“Squid Game” season 2 on Netflix, “painful” or “captivating”? Here’s what the critics think

TV SERIES – Netflix’s most-watched series of all time is back. This Thursday, December 26, the streaming platform put the entire (short) second season of Squid Gamea bloody South Korean series set against a backdrop of class struggle and criticism of the world capitalist system.

The seven new episodes bring us back to Seong Gi-Hun, hero and big winner of the first “games”, a series of events during which several hundred individuals compete to the death to win an enormous sum of money. money at the end. The divorced father may have billions in his account, but he is haunted by the experience.

Unable to move forward and take advantage of his fortune, Seong Gi-Hun is determined to dismantle the game from the inside, even if it means returning to the adventure to face a new gallery of characters, all equally affected by the perversion of money.

Season “2 too”, according to Telerama

« The first two episodes of this highly anticipated return, filmed in the streets of Seoul, are quite successful, a tense and clever mise en abyme where Gi-hun pays small-time crooks to track down his former torturers in a sort of ultimately bloody urban treasure hunt. him too », first recounts this criticism of Telerama.

Before qualifying: “ But the hero will be disillusioned, and so will we. Squid Game begins to go around in circles like the bloody carousel where the characters soon find themselves stuck. » The series recycles the « same tensions ”, press “ the same subtext » and introduces “ similar characters », according to the weekly, for whom this new season lacks artistic ambition.

The disappointment of Telerama is also found in the columns of Guardian, for whom this season passes “ way too many episodes of painful foot dragging ». « The first few episodes feel like delaying tactics, writes the journalist from the British daily. […] It’s quite entertaining, but it leads to an unpleasant feeling of bloodlust. » For the newspaper, the last episode gives the impression of arriving halfway through the story. “ This slowness is free », tackles daily life.

« The second season of the hit Netflix series offers more stylized carnage, but the story bogs down », deplores for his part the New York Times. « You’ll hear things you basically heard in season 1alerts the author of the article. You’ll see things you saw in Season 1. And if you hear or see something new, it’ll probably come from a character who looks a lot like someone you saw die – or kill – the first time . »

The repeat “ avoided », pour The Parisian

Should we still see this season? Yes, according to Variety, who finds it completely captivating ». « The structure, the costumes, the sets and even the captivating cover of Fly Me to the Moon remain the same in season 2 »we can read in this article in the magazine.

« Nonetheless, the series avoids repetition by finding new angles to examine what appears to be the evil of modern Korea: capitalist exploitation, the erosion of morality, and class inequality.explain Variety. The series’ signature brutal violence, blood, guts, and gore are still ever-present, but the terror among the cast, including Gin-hun, who has been through it all before, remains palpable. »

Same story Parisian. « A success, repetition is avoided, even if many elements already known remain in the game », notes the daily. Before specifying: “ There is no shortage of dramatic twists, and the suspense is very present, even when the candidates compete in games already seen in the past. »

Mixed assessment in the press, therefore. And which is unlikely to allay the fears of fans of the program, worried after comments by its creator, Hwang Dong-hyuk, to the BBC. Asked during the month of November about the reasons which had pushed him to write a second season, he simply replied: “ for the money.”

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