Contestants claimed they were forced to play the show’s notorious “Red light, green light” game in subzero conditions for seven hours, and they even witnessed individuals collapse. “This is not a Bear Grylls survival show,” a competitor who requested anonymity told the newspaper. “If they had told us it was going to be that cold, no one would have gone through with it.”

According to a TODAY report, candidates’ injuries may result in lawsuits. “No lawsuit has been filed yet, but we have served letters of claim to the show’s producers for two contestants outlining their injury claims and now we are gathering further evidence before filing court action if necessary,” Express Solicitors said in a statement to the newspaper.

All of this is to imply that, while the program is based on a fictitious idea, Squid Game: The Challenge is based on actual events.