Dr. Jameca Cooper breaks down why Squid Game became a global hit: the suspense keeps you watching, the violence appeals to viewers who've seen it all, the underdog protagonist makes you root for him, and watching unlikable characters suffer feels like justice.
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Hi, I'm Dr. Jameca Cooper, and before I go any further, make sure you subscribe to this channel. Today we're talking about The Squid Game, a hugely popular TV show on Netflix that really has captured the world by storm. Everyone in the world is watching The Squid Game or has heard about The Squid Game or plans to watch The Squid Game. I was a little bit late to the party. I watched it late because I just had other things going on, but when I finally watched it, I was able to really get into it and figure out probably why people are so fascinated by the show. Make sure you check out my other video that talks about part 1 of the Squid Game. So before I watched the Squid Game, some of my ideas about why people are so engaged in it. But now I've watched all episodes and I can definitely say this: I am pretty sure about my reasons for why people are so in tune to the show. And my reasons are: one, I think, um, as humans we really, really love the element of suspense. Like, we like to feel like, oh my God, I don't know what's happening, what's gonna happen next, and you're kind of wondering. So in other words, the show is not predictable. We like that because when we have shows that are predictable, I mean, that's no fun. You can always kind of tell what's going to happen, that's not going to keep you on the edge of your seats. It would be like me in this video going, damn, that's unpredictable. We like that as Americans. So we like it because of the suspense and it gets our emotions going. We also like it because of the violence. I did think it was a pretty violent show. That part, hmm, not the best. Maybe especially not the best for all ages of individuals. Violence, as Americans, We love it. I think we're a bit desensitized to it. Um, that's a whole different story in and of itself. But the real reason that I feel like— so this is my number 3 reason why I feel like individuals really love the Squid Game, and it's because we really are rooting for the underdog in a lot of situations. In other words, it's no fun to say or see a person win that's always winning, right? But the main character of this really had a lot of issues in his life, and he really needed to win. He needed that for various reasons. And I think we can really kind of connect with stories like that. We can connect with that because those are also parts of ourselves, right? There are also parts of us that want to win. We think we deserve things. We think that we deserve to have good things happen to us. As opposed to other people, especially if you compare the main character's story to some of the other, um, more kind of indirect characters' stories. So I think another part of that is that we also like watching because we like to see some of those other characters that are not so favorable. We like to see negative things happening to them because that's a bit of retribution, right? A bit of karma, as we call it. So I think those are the reasons why I would say, but definitely not my number 3 reason is for sure we are rooting for a person that has not had the, the most opportunities in life. We want that person to win, and we know that in this country that doesn't always happen, but we would like for it to happen. And I'm sure you can see parts of yourself in those stories. Those are my reasons. Tell me what you think. I'm interested to know what people think. Again, make sure you subscribe to this channel. Make sure you check out my part 1 Squid Game video, and thank you.
