Do you know Squid Game? Well, that’s not really the question to ask since you have at least one person around you that said: “Have you watched Squid Game? OMG, It’s the show of the year!” So have you watched Squid Game? If not, now’s the time because Netflix decided to create a reality show called ‘Squid Game: The Challenge’ inspired by the fictitious show.
But there’s one little problem, many candidates decided to leave the set on the first day and more than that, to sue the streaming platform because of the conditions they have been placed into. But what conditions are they talking about? What happened on the set exactly? Let’s find out.
A Disturbing Context
First of all, doing a Reality Show about Squid Game is a little bit creepy if you know the TV show. Squid Game tells the story of many people who desperately need money, and who are ready to do anything to earn some. They all have colossal debts and are willing to do anything to refund them. All those people get an invitation to participate in Squid Game, a game where you can win a lot of money by participating in different tests. But there’s a problem, there’s only one winner out of hundreds of contestants, and if you lose, you die. It means that you need to kill all the other participants in the game if you want to have a chance to win. And of course, some of them become friends and some others find out people from their family participate in it.
So now, imagine doing a reality show out of such a scenario. That’s a really scary idea. Of course, many people know Mr. Beast has done it already, but It’s Mr. Beast, he is a fun entertainer and what’s impressive in his video is the fact that he reunited 456 people and such decoration and set a Youtube video. He made his video about the game much funnier than the real one, and of course, nobody died. People participating to it were smiling even though they could earn money too.
But that’s not the case for the reality show Netflix is planning. In this show, they want Squid Game to be as close as possible to the real game’s ambiance. The only exception is of course that you will not die. But even if they tell you that you will stay alive, some candidates are doubting that they’ll stay healthy.
Fainting, Tears and Hypothermia
Certain candidates said that the filming conditions were terrible. According to the British tabloid ‘The Sun’, the contestants said they were practically tortured by the Squid Game filming team. Some of them even said that they will sue them for the mistreatment they endured. They assure that they have been treated like ‘animals’. Some candidates declared: “We have been tortured for 8 hours” and others said: “I know the show is hard, but this was inhuman”. They finally added: “good shots were more important for the filming team than the health of the participants”.
But what happened exactly? Everything started during the first trial called ‘Red light green light’ like in the fictitious show. The candidates said that they had to stay still for more than 8 hours while it was less than 0 Degrees celsius outside. But why did they do it? Because there was a lot of money to earn of course, like in the real show. Some of them were hit by hypothermia but were willing to stay as long as they could to earn the money they wanted. Contestants were so determined that they were ready to suffer for it. Exactly like in Squid Game…
Others even described the scene as a “war zone” because some people were transported on stretchers by doctors while the others near them couldn’t speak or move because the game was still going on. Some of them couldn’t even move their foot anymore because of the cold. All of this, for 4.2 Million Euros.
The Production Team’s Response
Of course, they couldn’t let the participants “kill” a show. Here’s what Netflix answered to the accusations: “Netflix, Studio Lambert, and The Garden takes contributor care as one of its highest priorities, and regular toilet breaks, water and food are categorically standard practice on production. All contestants were prepared by production several weeks ago that they would be playing a game in cold conditions and participated knowing this”. They also added: “All precautions were taken to ensure the game was played safely.”
Also, they mentioned the fact that the filming will resume soon. Do you think the candidates exaggerated? According to the French journalists from the famous canal BFMTV, they did. One of them even said: “Well, they shouldn’t participate to Survivor”. Another one added: “If you can win more than 4 Million, you should be prepared for that”. But of course, safety first, and there’s no doubt that a company such as Netflix will do its best when the filming will resume in a few weeks.
