Special
Issue 2

Many will point their finger squarely at a certain series that crash-landed onto screens around the world via Netflix just over a year ago. <Squid Game> was bold and fresh, particularly to millions of westerners who were tuning in to this particular brand of Korean content for the first time. It thrust the Korean wave further forward than it ever has been up the Western shore, boasting 1.65 billion streaming hours in the 28 days after its release - a record that has yet to be broken.

The industry was awash with commentators and academics alike scratching their heads as to why we hadn’t seen it coming; how Netflix had somehow struck gold once again by finding a global hit from(in the minds of some) the most ‘unlikely of places’, not quite understanding that this scripted success story was ultimately unsurprising given what had come before.

In every other corner of the entertainment industry, Hallyu had already made its mark internationally:Black Pink and BTS were selling out stadiums in the USA, Parasite had made Oscars history as first foreign language winner of best picture, and <The Masked Singer> was steadily making its way onto television channels around the world following the success of the Fox network’s re-imagining of MBC's beautifully bizarre format. So a record-breaking Korean scripted series was hardly unexpected, and Netflix cannot be heralded as the sole facilitator of its success.

What’s most surprising is how the series has gone on to influence K-content and television globally. ‘Pre-‘ or ‘post-<Squid Game>’ are now commonly used across the industry in order to re-determine audience tastes and what is possible in terms of storyline and structure. Of course the pre-<Squid Game> landscape should continue to be a source of national pride: shows like <Love What is this> and <Winter Sonata> helped to shape the initial wave of K-series and gain a foothold across Asia. Yet it’s undeniable that without the recognition attained by this one ground-breaking series, Netflix’s Global Top 10 chart probably wouldn’t feature shows like <Little Women>, <Extraordinary Attorney Woo>,<Alchemy of Souls> and <Glitch>.

Another marker of the series’ industry-spanning influence is how it’s shaping the unscripted genre. Of course, we’re still awaiting Netflix’s ‘real-life’ version of the show, <Squid Game: The Challenge >, which will see 456 contestants participate in games inspired by the hit series to win a $4.56m cash prize. And that comes after popular YouTuber Mr Beast produced his own version of the show as a reality game, gaining 139 million views in its first week on the platform!

The ripple effect has been evident elsewhere in the format industry too. A key trend at the most recent MIPCOM content market in France saw many formats - see Rise & Fall (Studio Lambert) and The Fifty (Banijay Rights) - in which contestants are turned against each other, struggling to know who to trust or even outright sabotaging each other’s efforts in order to win. <Squid Game> creator Hwang Dong-hyuk has revealed that he was influenced having grown up watching American films like <The Deer Hunter> and <Once Upon a Time in America>. Now it’s evident that we have a generation of content creators from the west influenced by K-Content!

But the success of this new, post- <Squid Game> Korean Wave isn’t without its challenges. The global streamers have provided K-Content with a fantastic bridge to reach a wider international audience but a key area of discussion at BCWW this year was how to hold on to IP whilst still ensuring the content travels. It could prove tricky to find the right balance but, having been propelled into the limelight, Korean content creators must now strive to set a precedent in order to retain the rights to their hard work. Perhaps, with the growing emergence of niche VOD services (like Kocowa), one avenue to success may be the launch of a global K-content platform.

Either way, I'm excited to see what the next Hallyu hit is going to look like and from which genre it will emerge. Across Asia, Korean content is going nowhere fast, with Korean dramas having become a sort of high-end brand of their own. Have we reached the crest of the K-Wave in Europe and the USA? Not yet, but there are endless possibilities for what’s to come…