Note: This article discusses some plot details from Netflix’s “Squid Game,” but avoids major spoilers.

Netflix’s ultra popular new show ‘Squid Game’ is taking the world by storm – but why?

I’m sure by now that you’ve heard of the new Korean hit “Squid Game” where hundreds of in debt citizens play six different children’s games with a deadly twist in order to win a huge sum of money. And people can’t stop talking about it.

In the nine – episode Korean series, hundreds of financially struggling people are provoked by a well dressed man to play a short South Korean child’s game where they attempt to flip tiles of folded paper. For each round they lose, they get slapped and once completing the challenge they are rewarded with 100,000 won (a little more than $84 U.S. dollars) and a small business card with several symbols and a number to call if they wish to play more games for money. Confronted with the weight of their failures, 456 of these people call the number on the back of that card, are kidnapped and taken to an undisclosed location where they are all dressed in the same green-and-white tracksuits and a number plastered on their chests.

Each day men in red jumpsuits rile them up and walk them to different locations where these games will be played. As the games progress they get harder and with each means about half of the participants’ brutal deaths. With the choice of being able to leave whenever they want as long as most of the players agree, most of the players stay and continue the games.

‘Squid Game’ gives us a glimpse into the idea of what humans would do to succeed and how the yearning of money can become deadly. With this, we are left with one question: Why?

Why would you stay and continue when there’s a 50/50 chance of survival and why is this show such a phenomenon? Students are mixed in their emotions of this game.

“I really liked ‘Squid Game’. I finished the series in a few days because it’s so dramatic and you want to know who wins so badly you don’t want to stop watching.” senior Olivia Ortega said.

The Squid Games fan even went as far as to say “I tried to get all of my friends to watch it but some of them were hesitant because they had heard it was so bloody and gore-y.”

One of those friends who was turned away by its blood and gore was senior Megan Brown. “I like to watch TV that makes me happy, why would I watch a show that makes me scared to turn every corner,” she said.

Psychology Teacher Mrs. Annie Sánchez offered insight into the mechanics of it all and why people are so drawn to this type of entertainment.

“People watch these shoes for effect. They enjoy feeling scared, they’re entertained by being afraid,” Mrs. Sanchez said. “The second reason would be because this program is on TV in your mind it’s not real and it can’t really happen therefore making it safe to watch while being entertained by that feeling of fear.”

Whether it be for entertainment value, the dramatics of it all or even for a little adrenaline rush, we may never really know why everyone is so hooked on this new popular show but all we can say is, we can’t wait for season 2.