South Korean thriller Squid Game wins Gotham Award for the first time for the country. Photo courtesy of Netflix

Korean thriller continues to make history

Highly-successful Netflix original series Squid Game has become the first South Korean drama to receive a Gotham Award as it won in the category for breakthrough series over 40 minutes.

Last year, HBO’s Watchmen garnered the same award. It is a nine-episode limited series based on the 1986 DC Comics of the same title.

Lee Jung-jae, the lead actor of Squid Game, was nominated for Outstanding Performance in a New Series. But the 48-year-old failed to win.

Squid Game is an eight-part dystopian show, which depicts hundreds of desperate contestants who play six rounds of deadly childhood games to win $39 million. But losers have to risk their lives in the survival games.

The South Korean juggernaut premiered on Sept. 17 this year to hit No. 1 in the global charts a week later. It has become the most-watched show on Netflix to date.

Observers point out that the popular thriller, directed by Hwang Dong-hyuk, helped other Netflix originals like Hellbound to chalk up a global success.

Hellbound is No. 1 in the Netflix global charts as of Dec. 2, while Squid Game still remains at fourth place, according to Flixpatrol that tracks streaming data.

“When I wrote the scenario for Squid Game, nobody loved it. It took 12 years to make this series, and it took less than 12 days for the series to become the best show in the world,” Hwang said.
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