Squid Game doesn't deserve to be this popular.

Squid Game is the show that took the world by storm when it launched this September, and it quickly became the most popular show on Netflix. It is regarded as a masterpiece by a lot of voices, but that title seems to be thrown around too easily nowadays. The reasons for its popularity are many, such as it being really accessible to non-english speakers and producing a lot of memes. However, an above average content quality isn't one of them. Here's why:

Most of the twists are predictable and cliché.

Many of the show's twists can be seen from a mile away and are extremely overused. For example, the fact that the Front Man turned out to be the detective's brother is one of the most generic twists out there. He might as well have said, "Luke, I am your brother!" Another bad reveal is that the game is made by bored rich people, this has been done multiple times in other media, such as in the 2012 film "Would You Rather" and many others. The director could have made up a much more interesting reason for the creation of the games, but no, rich people being jerks again.

Credit where credit is due, the series does manage to pull off a decent twist when the participants actually vote to leave, instead of continuing on with the games, allowing for some of the characters' reasons for playing to be introduced outside of flashbacks.

You can usually guess the outcomes of the games.

The games that suffer most from this are 3 (Tug of War), 4 (The Marbles Game) and 6 (Squid Game), but game 1 (Red Light, Green Light) also suffers because so far we have only met Sang-woo and the main character, whose plot armor is stronger than the show's anti-capitalist message.

In game 3 ,all of the developed characters gather into one team, except for the jock and his evil squad. When these 2 teams don't get paired up against each other, we instantly know the outcome of both rounds. It would have been far more entertaining to have developed characters on opposing teams, actually creating some tension. The fact that an episode ends on a "cliffhanger" in the middle of this game is ridiculous. In game 4 (this one seems to be the most overrated), you can easily guess the winner of each pairing. The way the characters go about the game is interesting, and Sang-woo's betrayal of Ali is heartbreaking, but not surprising. It doesn't help that the game takes up almost all of the episode. And then we have game 6: the invincible main character versus the morally corrupt, greedy character of Sang-woo. That fight took way too long, and the suicide was a cheap way to make Gi-hun both win and remain relatively morally pure.

Some characters are horribly two-dimensional.

I already hear you saying, "But, the show doesn't need to be surprising to be good, it's all about the cHaRaCtErS". Well, some of the characters are just horribly written. For example, the jock character doesn't have much of a personality besides "massive jerk". He is so over the top evil that I just can't take him seriously. Number 212, Han Mi-Nyeo, is so annoying, I can't stand a second of her on screen. This is probably intentional, but still makes the show worse in my opinion. Our main character doesn't have much of a personality; he is meant to be generic and relatable; and did I mention his plot armor? The fact that he finishes all of the timer based games at the last possible second is so annoying and cliché. There are many characters who get no character progression, such as Ali and the old man. The characters all show a great level of stupidity when, except for the smart dude with glasses, they don't realize the fact that only one person will make it out alive for a mind-boggling amount of time. There are also characters with bad performances, such as the VIPs, but we will talk about them later.

Problematic LQBTQ+ representation.

Have you heard of the Depraved Homosexual trope? Here is a quote from https://tvtropes.org explaining it:

"...a Manly Gay sexual predator whose preferred "quarry" are straight men or young, naive Twinks. His motive is usually either his depraved sexuality or an unrequited love... His brand of evil must involve a sexual nature and/or some uncomfortable flirting."

Does this remind you of a certain VIP from Squid Game? The scene where this character, whose only traits are perversion and evil, tries to rape the detective is disgusting. This wouldn't be a massive problem if he wasn't the ONLY gay character in the show. This trope is incredibly harmful and needs to be eliminated from media. I want to clarify that I am not here to send hate or to cancel people. I just think this needs to be talked about more.

Consistency issues.

Besides all the problems mentioned above, the game's principles don't hold together, and there are also some minor plot holes.

First things first, the cheating and the luck factor. How does the Front Man claim that the game offers an equal chance for everyone, and yet people can so easily cheat and bring lighters, knives, etc.? How was the detective able to infiltrate so easily in the game? I mean, they should have invested more money in security, like having 2 guys running one van or the guards actually paying attention to game 2, where there was blatant cheating.

They didn't even change the pickup method, it feels like they were just asking for Sae-byeok to do what she did. I honestly don't know how this game functioned for multiple years.

And then, the fact that the old man is an insider playing ruins the whole thing. For example, his teammate in game 4 can't die. He made all the people in game 1 move forward. He even got a vote, which switched the result from a tie (that would have probably resulted in the continuation of the game) to a cancellation.

The ending is a horrible mess.

To top it all off, the ending was a dumpster-fire. Gi-hun's decision to not use the money in the ending is straight up idiotic The twist with the old man is just so frustrating. The final game is unsatisfying since it essentially boils down to just a fist-fight. The only saving grace is the confrontation between the brothers, but they ruined that since none of them actually died (I'm willing to bet money they will use this as a twist in season 2, if they make one). And, the final twist, that Gi-hun doesn't reunite with his daughter and instead starts trying to take down the game, is just the cheapest way to set up season 2.

In conclusion, this show is not a masterpiece. I have no problem with people who enjoyed and were entertained by it. I would give it a solid 7/10 even after all that criticism, but calling it anything above "pretty good" is a really big stretch. As I said at the beginning, its popularity stems from its accesibility, not quality.