Decryption | The Squid Game, season 2: return to the arena

In the fall of 2021, as much of North America plunged back into more or less partial pandemic lockdown, a TV series made its way onto the screens of more than 142 million households subscribing to Netflix. The Squid Gamea dystopian and violent Korean series, still holds the mark as the most popular series in the history of the streaming platform. The second season, which will be launched on December 26, arrives with excessive expectations. A look back at an exceptional television phenomenon.

The inventory

The action of season 2 of Squid game picks up exactly where the first one ends, that is to say at the Seoul airport, where Seong Gi-hun decides not to board his plane to the United States after seeing someone on the way to being recruited for the “game”, as he had been the year before. The character played by Lee Jung-jae is therefore given a mission, that of putting an end to this cruel operation – he was the only one to survive this elimination game involving 456 people whose point in common was having serious financial problems. He barely touched the $45 million prize pool given to him, except to implement the plan to put an end to the squid game. He will finally find himself back in the game, a little against his will, with the hope that his presence will save as many participants as possible.

Secrets of success

The premise of the first season of Squid game was a critique of the flaws of the capitalist system, with the most idle people competing in a game of death for the pleasure of a few ultra-rich spectators. This is certainly one of the reasons which explained the success of the series, especially since the staging, colorful and original, referred to games from childhood, which pushed cynicism to an extreme. another level. “At the start, we identify with the characters, but after a few episodes, we understand that there are VIPs who bet on the competitors, as if they were racehorses,” recalls in an article from Psychology Today researcher Bence Nanay, professor of philosophy at the University of Antwerp and the University of Cambridge. We thus adopt a double perspective: we worry about the participants, but we also act like VIPs by coldly observing the games. Taking the viewer from one point of view to another is probably the greatest discovery of the series, we can thus be interested in the social message while being seduced by the story. »

Play again

Professor Nanay also maintains that “the fact that the action takes place in South Korea, it is easier for several spectators to create a distance which allows them to adopt the point of view of the foreigner – we can be convinced that it doesn’t concern us,” explains the researcher. Will the formula work for the second and third seasons (its broadcast has been confirmed for 2025 by director, writer and producer Hwang Dong-hyuk)? The dynamic that explained the success of the first season of Squid game has necessarily changed, but it is good to know that season 2 is already a finalist in the category of best drama series at the next Golden Globes.

The numbers

Despite these great promises, it remains to be seen whether the second season will be able to compete with the stratospheric figures achieved by the first nine episodes.

• 2 205 200 000 : This is the number of hours Netflix subscribers have spent watching season 1 to date. We’re actually talking about more than 2.2 billion hours of viewing, that’s more than 367 million hours more than the fourth season of Stranger Thingswhich comes in second place.
• 94 : This is the number of countries in which The Squid Game ranks first among the most-watched series in Netflix history. Canada is of course on the list.
• 900 millions : This is the value of the impact of Squid game during its first month of broadcast, in October 2021. According to figures revealed by Netflix and obtained by Bloomberg News, the original series cost 21.4 million to produce, or 2.4 million per episode.
• 14 : This is the number of selections received by Squid Game at 74^e Primetime Emmy Awards ceremony, in July 2022.

Honors

The Squid Game has received dozens of selections in several galas around the world, its artisans often becoming the first actors to win awards in the United States for a work filmed in a language other than English.

• Hwang Dong-hyuk : Best Directing for a Drama Series at the Emmy Awards
• Lee Jung-jae (Seong Gi-hun) : best actor in a drama series at the Emmy Awards and the Screen Actors Guild Awards
• Lee Yoo –mi (Ji-Yeong) : Best Actress in a Supporting Role at the Emmy Awards
• O Yeong-su (Oh Il-nam) : Best Supporting Actor at the Golden Globe Awards
• HoYeon Jung (Kang Sae-byeok): Best Actress in a Drama Series at the Screen Actors Guild Awards

The Squid Game, season 2 will be on Netflix from December 26.