BOTTOM LINE
A Mild Season for a Wild Show
RATING
2/5
PLATFORM
NETFLIX
What Is the Film About?
Squid Game: Season 2 – a logical continuation of the popular series – unfolds 3 years after the first season, with Seong Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae) returning to the deadly games with a new resolution. There are new characters and challenges, as players fight for their lives and the ultimate prize of ₩45.6 billion. Hwang Jun-ho (Wi Ha-joon) is determined to uncover the truth behind the games.
Performances
Lee Jung-jae, playing Seong Gi-hun again, is undoubtedly the only actor to have a respectable character graph in season two. Being the guiding light of his game-mates on the island, Jung-Jae utilises the scope of the role well and reflects his conflicted emotions transparently. Within his limited screen time, Wi Ha-joon also delivers a measured, mature performance.
Lee Byung-hun, as the frontman who gets involved with the game, makes for a menacing, shrewd antagonist with no element of sympathy. Among the cast – actors like Choi Seung-hyun (as the rapper), Lee Seo-hwan, Gong Yoo, Park Gyu-young and Kang Ae-sim pack a punch with their spirited performances, helped by their quirky characterisation.
Analysis
In a year where some of the highest-grossing films/widely watched shows across industries in the globe were sequels/franchise products, it’s futile to discuss why Squid Game earned a nod for a new season. There’s a minimum guarantee value attached to it; it’ll help the platform get the numbers, and make noise in the media, while not discounting the enormous expectations it would have to meet.
With new seasons of much-awaited shows – a creator either can use the license to go bonkers to offer something radical or play safe by amping up the stakes, giving a rehash of the original with minor tweaks, sticking to metrics and what worked previously. Squid Game: Season 2 prefers the latter. It starts with a lot of ambition but chickens out eventually and is too formulaic to entertain.
The second season begins on a promising note – building the right amount of tension and anxiety while establishing the conflicts, and trauma of the pivotal characters Seong Gi-hun and Hwang Jun-ho. Treading different paths, both Gi-hun and Jun-ho are determined to end the nuisance in the garb of a survival game, chasing its recruiter in Seoul, in the hope of reaching the game originator.
When Gi-hun bumps into the recruiter and finally interacts with the game’s ‘frontman’ through a speaker in a car, he feels the only way to end it would be to participate in the game yet again (an idea that the frontman agrees with). Joining hands with Gi-hun, Jun-ho jets off to the mystery island where the games are held, helped by a tracker, though their plans go awry soon.
The screenplay is intriguing when Gi-hun tries to be a soothsayer in the game, helping the 400-odd players through his prior experience. There are varied profiles among the players – a narcissistic rapper, a Youtuber who dupes viewers with a cryptocurrency scam, a mother-son duo desperate to clear their debts, a pregnant woman, and white-collar criminals, to name a few.
Much like Gi-hun, the viewer experiences various stages of the game with a sense of deja vu. The players pitted against one another, go through a wide range of emotions – excitement, helplessness, greed, anxiety – forging new friendships, and creating as many foes. It’s precisely a new variation of the same ambience of the first season with more hostility, which is high on scale and low on impact.
The show is narrated from three perspectives – Jun-ho and team on the sea trying to reach the island, the players in the game and the team working for the game originator. Though there’s complexity in the various stages of the game, the interpersonal relationships don’t work and try hard to replicate the tense atmosphere of the first season (which was emotional and also gripping).
As the show reaches the halfway stage, the creators take the viewers for granted, neither generating enough thrills nor engaging you with the drama. The final set of episodes is more disappointing, where the season takes a violent turn and doesn’t try to offer anything new in terms of strategy, action choreography and writing.
Gi-hun and Jun-ho keep discussing their grand plans (to end the game) but the bad guys have the last laugh. The joke is on the viewer ultimately who hopes against hope for some excitement – in return for the 7-long-hours they invest in the show. Do better Netflix and team Squid Game – you had the budget, and the audience but not a story to attach some meaning to a new season.
Music and Other Departments?
The soundtrack, like the first season, effectively utilises the grim, tense atmosphere in the story to its advantage, adding value to the proceedings. The cinematography – by Cesar Manza and Charlie Ziade – is terrific within the constraints of an island and various stages of the game, where the lighting and the unique framing contribute to its visual appeal. The pacing of the show is not among its strengths – more so when the writing is so disappointing.
Highlights?
The first set of episodes, the setup (till episode 4)
Technical finesse (cinematography, production design)
Solid performances, unique characters
Drawbacks?
Very little novelty in the plot
The game stages aren’t that exciting
Violence merely used for shock value
Did I Enjoy It?
In parts
Will You Recommend It?
Yes, if you are a fan of the first season, but don’t expect anything close to season 1.
Squid Game: Season 2 Series Review by M9
