How Squid Game brought prestige to South Korea but also reflected a dark side
The most successful South Korean TV series in history, Squid Game sped up a golden age of ‘Hallyu’ while provoking serious conversations

The third and final season of Netflix’s Squid Game broke viewer records on the streaming platform following its release on June 27, marking a fitting close for what has arguably been the most successful South Korean TV series in history.
Squid Game has been transformative for South Korea, with much of the domestic reaction focused not on the plot, but on the prestige it has brought to the country.

In one section of the procession, a phalanx of the show’s masked guards, dressed in their trademark pink uniforms, carried neon-lit versions of the coffins that appear on the show to carry away the losers of the survival game. They were joined by actors playing the contestants, who lurched along wearing expressions of exaggerated horror, as though the cruel stakes of the game had just been revealed to them.