Released on September 17, Squid Game quickly rose to be one of the most watched Netflix shows. But is it worth the eight hours of view time? After hearing about it from Sophomore Zoey Chambers while on a run, I decided to give it a chance.

I started this show knowing that it was similar to The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. Not knowing that it was a Korean show, I had never heard of the childhood game, Squid Game. The TV show is about 456 constants who enter a game for a prize of 45.6 billion won. That’s about 39.1 million dollars.

This show starts off pretty slow, they don’t get to the first game until about halfway through the first episode. The first half of the episode was spent explaining who the main character is and why he entered the Game.

As someone who has never watched any Korean dramas before, it was a good introduction into a new genre. I would not recommend this show to people who disliked Hunger Games written by Suzanne Collins, as it is more gruesome than the Hunger Games series. There is more death and blood.

Other than the gruesome parts, I found it enjoyable. The main character, Seong Gi-Hun, provides comedic relief throughout the show by expressing his humor. At the beginning when the games were starting he made a silly face to be his picture that the front man used. The front man was the one in charge of the game. Even through his struggles with not being able to provide much for his daughter, he was still able to joke with her as a way to express his love for her.

I did dislike a few characters though. Jang Doek-su and Han Mi-neyo were boring old antagonists with no personality. Mi-neyo made the tv show hard to watch, due to the fact that her character was repetitive. Not learning from her mistakes, she’d end up in the same position every day. Doek-su made her character even worse, antagonizing her constantly. The way Doek-su treated every other character made the show a tad bit annoying. He did not care about the other contestants and even stole from them sometimes.

Overall, I’d give this tv series a 8.5 out of 10. I enjoyed most of the characters and the show managed to hold my attention almost the entire time. The characters were mostly unique, except for the few I disliked. Along with the characters, the show taught me about some Korean culture. I learned about the children’s game, Squid Game. I would recommend this to people who love Korean dramas and shows like the Hunger Games.