Squid Game Is One Of The Best Shows I've Seen In Years; Please Don't Ruin That For Me

By now, you've at least heard of Squid Game, the new Netflix series from South Korean writer Hwang Dong-hyuk. If you haven't congratulations on not being tethered to the internet 24/7. 

It tells the story of 456 people who have been selected to play children's games for money, the only catch is if they lose a game, they're shot immediately.

I don't want to get into spoilers because people on the internet are incapable of handling that, and I don't want to overanalyze the show because that — much like many of the characters on the show — has been done to death.

I think we should just enjoy the show, and leave it at that. Let's not run it into the ground like we have so many other things.

Listen, just because I like a show doesn't mean that I want to be inundated with it until I have no choice but to hate it.

Since we're approaching Halloween and Squid Game is the most popular anything at the moment, there is already a rush on getting magenta coveralls and green sweatsuits distributed to the costume party-going masses.

Dressing as the guards or one of the players from the show is this year's costume that everyone thinks will make them the belle of the Halloween ball. However, once you throw on your coveralls and your fencing mask with a triangle on it and saunter into the party, you'll be greeted by everyone else at the party also in Squid Game costumes. There will be so many, you could practically reenact the show.

This is one example of how anything popular gets run into the ground. It's the circle of life of any IP. That stands for "intellectual property," by the way, it's a corporate buzzword that has made its way to the mainstream and is way overused. Something becomes popular, so people see dollar signs, and everyone with a Tiktok account starts doing "challenges" based on it.

Quick aside: Why does everything have to be a "challenge?" Is it that that's the best way for people to do it because they feel belittled if they don't accept a challenge? That's how you get morons running up towers of milk crates in an attempt to see who can get the best compound fracture (I don't remember the exact rules).

I know I sound like a curmudgeon, and that's because, frankly, I am one, but I hate to see something that was so great get bastardized the way everything does in this day and age. I'm also not trying to be one of those hipster douches who hates liking anything that becomes popular. I've just seen this saga play out too many times.

Remember that game from a few years back called Fortnite? Much like the Garden of Eden, in the beginning, most people thought it was harmless and fun. But eventually, someone must've eaten an apple because the next thing you knew, we had to suffer through every bowling alley was having Fortnite Nights and kids were doing the game's stupid dances on Jumbotrons in arenas across the nation.

What's wrong with people having fun with something they enjoy? Nothing, but it was overdone to the point that it made everyone else Fortnite. I don't want to see that happen to Squid Game.

It happened to Stranger Things, it happened to Tiger King, and, in all honesty, it happened to Star Wars. Things that started out fun, but became so obsessed over that it got irritating to anyone who just wanted to enjoy a TV show or movie. 

Let's break this cycle once and for all. 

By all means, watch Squid Game. Seriously. It's without a doubt some of the best TV in years. Think about it afterward (it's impossible not to), talk about it with friends, enjoy the memes, do whatever, but don't buy in or contribute to the oversaturation of it or using it to further other people's agendas and content (another corporate/media buzzword that I hate). 

I mean, just this morning I saw a video of Jimmy Fallon doing the sugar candy thing from the show. That's what made me want to write this because Fallon is the Grim Reaper of anything fun. Once he gets his mitts on it, people begin hating it. 

I understand that making things based on whatever is popular is how the internet works, but I miss being able to just enjoy something, instead of being bludgeoned over the head with it repeatedly.

So, that's all I'm trying to say: As great as it is, for the sake of enjoying something that truly deserves our time and admiration, let's not go overboard with Squid Game.