Disturbing show part of daily life
NEVER underestimate the influence of that box in the corner. OK, I admit, it’s no longer a “box” in old-fashioned TV terms. Nowadays, it’s a thin giant screen mounted on a sound system stand, or hung on the wall like some cherished painting. Wherever your TV sits – and in the multi-screen world the telly may also dictate the furniture layout in bedrooms and kitchens – take a “time-out” to ponder how much influence it has on your family.
That was the thought that occurred this week when I read how a West Wales primary school had issued an urgent warning to parents after reports that pupils as young as eight were watching a violent Netflix show.
Squid Game was released worldwide on the online streaming service in mid-september. It has since become the platform’s most-watchedever series. The show, created by South Korean director and screenwriter Hwang Dong-hyuk, involves a contest in which hundreds of players play a series of games for the chance to win huge sums of money.
But... failure comes with deadly consequences.
Richmond Park Primary School in Carmarthen raised concerns that children as young as those in Year 4 were either watching Squid Game, despite it having an age rating of 15-plus, or have downloaded and played third-party apps associated with the hit show on their mobile phones. The school warned parents that the drama series has “a dark twist to seemingly innocent games”, including the depiction of characters being “violently killed off in ways that grow more twisted as the games grow more intense”.
A spokesman for Richmond Park school said: “Children and young people are likely to know about the show via word of mouth and because it is so popular on social media. They may be unaware of the extent of gore, death and violence the show contains. It also focuses on adult themes that are not appropriate for younger sensibilities. For young people who live with mental health issues, they may be triggered by some of the content.”
My initial reaction was that the school was overreacting.
Surely Squid Game hadn’t grafted itself on to the daily lives of children aged as young as eight? My doubts evaporated last weekend.
Strolling around Swansea city centre, I noticed children gathering in huddles on some street corners. They were playing a game involving two paper tiles. Ddakji (Takji) is a traditional Korean game of flipping paper tiles which look like square envelopes.
In my day, we played marbles, so I just looked on it as harmless fun.
Until, that is, I made the connection with Squid Game – as the game of Ddakji turns out to be one of the starting points for the series.
Plainly, the youngsters in Swansea were either watching Squid Game or being influenced by the social media and games which surround the series.
So I put my research hat on and watched episode one of the series (well, I watched part of it, as I couldn’t get to the end). The set-up started with 456 people who are all suffering financial problems. They have the chance to win 45.6 billion Korean won (around £28m) by playing children’s games, including Grandmother’s Footsteps and marbles. If they fail, they are executed. In one scene I counted 251 characters shot, with heads, chests or backs blown open. I watched it with the actors’ voices dubbed into English.
But, according to writer Hwang Dong-hyuk, I was “watching it wrong”.
His instruction to English-language viewers is: “Please watch the subtitled one. If you don’t see the acting, the performance from the real actor, then you are not seeing anything. You are missing the most of the Squid Game fun.” “Fun” wasn’t exactly the word that came to mind after watching Squid Game. Apparently, the show now dominates chatter on social media sites like Tiktok (a younger colleague has explained to me the workings of Tiktok, by the way). With Halloween coming up, Squid Game costumes are now, by all accounts, one of the most popular “fright costumes” for the season. The way this disturbing show has burrowed its way into daily life is, in itself, disturbing.
Of course, the flipside is we don’t have to watch it. Give me Mortimer and Whitehouse Gone Fishing any day of the week. It’s relaxing, educational, thought-provoking and as gentle as a chalk stream. They don’t even kill the fish! I am tempted to say you can keep your Squid Game. But that would ignore the fact that I think most parents need to be aware of the show to make sure their children aren’t watching it. Mums and dads, you have been warned!