Disclaimer: We advise watching the series mentioned in the article with parental supervision. Anish has watched this series under parental guidance.
Anish Ganpathy
While the practice of watching movies in theatres is fading away, it is bringing us closer to a new way: binge-watching web series. A new concept in India that we have adapted rather quickly. Over the past couple of years, some astonishing web series have been released that have received immense support from fans.
A couple of weeks ago, a new series called ‘Squid Game’ took the world by storm. The Korean series became Netflix’s most-watched original series, grossing 900 million dollars and having 100+ million viewers and counting. Almost all the people that I know have watched this series. When I watched it, I was blown away. And it led to a scary event that I did not imagine happening to me.
One day, I was walking all alone, on an empty, eerie road. Suddenly, a van came along. At this point, it was crystal clear that this van was not just travelling on the road by coincidence. I got scared and tried to run home as soon as possible, but the van came closer towards me. I grew unconscious and collapsed. It took me by shock what I saw next as I gained my consciousness and opened my eyes. It was a huge room, filled with many other people who were as confused as I was.
I saw the numbers written on everyone’s jackets, and it immediately became clear to me. I was inside the ‘Squid Game’! I went to the guards and tried to explain that I had not applied or agreed to play the game, but they would not budge or listen. It seemed that it was a case of mistaken identity. Then, I tried to warn the players on what sort of trouble they were getting into, but they seemed hungry for money and did not care to listen. It didn’t take me long to realize that I had to play the game. And in the real world, the game was ten times more frightening than on my flat screen.
It was at that moment when I thanked God that I had watched the series. While everyone else was confused about what to do and what not to do, I already made strategies on how I wanted to play each game. For the first game, ‘Green Light, Red Light’, I planned to stay in the middle and try to complete the game as soon as possible. As the huge doll started singing that eerie song, I got goosebumps for a second. However, I stuck to my strategy and carried on despite the massacre. For the second game, ‘Honeycomb Shapes’, I picked the shape triangle because it was the easiest to carve and succeeded in clearing this level.
For the third game, ‘Tug of War’, I decided to join the strongest team that turned out easy to win. The next couple of challenges were also quite easy as there was no mystery. I understood the manipulative nature of the game. However, the last game was very difficult. Primarily as I had never played the ‘Squid Game’ before and it remains a complicated game. In the end, I lost that game as I failed to strategize for this game. And it struck me a little later as I was in the gaming mode that I was eliminated which means that I had to be killed.
The masked man pointed the gun at me. I was scared out of my wits! Just as the man was about to pull the trigger, I heard my mom’s voice. “Wake up,” she exclaimed. She asked, “Why were you screaming?” I woke up and started laughing. “I have to take a break from binge-watching,” I whispered to myself.
Haha that was good reading. You can become a storyteller Anish. All the best.
Please practice well for the next dream session. Wel written.