“Squid Game” is a new South Korean thriller series that just released on Netflix. Since its release, this show has drastically gained popularity in the United States.

The series is a nine-episode drama which showcases 456 players who are all in debt playing a sequence of Korean children’s games to win the grand prize of 45.6 billion won (38,389,034 U.S. dollars). However, if you fail in any of the games you will face the brutal consequence of death.

The main character is Seong Gi-hun, played by Lee Jung-jae. Seong Gi-hun is divorced and the father of one daughter. He joins the game to pay the debts he has from loan sharks, which are money lenders who charge extremely high interest rates and in most cases do so illegally. He also needs the money to provide for his daughter. The series showcases his and many other characters’ struggles to complete the games and win the money, along with the physical and mental effect from competing in these games.

In the first few days after it was released, it received extreme amounts of support from viewers all around the world. It has been number one on netflix charts for more than two weeks and is expected to continuously receive the same amount of praise in the future.

“The show was loved by so many because of the thrill and suspense that was created throughout the show,” Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School freshman Raymond Hu said.

Even though the series is presented in Korean, several of its watchers are American, showing that many people do not care about language barriers.

This series gained its popularity online, largely on Tiktok, with multiple users posting their opinions of the show. Many Tiktoks were posted showcasing which characters were their favorite. Specifically, the character Kang Sae-byeok who is played by Jung Ho-yeon received a massive amount of popularity for her acting performance and looks.

“I feel that along with the great storyline in the show, there were also great actors that contributed heavily to the fame of the show,” freshman Hamza Qureshi said.

Numerous videos were posted on the children’s games presented in the show. One game in the show was the dalgona game. The dalgona game is when the players receive and stamped dalgona, which is a honeycomb toffee with a shape stamped into it. They are expected to crack the pieces of the dalgona, in which they will end up with the shape that was stamped into it. If they accidentally break the dalgona into something that is not the shape, they are eliminated from the game.

Fans see TikTok users playing this game at their own homes. The videos show us the users making the stamped dalgona and then attempting to break the pieces into the shape without breaking it. TikTok also released a filter on the app which allows users to use their nose to outline the shape on the dalgona and if they do not complete it in time or if they mess it up, they fail.

“I think that the games presented in the show brought popularity to this show, especially the dalgona game,” sophomore Victoria Zaharis said.

Filters have been created on Instagram to “participate” in the games that are shown in the series in addition to just TikTok filters. One popular filter is where the user can play the game red light, green light, which is one of the games portrayed on the show.

This series has received unmeasurable appreciation from people all over the world. Not only is it receiving love from its home country, Korea, but also from 90 other countries all across the world.

This show has created new standards for entertainment. With many fans expecting a second season, we will see how much longer this show will be the center of attention for entertainment. Squid Game has brought light to the quality of Korean entertainment, as other Korean films have gained popularity since the release of Squid Game, like the movie Parasite.