Squid Game: The Challenge release date, reviews and what you need to know about Netflix reality show

Squid Game: The Challenge will see contestants go head to head in a real life version of the drama in order to win a prize pot of $4.56 million.

While it may be dividing critics, Netflix’s spin off series Squid Game: The Challenge is sure to grip audiences.

Pitting hundreds of everyday people against one another to win a massive prize pot – just like the Korean drama, except with less fatal consequences – the reality game show is set to be an entertaining watch.

Here’s everything you need to know about Squid Game: The Challenge.

What is Squid Game: The Challenge about?

Just like the Netflix drama, Squid Game: The Challenge will see 456 players from across the world thrust into the competition in order to win $4.56 million (£3.7 million).

Pushed to their limits through a series of games – just like in the original – each player will have to consider their own alliances, strategies and potential betrayals.

Netflix’s Squid Game.

Unsurprisingly, Netflix’s reality show is not a matter of life or death, though contestants will have paint packs strapped to their chests to simulate their demise.

Similarly viewers will find several familiar aspects, such as the large dormitory where contestants slept with stacked beds and the iconic green and white tracksuits.

While Netflix have remained coy with exactly what challenges will appear, you can absolutely expect the return of Red Light, Green Light and Young-hee, the creepy animatronic doll ready to catch contestants out, as well as the Dalgona cookie challenge – which asks contestants to cut out shapes from a biscuit with a needle – and more.

Netflix will soon release their Squid Game inspired reality show. Credit: Netflix.

Where was Squid Game: The Challenge filmed?

Spanning ten episodes, the show was filmed in England.

Squid Game: The Challenge reviews

Unlike its predecessor, Squid Game: The Challenge has divided critics.

The original Squid Game series is Netflix’s most watched TV show and sits at 94% on Rotten Tomatoes for its social commentary and critique of capitalism.

However, the reality game series has left a bad taste in some critics mouths for the same reason with Slash Film stating “this series was doomed to completely miss the point of "Squid Game" just by its very existence” and that it can be “a tough watch”.

Esquire’s reviewer shares similar thoughts: “Squid Game: The Challenge turns you into the villains of Squid Game: the lecherous folk who pay extortionate money to watch people die (though a Netflix subscription, however increased, pales in comparison to their fee).”

While the Evening Standard said: “It has none of the charm of the original Korean story,” adding that despite the contestants being “‘real’, their motivations are somehow less affecting.”

On the other hand, reviewers such as The Guardian, The Telegraph, Entertainment Weekly and Vulture have all praised Squid Game: The Challenge.

The Guardian gave the show four stars, summing up the review: “It was reasonable to assume that Squid Game: The Challenge would be a cash-in, a cynical by-product of the original’s success that would miss the point entirely, and perhaps it does. But as a gameshow, as the spectacle it sets out to be, it is very hard to look away.”

The Telegraph’s reviewer said: “...by the final few episodes the tension, intrigue and antagonism are bubbling to the boil. I’ve seen eight of the ten episodes and am agog to discover how ruthless the last dollar-driven survivors can be.”

Vulture’s review follows along the same lines, stating: “Here I sit before you, convinced that not only does Squid Game: The Challenge qualify as damn good reality television, it even serves as an unexpectedly effective adaptation of the original K-drama.” While Entertainment Weekly awards the show a “B+”, summarising the review by saying: “The stakes may not be life or death, but they are very real.”

Squid Game: The Challenge release date

The first five episodes of Squid Game: The Challenge will hit Netflix on November 22, followed by another four episodes being released on November 29.

The final episode will arrive on the streaming site on December 6.