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Squid Game season 2 review: a brutal remix of Netflix’s biggest show


In the next three years Squid game becomes Netflix’s largest propertyit was easy to forget just because it was so popular to begin with. The never-ending story of class conflict that combined iconic visuals, school games, and a nihilistic view of humanity, was largely buried underneath. ill-conceived reality shows, influencer knockoffs, cartoon-ish mobile gamesand all manner of brand tie-ins. Just before the show back for season 2, Netflix has outlined an amazing range of Squid game collaborationswhich covers everything from Call of duty to Domino’s to Crocs to Johnnie Walker. If you really want it, you can buy it Squid game– brand beef jerky.

Fortunately, while Netflix seems to have forgotten what Squid game is it actually – or, more likely, he was simply blinded by dollar signs – the creator of the series Hwang Dong-hyuk certainly did not. The second season doesn’t explore much new thematic territory, but instead smartly expands the Squid game universe offering a thriller that plays like an even more brutal remix of the original.

The new season picks up a few years after the events of the first, in which Seong Gi-hun, better known as player 456 (Lee Jung-jae, who followed Squid game fame with a leading role in Star Wars and his directorial debut), won the opening games. This meant that he won a prize of 45.6 billion ₩, but he still had to live with being the only survivor from a group of 456 people.

Season 1 ended with Gi-hun not only not getting rich, but also learning that the old Oh Il-nam, the 001 player (O Yeong-su), was actually the creator of the games and that he and a group of ultra-rich cronies used murder and mayhem purely as a way to relieve their boredom. In the last moments of the season, Gi-hun had a choice to make: get on a plane to reconnect with his foreign family, or stay and do something about the games. Don’t get on the plane.

The second season sees Gi-hun in a very different place. He spent the last few years isolated and paranoid, planning how to use his wealth to shut down the games forever. First: find out where they actually do it. Paying a network of criminals to systematically search the Seoul subway system, he eventually finds the seller (Gong Yoo), who you remember as the guy in a suit who challenges foreigners to a game of ddakji and is. very good at slapping. The hope is that by finding it, they will be able to locate the mysterious island where the games go down.

But Gi-hun isn’t the only one looking for them. Hwang Jun-ho (Wi Ha-joon) – the detective who went undercover in season 1 to find his brother participating in the games – is also obsessed, working with a local fisherman to scour the waters around the island . Eventually, the two join forces and set a plan in motion, only for Gi-hun to be pulled back into the games as a contestant once again.

The first few episodes don’t really touch on the games themselves – and instead provide a deeper look at the rest of the Squid gamethe strange world. This means learning a lot more about the mysterious and unflappable salesman, who seems to take a perverse pleasure in terrorizing the poor and destitute. There is also some insight into the guards who patrol the games. We learn that they are not so different from the competitors themselves: desperate people doing desperate things in a financial system that has failed them.

A few episodes in, the show returns to the games and it starts to look very familiar. There are green overalls, armed guards in bright pink jumpsuits, and a giant piggy bank that fills with money as people die. But rather than replaying the previous events, these episodes are like a remix of season 1. The games have been changed, and because Gi-hun is the only returning actor, there is a whole new cast. And, as in the original, there is a great mix of compelling stories, with characters that have been pushed to the brink and left with few other options.

That includes a young mother waiting to start a new life, a trans woman who needs money for gender affirmation care, and a mother and son who both signed up to pay off their gambling debts, tragically unaware that the other was also joining the games. . There are also some great new villains, like a purple-haired rapper who’s having the time of his life amidst the blood, and a cold-blooded crypto influencer who’s losing himself – and his viewers – all kinds of money. And once again, there is an undercover member of Squid Game management trying to manipulate the games from the inside.

The games feel different this time because of Gi-hun, who does everything he can to both save people while playing and convince them to leave after the game is over. After each game, all surviving players can vote to continue, and these moments of counting hundreds of X’s and O’s are extremely tense. But greed drives people to make the wrong choice over and over again, and it’s hard not to be discouraged with Gi-hun. But for many of the players, death in a school game is preferable to what awaits them outside. Gi-hun has his work cut out for him by convincing the other contestants that their real enemy is not each other, but the system that puts them here fighting for money. Things eventually culminate in a bloody massacre that pushes Squid game more in horror than ever.

From there, the show races to a conclusion that finally promises to shake up the games themselves — but never reaches that big moment. Instead, it sets up the third and final season which will arrive on Netflix in 2025. While the cliffhanger (and subsequent wait) may be disappointing, it’s a relief that, unlike everyone else, Hwang and his team haven’t lost sight of what they’ve done. Squid game so special to begin with. Season 2 may not be the big surprise that the original was, but it makes up for it with clever twists on the formula and plots that hit even bloodier notes. Even better: the promise of a conclusion that knows where it will lead.

Squid game Season 2 begins streaming on Netflix on December 26.



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