Last year, Netflix announced that it was filming a 10-episode series called "Squid Game": inspired by the hugely popular Korean series in which poor people are offered incredible sums of money and exploited if they can survive a series of cruel games The show is a In the Netflix reality show version, contestants are offered $4.56 million and compete in games based on the show's content, with the difference that no one dies. In addition to being conceptually tony, the game show was filmed under inhumane conditions and may have even been rigged, according to a report in Rolling Stone magazine (opens in new tab).

Four competitors spoke on condition of anonymity about their version of the show's game, called "Red Light, Blue Light" in the subtitles and "Mugunghwakkotipyoseum Nida" in the original Korean. They were driven from London to a concrete-floored hangar at a former Air Force base and filmed for up to nine hours in temperatures so low that even with two layers of warm clothing under their tracksuits, some players developed pneumonia and ear infections, according to Rolling Stone magazine.

In addition, it appears that the contestants were made to stand motionless for 30 minutes so that they could film the drone and review the footage while the producers decided which athletes would be eliminated in the few seconds that the contestants could run toward the finish line. Those athletes who did move were given a blood squib in their tracksuits to mimic the show's sniping.

Anonymous sources claimed that at least 10 contestants collapsed during the game, and one player stated that it took a while for the medics to arrive because the producers were concerned that the fallen players would interfere with camera shots. One athlete claimed to have suffered a herniated disc and ruptured a tendon in his knee. In a surreal part of the story, people wearing the original show's trademark pink jumpsuits and masks were sent out with black coffins to block the camera view of the medics caring for the fallen athletes, while others apparently continued to stand motionless.

In addition, the former contestants claimed it was a squid game: among them were Instagram and TikTok influencers, who were allowed to use microphones during the challenge, while the other participants remained using fake microphones. Two of the contestants said that when they were given their airline tickets to London, they realized that their return tickets were also booked for dates before the end of the competition, which coincided with their eventual elimination dates

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Three of the contestants claimed that many of them crossed the finish line with time remaining, only to be told minutes later that the Blood Squib was activated and they would fail and be sent home. One contestant also claimed to have seen a second chance given to a player who should have been eliminated.

Netflix and production companies The Garden and Studio Lambert issued a statement in response, saying, "Suggestions that the tournament is being rigged and claims that players are being seriously harmed are simply untrue," and that "all appropriate All safety measures are in place and an independent adjudicator oversees each match to ensure that it is fair for everyone."

This is not the only attempt to bring the squid game to life; YouTuber MrBeast has spent $3.5 million to recreate the show, and regardless of the truth of the allegations against Netflix's reality show contest, the existence of such recreations is a reminder that fictional works of art are No matter how blatantly they make their claims, a significant number of exasperated people will say, "Wow! Cool game show!"