Enlarge image
Children recreate characters from "Squid Game"
Photo: HEO RAN / REUTERS
That awful arm! Not human, with a huge claw instead of a hand, and it reaches for the men trying to get away from the monster. In addition, terrible screams, dull and full of blood lust. These images and sounds kept me awake all night, sometime in the eighties. At the breakfast table I must have looked miserable as a twelve- or thirteen-year-old, and it took my parents less than two minutes to find out that, contrary to their admonitions, I had watched a horror film with my boyfriend in their absence. "The Thing from Another World" from 1951. I can still call up these images effortlessly today, and they still send a shiver down my spine.
I did become a film critic after all and have seen countless horror films, so the experience did not cause a full-blown anxiety trauma. Many children today would probably laugh at the black and white pictures and puppet tricks of the good old science fiction shocker anyway. They see completely different things. »Squid Game«, for example, a Korean series in which highly indebted adults play children's games under the eyes of some super-rich and are either shot or plunged into the depths.
The nine-part series is by far the most successful Netflix series ever and has milled its way into the annals of pop culture at breakneck speed, with challenges on TikTok, recipes for the cookies that play a role in a particularly perfidious game, an armada of memes. And in addition to the virtual world, also in the real world, as was shown recently on Halloween, when people in the typical pink "Squid Game" suits and masks roamed the streets.
In the meantime this circus has found its way into the schoolyards of the republic. Everywhere, you can get this impression from reading the media, children play brutal games inspired by »Squid Game«, at least the losers are only slapped in the face and not quartered. The Ministry of Culture in Bavaria and the colleagues from the education department in Thuringia felt compelled to issue warnings about the series. And the phone lines of media educators all over the country are glowing because teachers, parents and newspaper offices are calling and desperately asking for advice. In the "FAZ" on Wednesday a representative of this profession was even carried away to say that the series should be indexed, i.e. no longer freely available.
From the perspective of the critic, the shrill tone of the debate is peculiar in two ways: Because it makes clear how little adults are concerned with what their children are watching when they are sitting in front of the television or tablet.
And because it shows just how little importance a serious appreciation of films and series still has in this country.
Both go hand in hand.
This series is art that challenges you to grapple with
»Squid Game« is more than just a hype that falls from the sky. Also not a sadistic torture show that is about torturing people. But the extremely rare case in which the global attention for an entertainment program is congruent with its quality and its claim. »Squid Game« is a series that holds up a mirror to capitalist societies with their economic pressure on the individual and a painful spread between rich and poor in an extremely interesting style and dramaturgical way. In other words: »Squid Game« is art that challenges you to grapple with it.
It is sad enough that parts of the teaching staff as well as many parents seem to be overwhelmed by it. It is downright negligent that they fail to recognize the offer for discussion that the series makes. »Squid Game« offers older young people in particular the opportunity to reflect on their own situation and sharpen their attitude to many questions that will gain importance in their lives.
As a critic and father, however, I am stunned by the age groups that have apparently seen the blood fountains in »Squid Game«.
As interesting as the content of the series can be for over sixteen year olds, it is of course harmful and overwhelming for younger children.
The voluntary self-regulation (FSK) recommends »Squid Game« from the age of 16, and nothing is easier than creating an access restriction that prevents smaller viewers from viewing.
And if you come into contact with pictures or scenes from the series in other ways, do you really need media educators who explain that a conversation and a classification can help?
Movies and series are more than occupational therapy and goggles
I think the problem lies deeper, namely with a general disdain for the cultural significance of films and series.
For years I have watched with horror how three-year-olds are placed in front of highly complex Pixar films and eight-year-olds outdo each other in who has seen most of the parts of the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy.
Films are just perfect occupational therapy: as long as the little ones are watching the Gollum, they are at least quiet.
And of course films and series are constantly available mass-produced goods, in the streaming age more than ever.
Precisely for this reason it is an urgent task of parents and teachers not only to consume with children in silence, but to give them an idea that this is an art with different styles, narrative methods and a rich history.
How many children know a black and white film?
How many have seen Harold Lloyd doing gymnastics on a clock over a street canyon?
How Charlie Chaplin makes two buns skewered on forks dance?
How Hans Albers rides a cannonball as Baron Münchhausen?
Movies and series are more than just goggles.
They open up a world that interacts directly with the living conditions of the viewer.
Knowing about it also helps to understand and process »Squid Game«.
Not just kids.
