Second Season of 'Squid Game' is Not as Dynamic but Still Worth it

     On December 26, 2024, Netflix released the second season the of the award winning 'Squid Game', which quickly amassed a score of 85% on Rotten Tomatoes. In the series, "Hundreds of cash-strapped contestants accept an invitation to compete in children's games for a tempting prize, but the stakes are deadly." All the while, the recent winner re-enters the game in order to take it down internally. The ensemble cast includes Lee Jung-jae, Wi Ha-joon, Lee Byung-hun, Gong Yoo, Im Si-wan, and Yang Dong-geun. But what did the critics say?

Photo by Riza Gabriela on Unsplash

      Belen Edwards of Mashable says, "With every effort to dial up an element from Season 1, be it the voting mechanic or the Front Man's role, Squid Game Season 2 weakens its own mystique and appeal." Adding, "Squid Game's overemphasis on voting is just one symptom of Season 2's overarching problem: Recycling Season 1 plot points with twists that run themselves into the ground. Let's start with an obvious one. Once again, the games' player 001 is a plant from the people controlling the games. This time around, it's none other than Front Man Hwang In-ho, who's snuck into the games to watch over Gi-hun, and who ends up becoming one of his closest allies. All the better to break his spirit once he finds out his true identity! The only problem is, Gi-hun doesn't learn who 001 really is this season, so we lose the feeling of brutal catharsis we got with the Oh Il-nam (O Yeong-su) reveal from Season 1."

       Sara Wallis of Daily Mirror praises the series, stating, "By mid-season, the twists and turns will be coming so fast, you won’t be able to look away until the final, devastating, flourish. Let the new games begin." Continuing, "When you finally see him on a bunk bed in that familiar green tracksuit labelled ‘456’, you’ll sit bolt upright and grab the popcorn. There’s comedy amid the trauma - the new batch of players complain about everything from the colour of the uniforms to the secrecy of the staff. They don’t know what’s coming… but Gi-hun does, and so do we. Some parts are familiar - the gigantic doll with the laser stare makes a reappearance - but there are scary new games. A clever new rule brings even more tension and rivalry within the group, while there are plenty of players to get emotionally attached to and to hate."

   Joel Keller of Decider notes, "The long-anticipated second season of Squid Game lives up to what Hwang Dong-hyuk accomplished in the first season, with Gi-hun back in the game, but for very different reasons than when he first played it." Concluding, "The first episode shows that Hwang isn’t into repeating what made the show such a global success back in 2021. We suspect that even the games Gi-hun plays will be different, giving him less of an advantage than he might think he has given his previous experience. That’s certainly a good thing, as will meeting a new group of players once he re-enters the game. Also, at the same time, Jun-ho will keep probing from the outside, looking for his brother and trying to put a stop to the game in his own way."

   Annie Banks of The Mary Sue says, "If anything, Squid Game Season 2’s uneven seven-episode stretch closes itself out with a cliffhanger that might just be worth the watch. It’s simply too bad the season couldn’t offer much more than that." Adding, "The socioeconomic commentary that contributed to what make Squid Game so fascinating upon its initial arrival is slow to arrive in Season 2, but its emergence midst episode one looks to one of the series’ strongest elements. When The Salesman (Gong Yoo) offers a homeless man the choice between a bread roll and a lotto ticket, the first value-driven conflict is introduced. After the scratch-off ticket doesn’t reveal any major winnings and The Salesman asks for his coin back, Squid Game Season 2’s simple-yet-effective depiction of apathy for the impoverished begins to unfold. As this pattern continues throughout the second season, Squid Game Season 2 leans back on its commentary of classism. These moments that provoke conversation around the show’s major points of contention are Squid Game Season 2’s strongest, and hopefully, fleetingly, their impact will influence its audience."