Squid Game

[Season two review] I was hesitant entering the second season of Squid Game as I, since watching the first season, have been vehemently opposed to continuing the story. I was in large part disappointed by how the series ended and thought the idea of trying to build upon it would be artistic suicide. From a thematic standpoint with its stance on the deprived nature of greed, Netflix’ greedy approach to developing upon the Squid Game-IP can only be seen as ironic. With that said, season two was much to my surprise, quite enjoyable. I do think that most of the otherwise meaningful message has been obscured, but from an entertainment perspective, this second season was for the most part thrilling and engaging. I’ll preface this by saying that I don’t remember a whole lot from the first season, so some points, ideas, and storylines were lost on me during the first couple of episodes as I was trying to pick up the strings left by the first season. But gosh, this season drags on at multiple points. I can’t help but think that the second and third season were split later in the process, forcing Hwang Dong-hyuk to fill out a couple extra episodes of content. Still, it’s engaging once it gets going, and they do know how to throw in some memorable twists and turns to keep its audience on its toes. I’d probably gain a lot from watching both seasons back-to-back, but I can’t see myself dedicating the time for it. But nonetheless, I’ll still be sat for the third and final season.