Squid Game Season 2 Review: Does the Recipe Still Work?
A little over three years have passed since the deadly game brought to our screens by the series Squid Game ended. Coincidence or not, this is exactly the time span that separates the events of the two seasons, the second act of which was delivered and made available in its entirety this Thursday morning, at 9:01 a.m., on Netflix. It seems that the analogy is intentional. What is certain is that the symbolism is beautiful, between a Seong Gi-Hun who has been champing at the bit all this time to find the trace of the organizers of the Squid Game and more precisely the master of the game and the public, who after having massively consumed the first part of this trilogy, were burning with impatience to see the sequel.
What’s next? Or to test the replayability of the concept? Because when you are the biggest success of Netflixthat a season 2 was not originally planned and that, according to the admission of the showrunner, Hwang Dong-hyuk, writing the famous sequel was painful, we can legitimately wonder if the magic will still work . It must be said that Squid Gamewhich has an American remake on the way with David Fincher and the screenwriter ofUtopia, Dennis Kellyhas material to develop with strong issues raised at the end of the first season.
Remember, we leave the first part with a very colorful hair dye for Seong Gi-Hun, happy and disastrous holder of the record sum of 45.6 billion wonwho decides to turn his back on a life of idleness, the one that would have allowed him to find his daughter, to go in pursuit of the master of the game and the organizers of the Squid Gamedetermined to stop them, disgusted by the massacres, the sacrifices and the human losses caused on the island.
Hell is (always) other people
When you are rich, time can be bought and for three years therefore, Seong Gi-Hun will put Seoul under surveillance, taking advantage of the underworld and small local strikes, to find the trace of the man with the briefcase, the one who flirts with future participants in the game with a game of ddajki. Meanwhile, Hwang Jun-hothe brother of the master of the game, survived the bullet caught in the shoulder and also begins a relentless search for the island where the next games will take place. As the official synopsis of season 2 had already revealed, Seong Gi-Hun will have to dive back into this hell if he intends to carry out his mission and prevent numerous victims.
The strength of this second season of Squid Gamethis is the tone and the atmosphere in which it immerses us from the first episode. People don't just die in games, and chasing an enemy as elusive as they are powerful comes with a price, one that sooner or later someone will pay. Convinced of being able to change mentalities, Seong Gi-Hun will also have to deal with the same problem that he faced at the time of his participation: faced with a potential mountain of money and despite the risk of imminent death, the lure of gain is too great for a bunch of desperate people. And his position ultimately has nothing advantageous: having won makes him a target as much as a leader, creates jealousy as much as it gives him a certain leadership and his message of prevention and maturity struggles to get across to of a generation for the younger majority.
The Squid Game has (a little) changed
To make matters worse, the Frontman (or game master therefore), Hinh-hodecides to modify the rules this time, leaving the public the choice at the end of each event to abandon the games or not, provided they have a majority vote, in one direction or another. With this change of rules, it is another way of highlighting the interests of each other. Throughout the events, the makeshift teams formed by the force of circumstances will be torn apart, through the surprising choices of certain participants.
Surprising is a big word in itself, since we clearly recognize the recipe for Squid Game and we guess quite easily, thanks to the same production techniques and certain shots, who will decide what… but we can't help but have a grimacing smile when seeing so-and-so choose to continue living these bloody games instead of embrace a lifeline. And if it works, it is also in view of the pedigree of the newcomers of which here is a small sample: a completely crazy rapper, bordering on psychotic, Thanos and his followers, a transgender participant wishing to complete her transformation, a former crypto influencer determined to remake himself and concerned about the well-being of his ex, who is pregnant with him.
The master of the game on the front line, behind the scenes of the games exposed
A Machiavellian idea thought by a complex being. Confined to the role of a secondary character in the previous season, the master of the game gains depth here and the relationship he will form with Seong Gi-Hun at his expense is one of the strong axes of this new vintage, little stingy with violence. Determined to destroy the hero's ideals, the latter will not hesitate to join the game from the inside, the better to sabotage these plans. If we see – unfortunately – certain twists and turns coming, this in no way harms the emotional rise throughout the episodes and we feel that this season relies less on the games than on the men and women who play them. The duo performed on screen by Lee Jung-Sae (Gi-Un) and Lee Byung-hun (In-ho) works wonderfully.
Be careful, we are not saying that the tests are not up to par. Far from it. We clearly feel the major challenge behind this season 2 — to do as well as season 1, if not better in terms of audience and success — and the colossal budget allocated this time (we went from 21 to 100 million dollars), and this, from the intro of each episode to their production, punchier still, more violent, bloodier. The games, moreover, if they always remain as childish, thus respecting the basis and the DNA of the series, are different, as much to disturb Seong Gi-Hun, as to renew a certain interest in the whole, which would really have been in peril without some welcome adjustments. In this sense, the plot also skilfully oscillates between the search for the island by the rest of the teams hired by the hero and the former police officer Jun-ho and the behind the scenes of the games, where we discover, through the character of Neo-ula soldier determined to find her daughter at all costs, the dark and sordid issues which also motivate the recruitment of participants.
So, shall we go back?
Anxious to offer spectators a story that holds up and an experience as powerful as the one experienced three years ago, Hwang Dong-Hyuk has succeeded in his challenge, in part since it will however be necessary to judge the whole thing in terms of its last part, this famous season 3 dated for next year. As agreed, episode 7 is a real mid-season finale and we should not have waited too long to send the sequel at the risk of losing the force of the point once again started. By revisiting some of its ingredients, Squid Game manages to preserve what has made it strong, without denying itself and resting (too much) on its laurels. The betrayals flourish, the origin stories of the characters too, the corpses and bloodbaths (more numerous than season 1) as well, all intertwining at the same time as our feelings for each other. See you in 2025 for the conclusion of this phenomenon series.
