Squid Game Season 2 Falls Short of Season 1’s Brilliance
The sophomore slump is the one game that the Netflix hit can’t beat.
Squid Game had the perfect streaming success story. The Korean series somehow vaulted its way to the number one spot on the streamer through word of mouth and its deceptively simple — but deadly — premise. With each episode and each character's death, fans got incredibly invested in the story of Seong Gi-hun’s (Lee Jung-jae) journey from gambling son and struggling father to the steely-eyed hero with a renewed sense of justice.
Now, two years later, Gi-hun is back and the result is — on paper — impressive. The path back to the Games feels exciting and earned, but sadly, the long-awaited Squid Game Season 2 falls short with its pacing and new mechanics. In the world of Squid Game, preventing the sophomore slump may be the hardest game of all.
Hwang Jun-ho may just be a traffic warden now, but he’s still deeply ingrained in the search for the Squid Game.
The last time we saw Seong Gi-hun, he was confronting Oh Il-nam, the dying creator of the games who participated undercover as Player 001. Afterward, he tied up all the loose ends he could, like leading Sae-byeok’s brother to Sang-woo’s mother so the fallen players’ relatives weren’t left alone. In Squid Game Season 2, he’s gone full conspiracy mode, using his boatloads of cash to do whatever he can to track down the Recruiter (Gong Yoo) in the train stations of Seoul. But he’s not the only one who can’t leave the memories of the games behind. Hwang Jun-ho (Wi Ha-joon) is now working as a traffic cop, but spends his free time on a boat looking for any sign of the Squid Game venue.
The main question surrounding Squid Game Season 2 is just how, and more importantly, why, Gi-hun would allow himself to play the game again. Thankfully, the answer isn’t contrived, but it takes a long time to be earned. While Season 1 used Episode 1 to establish Gi-hun’s character and then dove straight in with a breakneck one-game-per-episode pace, Season 2 explores the real-world consequences of the games for multiple episodes. There is still a game, but it’s not played within the Squid Game’s structure, so it doesn’t feel like it’s the same caliber — even if it has the same murderous end.
We also spend some of the pre-game episodes learning about one of the most overlooked parts of the Game: all the real people behind the scenes who make everything happen. There’s more than just the Front Man: it’s a serious endeavor full of surgeons, soldiers, and snipers. Hopefully, Season 3 will highlight the Squid Game A/V guy, because the theatrics are seriously impressive.
Finally, we have the games. While everyone’s favorite, Red Light Green Light, is very much back, every other game is brand new, as is the very structure of the game itself. While last time, players could call for a vote and leave the Game with nothing but their lives, this go-around every single game is ended with a vote: leave the Game and divide the accumulated winnings among the survivors.
The voting mechanic makes Survivor-like social tactics an important part of gameplay.
It’s a great escalation of Season 1’s action, but completely upends the social order of the players. One of the best parts of watching the series is the camaraderie found between players, knowing their only hope of survival is to muddle through and make it all worth something. Now, the players are divided into the group of people wanting to get out while they still can, and the group of people determined to hang on for “one more game.” (It’s never just one more game.)
Because of this, what was originally a game of playground competitions has become a game of Survivor: it’s all about the social game and making alliances, while the games themselves are interstitial challenges. While the new mechanic means we get to learn more about the players and how they interact, it also means we only have room for a handful of official games. In fact, there are only three in the season’s seven episodes.
However, the richness of the new characters may just make up for this. There’s a mother-son pair (just like in the reality show Squid Game: The Challenge), a pregnant competitor and her ex-boyfriend, a wannabe rapper, and even Gi-hun’s old best friend, Chung-bae (Lee Seo-hwan) is a player this season, giving Gi-hun even more motivation to take down the Game entirely.
A slower pace allows us to get to know characters more, but loses the bloodthirsty body count of Season 1.
Hyun-ju, a trans woman playing to raise money for her transition, made waves since she is played by Park Sung-hoon, a cisgender male. I was wary that this casting choice was the first sign of the series including a regressive trans story that would perpetuate stereotypes, but was shocked to see Hyun-ju’s story is handled with extreme care, with no misgendering, deadnaming, or tragic flashbacks. Recently, showrunner Hwang Dong-hyuk has explained the casting was a result of Korea’s repressive attitude around LGBTQ+ communities. Hyun-ju will only normalize transness, even if the casting is not ideal.
But all these great characters, and how well we get to know them, is just evidence of the biggest problem with the series: without sounding callous, there just aren’t enough deaths. In Season 1, we would get to know the characters and then watch as they were unceremoniously shot and killed. In Season 2, that does happen, but not on the same scale. The vicious nature of the show was a major draw previously, and that’s something that should have been heightened in Season 2, not lessened.
By the time the dust clears on the finale, it’s clear why this series was renewed for Season 2 and 3 at the same time: Season 2 only feels like half the story. By the end it’s hard not to feel like a clueless Wicked viewer after “Defying Gravity” — sure, the ending is bombastic, but wait... that’s it?
Perhaps it’s impossible to create a second season to match up against Season 1, as it had no expectations and set the bar incredibly high for any follow-ups. As a Season 2, this season unfortunately comes short of the finish line. As the first part of a final chapter, it’s a green light for sure.
