Squid Game: The Challenge is a reality show that seems more Bigg Boss than Squid Game

“We’ve come too far to end this now,” Park Hae-soo as the debt-ridden investment banker Cho Sang-woo says at the start of the climax round fight in Squid Game, upon spotting hesitation in his childhood friend and rival finalist Seong Gi-hun. The Korean thriller series would become a global blockbuster on release in 2021. Two years later, as the series’ spin-off reality game show Squid Game: The Challenge premieres its grand finale on December 6, Sang-woo’s line might have just crossed the minds of the three finalists engaged in a no-holds-barred hunt for a prize money worth $4.56 million, touted to be the biggest stash any reality show has ever doled out.

Over the nine episodes released in the run-up to the climactic 10th that drops on December 6, the finalists — Mai Whelan, Phill Cain and Sam Lantz — have seen very little of the bona fide Squid Game experience, mostly navigating through what can be considered an overflow of mind games and sentimental schmaltz. Squid Game: The Challenge has seemed more Bigg Boss than Squid Game, with scheming and manipulation of rivals proving to be sturdier assets for the top three who started out among 456 contestants, than an ability to impress in the game rounds.

In fact, the episodes so far have left hardcore fans of the original series asking for more because the focus has hardly been on the game rounds as they would have liked. In all, there have been six game rounds in the nine episodes — Red Light Green Light, Dalgona, Warship, Marbles, Glass Bridge and Circle Of Trust. A lot of decisive eliminations have, on the other hand, happened through tests such as Phone Test, Jack-in-the-Box Test, Allegiance Test and the Die test.

Going into the final episode, the makers as well as three finalists probably had this in mind: While the episodes dropped so far have managed to maintain audience interest with drama, the spin-off game show has fallen short when it comes to conjuring the unsettling suspense that buoyed the original series to a cult status. The sinister vibes that sustained tension in fictional series was mainly due to killing of the contestants who failed in each round, and the makers had to look for alternative ways to make the game show thrilling. As is the case in many reality shows an evident ploy has been to heighten the scope for deviousness on the part of contestants, to push them into a moral dilemma over a call they may take. The staple suspense drama here arises over whether a contestant would to act honourably in a given situation and risk elimination or play dirty to stay in the safe zone and push a co-contestant towards ouster. It is something that has opened up the scope for melodrama, too.

If Squid Game: The Challenge works in its cheesy sort of way, it is because the makers have cleverly stuck to the age-old reality recipe of stuffing in melodrama. Reality shows thrive on sentimental overload and, devoid of fictional tension of Squid Game and with minimum focus on the actual game rounds, the show has used the idea elaborately. Over nine episodes we have seen a mother and a son as rival contestants, each trying to look out for each other and hoping the other survives. American Blacks as well as Nepali and Vietnamese origin contestants, besides LGBTQ+ players, have alike talked of their hardships in life, at strategic moments. Reasons that players have revealed to the camera as to why they wanted to win the prize money have nobly ranged from medical treatment for ailing family members to good education for the kids to liberal charity. Contestants have never let go of a chance to go over the top with emotions for the camera while reacting to any given situation.

Strangely, and in a departure from reality TV norms, Squid Game: The Challenge hasn’t revealed much of a game plan to nurture in-show stardom. Rather, the makers have seemed random in their attempts to create stars on the game show. The show started with Bryton (contestant number 432) as a frontrunner, but he was eliminated midway. The mother and son duo of LeAnn (302) and Trey (301) garnered a fan base, but were soon exiting the show. Then there are contestants such as TJ (182), Bee (18), Ashley (278) and Purna (31) who became recognised faces at various points of the show, only to be ousted.

Only three players remain. Who will win Squid Game: The Challenge?

Make your pick here ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/crcZD0vfby

— Netflix Tudum (@NetflixTudum) December 6, 2023

The trick, in a reality show minus audience poll, clearly lies in staying anonymous, since most eliminations are driven by the choices that co-contestants make. It is the reason Mai Whelan, Phill Cain and Sam Lantz ended up in final despite being invisible for most parts on the show. Vietnamese-born American Mai (number 287) has clearly emerged the frontrunner in the finale, primarily due to her sly disposition as a player. Mai has abundantly talked about facing near-death situations in life as a child during the Vietnam War, and watching her shift gear from an apparently benevolent mother figure to a deceptive attacker who will stop at nothing, you realise her early hardships have perhaps shaped a strong human being. Outside the game show Mai is an immigration adjudicator, and she attributes her calling to her ability to read people’s faces rightly.

In comparison, very little is known about Mai’s finale rivals Phill and Sam. Insignificantly blending into the crowd of contestants that filled the dormitory beds over the nine episodes so far, anonymity could well be their biggest weapon in the final lap, as the trio makes a final lunge at the show’s oversized piggy bank that holds the monster prize money. Squid Game: The Challenge may be far from making a mark as its predecessor fictional blockbuster did, but a $4.56 million prize money should keep the game show in the record books for a while now.

(Final episode of Squid Game: The Challenge, revealing the winner, streams on Netflix from December 6, 2023)