SQUID GAME – Season Two (2024)

Hwang Dong-hyuk wrote and directed every episode of Squid Game / 오징어 게임 (2021), the South Korean survival thriller series that became a worldwide sensation on Netflix. It still holds the record as the streamer’s most-watched series and won six Primetime Emmy’s and a Golden Globe, but Dong-hyuk received little financial reward for creating the world’s most successful TV drama. He even lost teeth over the stress involved in making just those nine episodes.

It’s ironic that Dong-hyuk was drawn back to Squid Game, once again putting his health on the line in the pursuit of a bigger payday from his Netflix overlords. That’s exactly the sort of psychological conundrums players of Squid Game have to face on the show, and with Netflix even commissioning a reality gameshow version of Squid Game (a show that warns against the dangers of capitalism), it sometimes feels like Dong-hyuk’s message is being lost and even he can’t break free of the system.

For the uninitiated, Squid Game involves 456 players brought to a secret island for a chance to absolve their huge debts. Dressed in identical green-and-white tracksuits and each assigned numbers, they must play a children’s game each day in order to accrue a potential jackpot of ₩45.6BN ($25M). The catch is that each innocuous-looking game has lethal consequences, as the losers are ruthlessly gunned down by the masked tasked with running the Squid Game for the amusement of super-wealthy fat cats who secretly watch events and bet on who will win.

We’ve seen variations on the “deadly gameshow” idea many times before, perhaps most notable in The Running Man (1987), but one of the key differences is how Squid Game takes place in the present-day and not a fictional dystopian future. And it’s a worrying thought that audiences don’t see this premise as being too far-fetched to be happening in the here and now, given the power billionaires wield and what’s become possible logistically and technologically.

Foreign viewers perhaps also gravitated to Squid Game because it’s another example of a high-concept idea from a country that often pushes the boundaries with adult entertainment. It’s simply a great hook to watch adults play childish games (even if most aren’t familiar to westerners), with the threat of death hanging in the air. It’s like being in the Big Brother house if being sent to the Diary Room for a reprimand meant being shot in the head. Things are familiar enough about the show, but also culturally distinct and weird enough to be particularly alluring —as we’re never sure how the story will go from a foreign country that perhaps doesn’t lean into the same tropes and formulas as Hollywood-scripted drama. 

There’s also Squid Game’s iconic production design, with its vibrant pink, blue, and green costumes. Or the guards with their faceless masks emblazoned with a white square, circle, or triangle. And who can forget the creepy giant doll singing a lullaby as contestants play “Red Light, Green Light” and risk being shot dead if they’re seen moving by snipers? Even the music by Jung Jae-il is full of catchy melodies that I’m sure millions of people have made their ringtone.

Squid Game came to a pseudo-conclusion in 2021 with the door left open for more, although it felt like the juice had been squeezed out of the concept. Squid Game 2 felt like a pointless exercise when it was announced by Netflix, and knowing that creator Hwang Dong-hyuk is only returning to make more money this time also gave me pause. Would this be a lazy follow-up that just reheats the first season? Or would it find fresh ideas and angles to the premise, which deserve further exploration?

The answer is a mix of both. The first two episodes of Squid Game 2 are genuinely impressive and exciting, as we find winner Seong Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae) determined to stop the next game by finding the “Front Man” who runs them. It’s two years later and he’s using the money he won to fund a huge underground operation to locate the mysterious Recruiter (Gong Yoo), who finds new players on the city subway, and eventually allies himself with cop Hwang Jun-ho (Wi Hyun-yi), whose missing brother Hwang In-ho (Lee Byung-hun) was revealed to be the game’s inscrutable “Front Man” last season.

Once Gi-hun is inevitably put back into the Squid Game as “Player 456”, this time hoping to sabotage events from the inside, with the help of Hwang In-ho leading a search-and-destroy operation from the outside. And it’s here that things become more predictable. This is partly because we now know some of the narrative tricks that can be played on us, so it’s harder to surprise audiences the second time around. One of the biggest twists last time was a reveal that one of the players was actually the founder of the Squid Game, so this time the same thing happens but it’s an open secret to viewers —as the sinister Front Man masquerades as Oh Young-il / “Player 001” and befriends Gi-hun.

There’s one significant new angle in Squid Game 2, however, as this time we get to experience things from the perspective of a female guard called Kang No-eul / “Number 011” (Park Gyu-young). No-eul is a North Korean defector who’s introduced as a sympathetic person, working as a mascot at a theme park and befriending a cute toddler who takes a shine to the character she poses as. Her anti-villain status in proceedings is initially exciting and interesting to follow, as we’re seeing what the daily life of the “villains” are like and thus see how they’re likewise manipulated into murdering innocent people. However, No-eul’s role soon fades and she becomes a less prominent part of the story. By the time Season 2 is wrapping up with its seventh episode (we get two less instalments this time), it feels like writer Dong-hyuk simply didn’t know how to flesh out Number 011’s story. She’s too insignificant in the back half of the show.

Naturally, there are plenty of new player characters to meet and the show lives or dies on making audiences identify and connect to its ensemble. Thankfully, the show does a great job introducing the new players and making us grasp their personalities and the circumstances that led to them becoming desperate enough to enter the Squid Game. There’s transgender woman Cho Hyun-ju / “Player 120” (Park Sung-hoon), who faces prejudice on top of everything else, faded YouTube megastar Lee Myung-gi / “Player 333” (Im Si-wan) who lost all his money in a cryptocurrency scam, tough guy marine Dae-ho / “Player 388” (Kang Ha-neul), father Gyeong-seok / “Player 246” (Lee Jin-wook) who needs money to pay for his sick daughter’s medical care, gambling addict Park Yong-sik / “Player 007” (Yang Dong-geun) and his elderly mother Jang Geum-ja / “Player 149” (Kang Ae-shim), pregnant Kim Jun-hee / “Player 222” (Jo Yu-ri) and her ex-boyfriend Mung-gi / “Player NK” (NK), Gi-hun’s likeable friend from the outside Jung-bae / “Player 390” (Lee Seo-hwan), and hateful rapper Thanos / “Player 230” (Seung-hyn) who blames Lee Myung-gi for his financial losses with crypto, amongst others.

A few of these characters do feel like variations on the characters we met last time—especially “sweet old lady” Jang Geum-ja, who’s reminiscent of “sweet old man” Oh Il-nam from last time. It’s interesting that the average age of the players is much lower than before too, perhaps acknowledging how popular the show is with teenagers, but also a sad reflection on how it’s not only the middle-aged and older generations that are getting themselves into financial strife these days. The involvement of cryptocurrency in the narrative is certainly something only the under-30s will have serious awareness of, and perhaps experience with.

Squid Game remains a satire of the evils of unchecked capitalism, with poor and desperate people driven to become the entertainment for people with so much money that only a private “death game” satisfies their gambling addiction. But this second season also critiques democracy, in a sense, as the daily votes amongst the players to continue the Squid Game or leave with their share of what’s been earned is a much bigger component than before. This time, the “O” (remain) and “X” (leave) votes are agonisingly close, and keep triggering a lot of internal discontent — perhaps inspired by the close 52/48 split in the UK’s Brexit vote, which divided the nation. And obviously the US political system is similarly the focus of resentment and arguments if you dare to vote differently. And in the same way Democrats can’t believe anyone would vote for Donald Trump, given the evidence of who he is and what he’ll do as President, there’s the same sense of disbelief in Squid Game that people would willing vote to (more than likely) die in a ridiculous game the following day.

Squid Game 2 isn’t as good as the first run because it’s not as shocking (how could it be?) and the narrative isn’t as tight, but it does have a few new ideas and tackles a few other ills of modern society in its heightened manner. It’s a pity the first two episodes set such a high bar, as you feel the show settle into a familiar routine soon after, but it’s certainly not a disastrous return for a story that didn’t entirely justify continuing. One of the bigger issue is how much “plot armour” Gi-hun has as the lead character, so his success in every game is almost guaranteed. This did affect the first season too, but at least back then the show’s sense of tension and jeopardy invited a feeling that Squid Game’s creator just might be crazy enough to kill off the lead character halfway through. Now that Lee Jung-jae is the face of the franchise? Not so much. It would perhaps have made more sense if Gi-hun had been the one on the outside of the island, with a new character connected to him as the new player. But that’s not to wish away the qualities Jung-jae brings to the part.

Interestingly, Squid Game 3 has been shot simultaneously, meaning we likely have another batch of episodes to come in summer 2025, so I’m hoping any issues I had with this run won’t feel so bad once the entire story’s been told and future viewings can push through a midway slump for the sequel. And maybe having a definite conclusion will focus some of Squid Game’s 2 more unfocused subplots and characters when we return for more…

SOUTH KOREA | 2024 | 7 EPISODES | 16:9 HD | COLOUR | KOREAN

Cast & Crew

writer & director: Hwang Dong-hyuk.
starring: Lee Jung-jae, Lee Byung-hun, Wi Ha-joon, Im Si-wan, Kang Ha-neul, Park Sung-hoon, Yang Dong-geun, Jo Yu-ri, Kang Ae-shim, Lee Seo-hwan & Park Gyu-young.