It’s hard to believe it’s been three years since the first season of TV phenomenon Squid Game. In the understatement of the century, its popularity surprised everyone, becoming Neftlix’s most watched/streamed show ever. Conversely, it surprised no one when a second season was announced (and a third and final season this summer), with the big question being whether it could have the same impact on viewers as the first time around. Well, for the most part, it succeeded, with a solid second season that, while flawed at times, gave the audience the stress they seemed to be missing in their lives.
The game’s winner in season one, Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae), finds that his massive amount of money does little to ease his guilty conscience regarding everyone who died. So, he begins to hunt down those behind the game, determined to end it. He has little success until a face-off with The Recruiter (Gong Yoo) in the form of a game of Russian Roulette leads him to what he thinks is the end game. However, Gi-hun discovers that those he is hunting are smarter than he thought. Just like that, he is back in the game, trying to find a way to stop it from the inside.
At first, the story begins to unfold just how we expect, with people taking sides and wanting to continue after each game, even with Gi-hun’s loud pleas to stop. His experience from his last visit to this bizarre and twisted place initially seems optimistic. However, it becomes evident that while the games have changed, the need for people to pay off personal debts overrides the desire to live. It is still a curious and interesting spectacle, observing people with seemingly no other option but to risk their lives willingly for money.
One of the things Squid Game’s first season did well was get the audience invested in the characters; season two might have improved in that regard. The show spends a lot of time on their backstories and situations, making them sympathetic or pathetic, depending on your point of view.
One of the twists this season is the mysterious clad-in-black Front Man (Lee Byung-hun), who shows up as a participant in the game, quickly becoming a cautious ally to Gi-hun. His actual motives are not revealed until the very end. Even though the audience knows he’s up to no good, the man has a great poker face.
However, while the characters have some significant character development, there are times when the show is overwhelmed by the amount of characters it’s invested in. Too many times, Gi-hun felt like he had been shuffled off to the sidelines while other storylines were being fleshed out. There is nothing wrong with introducing interesting characters like broke rapper Thanos (Choi Seung-hyun) and the strange prophecy-spouting shaman Seon-nyeo (Chae Gook-hee). But there are just so many that it bogs down the story. No one would miss a bunch of these players if they died quickly. The sheer amount of characters is an issue this show has always faced.
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A weird subplot also connects detective Hwang Jun-ho (Wi Ha-joon) with the Front Man, spending time looking for the island in his spare time. When he meets up with Gi-hun after the Russian Roulette mess with The Recruiter, they form a plan to find those responsible. But just like Gi-hun, Jun-ho is outmaneuvered, and now he leads a two-team search for the island before the games are over. While fun, it takes too much quality time away from the actual games. It adds not only more characters but also a whole storyline.
With all that being said, the show still managed to stress me out with new games. Although the stakes are clear, watching how people reacted as the games wore on and what The Front Man was hiding in plain sight was fascinating. Gi-hun’s grand plan to overwhelm guards, get their weapons, and get to the control room at one point was always destined to fail. Too many wild cards were kicking around, and not nearly enough proper intel led to deaths and betrayal.
I was not expecting the show to end on a cliffhanger, though. While that might have displeased some, I welcomed the lack of resolution at the end of the season.
It was always impossible to recreate the phenomenon of season one, but they did a pretty good job here. The long wait between seasons seems to have helped the show more than hurt it. It’s a shame some episodes became too convoluted with characters, causing the season to slow down to a crawl at times.
With Squid Game season three supposedly the final season, it will be curious to see how things unfold. One thing is certain: with fewer characters now, there is much more time to invest in the chaos, backstabbing, and death these games always deliver.