When the first season of the South Korean thriller *Squid Game* premiered on Netflix in 2021, its dystopian horror captivated viewers around the world.
It became the first Korean drama to reach the top spot on Netflix in the United States, as well as 94 other countries, including the United Kingdom and Australia.
*Squid Game* surpassed the very popular *Bridgerton*, becoming the most viewed series on the platform upon its launch.
Widely acclaimed by critics and loved by the general public, *Squid Game* has won numerous awards, including Emmy Awards, Critics Choice Awards and Golden Globes. The lead actors, Lee Jung-jae and Jung Ho-yeon, as well as creator Hwang Dong-hyuk, also enjoyed great success.
Now, the series returns for a highly anticipated second season. Although it has lost the element of surprise of the first season, the drama promises to be just as gripping.
In an ironic turn for a show that criticizes capitalism, Hwang told the BBC that money was the main motive behind his choice to return for a second season.
The show becomes a stark representation of the issues at work in the SAG-AFTRA strike, since Hwang and the South Korean actors were paid a fixed amount instead of receiving royalties. *Squid Game* made $900 million for the streaming platform, but those who brought the series to life didn’t see a share of that profit.
*Squid Game* creator Hwang Dong-hyuk (left), with lead actor Lee Jung-jae (right), said *Squid Game* will end with its third season. (Source : Netflix)
Give me an update on season one. What is this series about?
The first season of *Squid Game* was as explosive and captivating as it was shocking.
456 applicants in financial difficulty signed up for the chance to win a potentially life-changing sum of money.
One of them is Seong Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae), a divorced man and gambling addict, who can’t even afford a proper birthday dinner for his daughter, let alone support his mother elderly unemployed.
At the start of season one, Gi-hun (left, with his mother, right) was at rock bottom. (Source : Netflix)
After being approached one night by a mysterious man, Gi-hun decides to participate in the Squid Game.
He goes to a secret facility, surrounded by masked people, where players compete — although sometimes they have to cooperate — for a cash prize of 45.6 billion won (about $50 million).
The tests they must overcome are children’s games, like “1, 2, 3, sun” and the rope pull.
The twist? All of these challenges are deadly, with the aim of surviving while the other players perish, thus allowing the winner to take home the bet. Moreover, the prize pool increases as participants fail, transforming *Squid Game* into a high-stakes survival game.
How did *Squid Game* season one end?
As expected, the majority of characters met a tragic end in this season, including Gi-hun’s morally fluctuating businessman and Gi-hun’s childhood friend Sang-woo (Park Hae-soo), the North Korean fugitive Sae-byeok (Hoyeon), and Pakistani migrant Ali (Anupam Tripathi).
Gi-hun emerges from this bloody trauma as a lucky winner, but he returns to his normal life with a gold debit card containing his winnings. Unfortunately, he discovers that his mother died while he was still competing. Additionally, his daughter moved to Los Angeles with his ex-wife and her new husband. Gi-hun sinks into despair, alive but barely touching his winnings.
Only one of the 456 players is expected to emerge victorious at the end of *Squid Game*, but several others have managed to survive season one. (Source : Netflix)
Until he is called to the bedside of Il-nam (Oh Yeong-su), this old man who “lost” to Gi-hun in a game of marbles.
Another twist! He doesn’t die and reveals that he is actually the creator of the brutal games. He explains to Gi-hun that he wanted to experience the games without taking any risks, before dying peacefully in his hospital bed.
Radicalized by this information and sporting a new red hairstyle, Gi-hun is about to board a plane to try to repair his relationship with his daughter, when he sees something disturbing: the mysterious recruiter who brought to *Squid Game* recruiting a new participant.
Knowing the fate that awaits this man, Gi-hun intervenes. He doesn’t get on the plane. For him, the game is not over.
Speaking of people who might be dead, but might not be, fans were convinced that Jun-ho — the detective searching for the creators, who was pushed off a cliff by his own brother, the Front Man — was still alive.
Certainly, *Squid Game* is a universal critique of wild capitalism, but it must be remembered that it is also a K-drama.
What can we expect from *Squid Game* season two?
Three years after his victory, Gi-hun uses his fortune to seek out the game’s mysterious creators and put an end to their business. But he soon discovers the deadly path that awaits him: to end the game, he must return.
So, will he destroy this barbaric system from within or will it finally be swallowed up by its gears?
However reluctant, creator Hwang Dong-hyuk is back to write and direct all seven episodes.
And the fans were right! Jun-ho returns, along with his brother The Front Man, which promises an intensification of their family drama.
Don’t panic, Young-hee — the terrifying giant doll, who decides who lives and who dies in “1, 2, 3, Sun” — is also back!
Additionally, new participants will enter the game for the first time in this season: a former successful YouTuber who lost all his money in a cryptocurrency scam, as well as a debt-ridden gamer and his elderly mother who enter the game. game to help him; a toxic ex-marine with a great hairstyle; and a transgender woman, a former soldier, who participates to finance a sex reassignment operation.
How does season two compare to season one? [Avertissement : spoilers de la saison deux]
Part of the beauty of the first season of *Squid Game* was the lack of expectation.
You are told from the start that players will be eliminated, but it is only when you are well into the first episode that you realize that elimination rhymes with death.
This element of surprise is inevitably absent in season two. Now you know what it means to be eliminated, so some of the suspense is lost.
Kang Ae-sim (center), who plays an elderly mother in the new season of *Squid Game*, tries to pay off her son’s gambling debts. (Source : Netflix)
The first few episodes of season two manage to ratchet up the tension, giving viewers the impression that the creators might have managed to top the surprises of the first season, but that feeling quickly fades. Season two is much more character-driven, with new faces with complex backstories. Some of these plots work, others not so much. The story about transgender woman Hyun-ju, in particular, felt forced, like a gratuitous attempt to appear progressive.
The best scenes focus on the salesman and the Front Man. This season features sequences that will put one in grave danger, while the other finds themselves at the center of the action — with surprising revelations that make it impossible not to keep watching to find out what happens next.
Finally, season one had a satisfying (some might say mind-blowing) conclusion that wrapped up the story while still leaving elements of suspense, while season two didn’t get the same treatment — it tries too hard to set the stage for a third season.
Will there be a third season of *Squid Game*?
Yes, absolutely!
Hwang announced in August that there would be a third season of *Squid Game*, but it would be the last.
“The intense clash between the two worlds of Gi-hun and Front Man will continue in the series finale with season three, which will air next year,” Hwang told Tadum, hinting that both characters will survive in season two.
Since season two will launch in the last week of 2024, you will have to wait a bit for the final season.
When does *Squid Game* season two come out?
All seven episodes will drop on Netflix at 7pm AEDT, December 26. Perfect timing for Boxing Day viewing.
The *Squid Game* series asks fundamental questions about human nature and society, suggesting that entertainment can be a mirror of contemporary societal issues. Its global success also raises a reflection on the values of our time and how they are reflected in the stories we choose to tell. The rest of the events in the *Squid Game* universe could well continue to question our relationship to money and survival in a constantly changing world.
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