Staff Writer Anny Chen critically reviews Squid Game 2, highlighting the lack of depth and innovation in the sequel
As the sequel to the internationally renowned Netflix series Squid Game, Squid Game 2 has attracted audiences on a global scale since its release in December 2024. However, even Squid Game can’t escape the curse of being at its peak in the first season. Squid Game 2 fails to deepen its critique of capitalism from the first season or continue to surprise its viewers, which has been criticised as “TV that will make you uncomfortably bloodthirsty indeed“. Although the series became the most-watched TV show on Netflix in the second half of 2024, audience reactions have been mostly marked by disappointment.
Squid Game is about a competition that invites cash-strapped contestants to play children’s games in order to win a $4.56 million prize, with the terrifying risk that losing means losing one’s life. Squid Game 2 begins with the same protagonist, Gi-hun, who won the last game in the first season and is now using his prize to chase the mastermind behind the game. Gi-hun then enters the competition again, trying to find a way to fight the big boss.
Failing to Enhance Capitalist Critique
As one of the television series that has led South Korea’s creative industries to go global, Squid Game attracted audiences with its unique story of using thrilling children’s games to critique capitalist society. The story compactly covered six different children’s games, each bloodier than the last, with themes of friendship and family love gradually implied. The first season’s finale revealed the reasons behind the creation of this game – to entertain privileged millionaires who are bored with their lives, as they already possessed limitless wealth. This contrast between the cash-strapped contestants betting their lives for money and affluent spectators wagering on who will survive for entertainment deepens the satirical commentary on capitalism.
While the last scene of the first season featured Gi-hun vowing to uncover the identity of the big boss behind the game, viewers expected a second season to offer a deeper portrayal of the conflicts between the privileged and the underprivileged. However, Squid Game 2 essentially repeats the plots of season one, even with the same protagonist. The sequel begins with the same first game, “Red Light, Green Light”, and adds only two other different children’s games that similarly explore themes of friendship and family love as seen in the first season. Moreover, one of the big bosses also joins the competition, pretending to be a cash-strapped contestant, and become close to Gi-hun, mirroring events from the first season. Gi-hun continues to believe in the big boss and is fooled by him and the game just as season one, making the plot repetitive and diminishing the intrigue in its thematic exploration.
Losing the Focus on the “Game”
Certainly, there are several different scenes in Squid Game 2 that implied an intention to portray alternative aspects of the story. However, many of them slow down the narrative. One key subplot introduced in the second season focuses on a police officer who accidentally discovered the game but forgot its location after being shot in the first season. He attempts to find the secret island that host the competition again, but many scenes depict him and his team getting lost, while at the end it turns out that the captain he worked with was, in fact, part of the groups behind the game. This confused many viewers, prompting questions about the purpose of this subplot, as it adds little to the main plot or deepens the series’ satirical commentary on capitalist society.
Another difference in Squid Game 2 is the number of voting scenes. In the first season, contestants had the opportunity to vote on whether to play the next game or leave, equally dividing the prize among the surviving players after the first game. The sequel adds a voting scene after every game, intending to portray the complexity of humanity after experiencing the brutality of various games. However, many viewers have expressed tiredness with seeing contestants repeatedly discuss whether to stay or leave, as witnessing the complexities of humanity through gameplay is far more engaging and reflective of real-life situations.
For instance, in Squid Game 2, one contestant votes to stay in the first two rounds, but after he unintentionally abandons his mother during the third game, he votes to leave, realising the regret he would feel if she were to die in the game. This straightforward plot development lacks surprise. In contrast, a game in the first season that required contestants to compete against their partners immediately after passing the last game together, kept the story interesting with its unexpected twist . Thus, the addition of multiple voting scenes fails to elevate the themes and instead detracts focus on the “game”.
While Netflix has announced that Squid Game 3 will premiere in June 2025, global audiences continue to expect a better explanation and more surprising developments for many of the confusing scenes in Squid Game 2. Nonetheless, the repetitive plots and simplistic representation of humanity under capitalist society in this sequel have led considerable criticism, as if Season 2 and 3 could be combined to maintain the intense and compact quality of the first season.
Squid Game 2 is currently streaming on Netflix.
