‘Squid Game’ Season 2 Review: It’s Big Bucks, All Whammies in Failed Follow Up to One of TV’s Best First Seasons [C-]
It’s been over three years since the first season of the Emmy-winning global blockbuster that was the Netflix original series Squid Game. Creator Hwang Dong-hyuk’s dystopian phenomenon examined the built-in panic and desperation associated with poverty by giving audiences violent games that saw participants dying in an attempt to receive prize money. The ten-episode season saw its characters fighting themselves and each other to earn the money, nearly all of the contestants dying in pursuit of the grand prize that could have saved them if they had only made it out alive. The sophomore outing of the series is a scattered attempt at continuation that quizzically presents its plot while hitting many of the same narrative beats as its first season.
Seong Gi-hun (Emmy winner Lee Jung-jae) was set to see his daughter, to get on a plane to America to visit her, but stayed and wallowed in his obsession with the games and the events that led him to being the victor. He’s spent years looking for the Recruiter, or any proof of the games continued existence, in a desperate hunt for an end to the games. He won the money but has only used portions of it to fund his search, now fundamentally opposed to keeping the prize he won at the expense of others. The reintroduction into the world of Squid Game comes with the knowledge of Gi-hun’s previous experience with the games, as all his attention is dedicated to investigating the Recruiter and his whereabouts – this is seemingly the easiest way to find his way back to the island. Skipping over three years since not boarding the plane only makes sense to trim extraneous searching that the first episode is able to accomplish before pushing the season into full gear, but embeds a rushed feeling into the season. It doesn’t take long for Gi-hun to find what he’s looking for: a way back into the games. This is when the season could push itself to new heights by crafting a reliable tension only furthered by the tension the show is known for perfectly pushing onto its audience, but even the introduction of new games for the players can’t quite do the trick. The addition of new games doesn’t feel narratively necessary and comes across as a gimmick without purpose, only furthering the uneven feel of the episodes.
While the first installment presented the contestants in the games as desperate and unable to find their way in the world, the second season flips that notion and crafts a group of people indebted to others through investments on bitcoin or medical procedures, the group more often feeling entitled to the prize money – and, honestly, any wealth they come across. These people are the type to swindle others to make a quick buck, but are mostly presented without nuance or any redeeming qualities. A retired rapper named Thanos (played by Korean rapper T.O.P) is amongst the players, down on his luck since he lost it all investing money in cryptocurrency but finding it within himself to remain awful. He’s easy to detest from the first moment he appears, a credit to T.O.P, whose over-the-top expressions are some of the best on the season. A Youtube star whose involvement in the crypto scam that lost Thanos’ money, Myung-gi (Yim Si-wan), also finds himself in the games, but his involvement makes waves as Thanos isn’t the only other participant affected by his actions. He starts on the defensive since multiple people here lost almost everything because of him, which is one of the better dynamics of the season. There are, of course, still players to root for on their journey through the games, these characterizations just add to a blanket of cruelty that covers every episode. The violence of the season is shocking but there’s a loss of impact by the end, as Squid Game means to shock without worrying about any further implications of the consequences towards the remaining characters.
The addition of a trans contestant, Hyun-ju (Park Sung-hoon), not only feels unnecessary, but handled with the heaviest hand imaginable. There is no subtlety to her inclusion: she is involved in the games with the intention of being able to pay for her gender-affirming surgery. Not only played by a cisgender male, the character feels incomplete and lacking any nuance of someone who struggles outside of their identity. She is seemingly shown for the sole reason of allowing others to find empathy by seeing her as they would see anyone else, without much character work that allows her to possess dimension. In an already unsteady season, her sloppy inclusion into the narrative begs more questions than the show would be able to provide answers for. This is indicative of the larger issue the season presents: everything is designed to propel the narrative into the final season without much worry about how the current season presents. While last season spent time allowing audiences to meet the characters in the games, this season feels much less concerned about that and much more concerned about getting to the final episode. It only wants to be a spectacle while losing the tight narrative structure it once had.
With only seven episodes in this installment in the series, the pacing feels off from the start. The series is unable to nail down a consistency, moving too quickly through more fascinating character narrative to slow down for violence. There’s a clunkiness to how the season sets itself up, and it never seems sure of what it’s trying to pull off. The first season was concise and had a narrative flow that was able to build tension while bringing the history of its characters, which added to the overall experience of the episodes. Squid Game’s second season is unable to recreate the magic of the first, with no feeling of any narrative stopping point even to end episodes. Unfortunately for the season, it feels created to serve the purpose of a long film instead of a television season with episodes that congeal into a single narrative. Even worse, it feels incomplete. The seven episodes of the season amount to a cliffhanger that sets up the final season, which feels like the point here: this season is designed to set up a final season that finishes up the saga of Gi-hun and the games. It doesn’t feel necessary to sit through a filler season that will serve as a bridge between the first and the final third, taking away much of the narrative power and goodwill that was built from the first season.
In 2021, Squid Game became a global phenomenon. Audiences were enraptured by a series that presented desperation and capitalism hand-in-hand with a clear target. The same cannot be said about the newest addition into the Squid Game universe, a seven-episode slop that can’t manage to structure itself long enough to craft a clean narrative. While seeking the same spectacle the first season became, the sophomore outing sheds all nuance and goes for broke with an overly cruel season fueled by shocking violence. There are moments that shine through, but they stay at that: moments. Squid Game has finally returned and immediately earns itself a time-out.
Grade: C-
Season two of Squid Game begins streaming exclusively on Netflix December 26.
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