Score: 3.5/5
This review contains major spoilers for the first season of “Squid Game” and minor spoilers for the show’s second season.
The long-anticipated second season of Netflix’s Squid Game is a surprisingly solid follow-up to the show’s original nine episodes, though it doesn’t quite live up to the high bar set by the first season.
When Squid Game’s first season released on Netflix in 2021, it became a surprise worldwide phenomenon. Within weeks of the show’s release, you couldn’t go to the mall without seeing an abundance of knockoff Squid Game merch as investors ironically attempted to make money on the back of the genre-defining anti-capitalist series.
Three years have passed since recreated dalgona cookies filled up store shelves, and it’s finally Netflix’s turn to squeeze more life out of their hit series. The show’s creator, Dwang Dong-hyuk, never wanted to create a second season, but in the spirit of Squid Game’s anti-capitalist theme, he was finally convinced because the original series apparently didn’t make him much money and the second season would help him be properly compensated.
So, with enormous expectations upon Netflix to live up to the show’s first outing, how did the second season end up working out?
Well, the new season struggles to hit the same highs as its predecessor, but that’s not entirely its fault. The first season came with a sense of surprise and allure because of its core concept: a bunch of debt-stricken individuals putting their lives on the line in a series of deadly children’s games for a life-changing cash prize. In the first season, this felt fresh and exciting at every turn, but the second season often suffers from a feeling of déjà vu — haven’t we already seen this before?
Once Seong Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae) re-enters the competition to put a stop to the games for good, a lot of the show begins feeling strangely repetitive. The second season’s new cast doesn’t deviate terribly far from the character archetypes present in its predecessor, and the greedy nature of the contestants who want to keep fighting for money despite the risk feels very ‘been there, done that.’
Until an epic moment at the end of the season that I won’t spoil here, the show struggles to create exciting new ideas to separate itself from the first season, a significant problem considering much of the first season’s allure was a result of how fresh it was. There’s even a scene where a woman contestant pleads with a guard to let her use the washroom during off-limits time — a replica of a moment where the exact same thing happens in the first season.
Despite the rehashed themes, the show is still a fun watch because the ideas are naturally good ones. It’s just a shame that there’s not much to make this season distinct from the last one until the final episode.
One theme that is different, however, is Gi-hun’s reason for joining the game. In the first season, he participated as a regular contestant unaware of the horrors that awaited him before he eventually won and took home the amazing cash prize. In this season, he willingly rejoins the game in an attempt to end it.
The premise is an understandable continuation of the character’s arc from the first season, but it’s inherently less interesting this way. This is no longer an opportunity for the audience to experience the surprise of the games alongside the protagonist. Instead, it’s a simple revenge plot, which feels like the most basic way the show could have possibly moved on.
In short, it makes sense — it’s just not as fun.
Another thing that’s not as fun the second time around is, unfortunately, the actual games. One of the most exciting parts of the first season was constantly wondering what the next game was going to be. From the surprise horror during Red Light, Green Light to the amazing spectacle of Glass Bridge, there was never any way to know what was coming next. The way the games were presented was just as interesting; for example, the show intentionally confused the audience as it revealed the various shapes for the dalgona cookie-cutting challenge before making it clear what game was going to be played.
That excitement is unfortunately lost the second time around.
For one thing, there’s only three games this season, a major step down from the six games present in season one. It doesn’t help that the first game is a rehash of Red Light, Green Light, removing the crucial surprise factor from the episode. The next game, unfortunately, is only slightly better.
The Six-Legged Pentathlon is a confusing mess that doesn’t have the same excitement as any of the games from the show’s first season. As a collection of minigames including stone-throwing and using a spinning top, it lacks the cohesiveness of previous games and feels more like a round of Mario Party than a grandiose spectacle. It’s a fun moment to be sure, but it’s definitely a letdown compared to previous games in the series.
The third game, Mingle, is definitely the best from this season, but it stands on its own as the season’s sole quality game that lives up to the first season’s glory. It’s a game that forces betrayal and surprise, and it leaves the audience on the edge of their seats as you watch players scramble to save or kill each other. It’s a fantastic sequence, but it’s a shame there’s not much else to match it.
The second season of Squid Game is not a failure by any means. In fact, considering it was only made in the name of money, it’s probably better than it has any right to be. I wasn’t expecting the follow-up to the show’s iconic first season to be any good at all, but as a big fan of the original, it still left me with plenty to chew on.
The problem is that many of the good ideas presented within the second season were already there in the first. It’s certainly worth watching if you’re one of the millions of people who enjoyed season one of Squid Game, but you should be prepared to experience many of the same points over again.
The characters might be toned down, the games might be less of a spectacle and the plot twists might be less exciting, but this is still Squid Game to its core. If you like what you’ve seen already, you’ll probably like watching it all over again.
Let’s just hope the show’s upcoming third and final season manages to recapture the freshness that made the first season so exciting.