Chronic. When we want to be quiet, it arrives regularly that my wife or I would stick our children in front of the TV. Finally, when I say “TV”, it is an abuse of language, because we collapse them more precisely in front of Netflix. Moreover, no need to insist too much. Appreciated by the smaller ones, the streaming platform has become, over the years, a kind of substitute, economic, always available baby-sitter, and speaking perfectly several languages. The collateral effects associated with the attendance of this video nurse are numerous, and sometimes surprising (attention spoiler).
“Look what I did, dad!”, told me my eldest son, 10 years old, the other day back from school, tending a small piece of paper. A mini-writing on the industrial revolution? A haiku to the glory of the Republican school? An origami inspired by Euclidean geometry? Nothing of the sort. What was on the little paper was a drawing, representing one of the masked characters of the Squid Game series, broadcast on Netflix. I raised an interrogative eyebrow, because my son is supposed to have never looked at this Korean production, broadcast since September 17 and forbidden at least 16 years old. “Yes, but there are many people talking about Tiktok,” he said to me about the tone of evidence, to make me understand that entertainment with such a high virality coefficient. could not escape his radars.
Characterized by its uninhibited violence and its acidulous pop aesthetic, this mini-series in nine episodes is nothing less than the phenomenon of the moment. In a dystopic vein recalling Hunger Games or Royal Battle, the creation of Hwang Dong-Hyek skilfully puts into the scene of indebted adults who, to get by, agree to participate in a mysterious competition, with a price of 45, 6 billion won (about 33 million euros).
A strange reappropriation
Quickly, they will discover that the tests that must decide them are directly inspired by the children’s games, like 1-2-3 sun. At this detail only that here, the one who moves is descended on the spot, under the horrified glance of his comrades. This juxtaposition of the innocence of the childish universe and adult sadism materialized by this game of massacre undeniably participates in discomfort (and at attraction) produced by Squid Game. Something, in this telescoping, tells the torments of our time, where the one who is urged by the system not to grow inevitably endowed by paying at the strong price this regressive tropism.
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