Hwang Dong-hyuk, the South Korean filmmaker who created the series and who wrote and directed all nine episodes of the first season, hadn’t planned on making a second.
Dong-hyuk, for whatever reason, devised just one round of Squid Game and it was only after it became the most-watched series in Netflix history – a title it still holds three years after the first season aired – that the people in charge asked for more.
Fair enough, but like all the best magic tricks in television, you wonder if perhaps Dong-hyuk should have left it alone.
There are some neat ideas in the mix. Take, for instance, the bumpy tale of Seong Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae), traumatised ‘champion’ of season one, who uses his fortune to fund a search mission for the wicked puppet masters. Will our tortured protagonist have his vengeance?
Squid Game Season 2 Welcomes Gi-hun Back to the Games in New Trailer
Maybe, but first, Gi-hun will need to re-enter the game. It’s a sneaky concept, simple and effective, and it brings us back to the island, back to the arena – back to the bloodbath, basically.
Then there’s the story of Hwang Jun-ho (Wi Ha-joon) a sulky detective who discovered it was his brother, Hwang In-ho, aka ‘The Front Man’ (Lee Byung-hun), who was running the games in season one.
Poor Jun-ho caught a bullet in the shoulder for his troubles, but it seems he was lucky enough to be picked up by a generous fisherman, who now spends his weekends ferrying Jun-ho from one island to the next, looking for the mysterious game headquarters.
Another semi-decent idea, but is it enough to hang an entire season on? Not quite. All of this will make little sense to newcomers, if there are any left.
Despite the relentless twists and turns, however, Squid Game – which picked up 14 Primetime Emmy Award nominations in 2022 – is surprisingly easy to follow.
Desperate, cash-strapped strangers in South Korea are hand-picked in parks, train stations and alleyways to participate in a shadowy survival game run by wealthy lunatics on a faraway island.
There are pacing issues too and we’re almost two-and-a-half hours in before Gi-hun gets his famous green tracksuit back
It’s the job of a charismatic recruiter (Gong Yoo), disguised as a slippery salesman, to find new players for “the games”, and when we first met Gi-hun in season one, he was just like the rest of the contenders: broke, lonely and depressed, with complicated family issues and sky-high gambling debts.
With a multi-million-dollar cash prize on the table, you understand why Gi-hun, aka ‘Player 456’, signed up.
What, exactly, happens inside the arena? That’s where things get tricky, and the extravagant challenges are all based on classic Korean childhood games.
Gi-hun meets with games recruiter Gong Yoo. Photo: Netflix
There is just one tiny detail I forgot to mention: the losers never make it out alive.
A muscular social thriller all dressed up as a stomach-churning survival horror, season one was a bit of a knockout.
The second instalment, on the other hand, seems a little unsure of itself. It’s well-made, nicely acted and retains at least some of the suspense of its imaginative predecessor.
But the shine – and, indeed, the charm – is beginning to wear off. We might point the finger at a paper-thin plot.
Last time around, Dong-hyuk gave his characters interesting things to say: this time, one of them quotes The Matrix as a way of explaining matters to a confused Gi-hun.
Not good enough, and this is exactly the kind of trouble you run into when self-contained stories are stretched beyond their limits.
There are pacing issues too and we’re almost two-and-a-half hours in before Gi-hun gets his famous green tracksuit back, and before he plays his first game: another round of the horrifying ‘Red Light, Green Light’.
Various new contenders come with compelling back stories and there is some fun to be had there, but you’d be doing well to lower your expectations.
Squid Game season 2 will debut on Netflix on December 26
