Squid Game Season 2 Review: Let The Games Begin...Again
A spoiler-free review of the second season of the breakout South Korean hit, Squid Game.
When Squid Game came to Netflix in 2021, it took the world by storm. It was the largest series launch and was viewed more than 1.65 billion hours in its first month. Creator and director Hwang Dong-hyuk did not intend to create a second season, but after the wild success of the first season, Netflix renewed Squid Game for another season, which releases today.
At the end of season 1, Seong Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae) won the game and the prize money. But after watching so many people die while at the same time being away when his mother died, Gi-hun felt unable to spend his winnings. At the very end, he receives a call from The Front Man (Lee Byung-hun) telling him to get on the plane and start a new life, but instead, Gi-hun turns around with a determined look in his eyes, ready to take down the game.
That’s where we start the new season. It has been three years since Gi-hun won the Squid Game, and he has spent his earnings trying to locate The Recruiter (Gong Yoo), the well-dressed man who scoured the subways looking for people to play ddakji with him in the hopes of ending the game. When they finally encounter one another, The Recruiter has an invitation to an event where all of the sponsors are gathering. Gi-hun tries to reason with The Front Man about the games but eventually simply agrees to participate in the games again.
What The Front Man doesn’t realize is that police officer Jun-ho (Wi Ha-jun) is working with Gi-hun to bring down the games. He has been searching for the island, also hoping to bring the destruction of the game and the way that it exploits people. Jun-ho uses the mercenaries that Gi-hun has hired to continue the search, now adding Gi-hun to the search.
The games in Squid Game Season 2 combine what we have already seen with some fantastic new elements. The games begin with Red Light, Green Light, and even knowing what is going to happen, the sequence is still terrifying. Gi-hun tries to save as many people as he can, but holding perfectly still is difficult, and when the first person is gunned down, the result is much the same as it was in the first season.
Another change that helps this season is the inclusion of more young players. Season 1 deals mainly with middle-aged people, and while there are still plenty of older players, several more young players, including influencers and crypto bros, are in debt following the investment advice of Myung-gi (Yim Si-Wam). Poverty also affects young people, and it’s important to show that on a program like this.
This season does include a trans character, Hyun-Ju, played by cis male actor Park Sung-hoon. I understand the controversy around that - it certainly would have been better if it at least had been played by a cis woman instead. But even so, I felt like her storyline was told with a decent amount of empathy and kindness. And while there will no doubt be nay-sayers for including a trans character at all, poverty hits the LGBTQ community hard, and trans people particularly, especially when you add medications and surgeries into the mix.
The most significant negative of this season of Squid Game is that it’s not complete. First of all, it is only seven episodes. Also, seasons 2 and 3 were filmed together, and my guess is that the two combined tell a complete story. If you go into season 2 thinking of it more as a part 1 than a full season, you’ll probably be in a better place. The finale feels much more like a mid-season finale than a season finale. Numerous storylines are simply not wrapped up. It’s not merely that it’s a cliffhanger but that it’s a cliffhanger in an unfinished season.
My other minor complaint is that a few moments feel like a retread of season 1. Which makes sense, given that it is a repeating game and the cycle of the poor being exploited for the entertainment and further enrichment of the already extremely wealthy never ends. Nevertheless, there were times when I wished things had switched up a little bit from the first season.
What is most powerful about this season of Squid Game is that it includes voting after every round and the amount each player will walk away with. This allows us to see just how little money is at stake and how many people have to die to make it worth it. The ultimate prize of Squid Game is around $31 million. That’s not an insubstantial amount of money, but to literal billionaires, it is a pittance. It hammers home that the lives of the poor are of little individual value to the powers that be. For all of the horror of being shot while playing a children’s game, the real horror is that surviving doesn’t give you any value.