‘Squid Game’ Season 2 Review: Netflix’s Smash Hit Returns More Brutal, Haunting and Entertaining Than Ever

“Squid Game” isn’t a surprise anymore. Upon its initial release in 2021, the South Korean drama series hit much larger for Netflix than any of the streamer’s other international series, and exceeded hits like “Bridgerton” and “Stranger Things” to become an outright phenomenon and the streamer’s most-watched series. Part of it was timing; creator Hwang Dong-hyuk smartly drew on global hardships over the last few years — mostly economical but also societal — to craft an incisive take on a “Battle Royale”-style series that resonated at the time and has only become more relevant in recent years. A second season, if commissioned, would arrive with totemic expectations.

Perhaps that’s just one of the many reasons — along with the well-documented fatigue he endured making it the first go around — Hwang held out before announcing he was ready to move forward with a second offering. And it was well worth the three-year wait.

“Squid Game” Season 2 arrives more brutal, haunting, effective — and yes, in its twisted way — entertaining than ever. The premiere picks up in the final moments of the first season, with Seong Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae) preparing to re-enter the games to confront the Front Man (Lee Byung-hun) and shut them down for good. Two years quickly pass as Seong steals himself away inside an abandoned motel, pouring in his resources from winning the game to create a vast network to hunt down Gong Yoo’s Salesman and find a way back, hell-bent on stopping another cycle. Elsewhere, Hwang Jun-ho (Wi Ha-joon) nurses his wounds after being fished out of the water near the island where the games occurred after being shot by his brother last season. It doesn’t take long for the two men’s paths to cross, as they hatch a plan to take down the Front Man once and for all.

Once Seong finds himself back in the game, a familiar sense of dread comes to the surface. As with last time, there is a mix of memorable supporting characters: a rapper named Thanos (easily a favorite in the bunch and bound to be a standout, played by Choi Seung-hyun aka Korean music star T.O.P., complete with purple hair and Infinity Stone-colored nails), crypto influencer Lee Myung-gi (Im Si-wan) and his ex-girlfriend Kim Jun-hee (Jo Yu-ri), former marine Dae-ho (Kang Ha-neul), a woman in the midst of transitioning Cho Hyun-ju (Park Sung-hoon), a mother (Kang Ae-shim) and her burnout son (Yang Dong-geun), Seong’s friend Jung-bae (Lee Seo-hwan), and plenty of others all with their own reasons for wanting the prize money. Combine these archetypes alongside a redux of Red Light-Green Light, and “Squid Game” threatens to rely too much on its established formula.

But what’s old now becomes violently new as Hwang weaponizes Seong’s (and the audience’s) expectations of what the game might be to radically reinvent itself and “Squid Game” in the process. Season 2 often calls back — either spiritually or directly — to iconic moments or character beats from last time, but through a funhouse mirror that warps and distorts them into something more horrifically memorable. Hwang doesn’t stop at going bigger and bolder either, deciding to go deeper into the logistics of the games themselves, courtesy of a new character, No-eul, played by Park Gyu-young. Instead of losing the intrigue around how the sausage is made, Hwang allows for more mystery to unfold. The savviest decision is the more active role the Front Man takes, allowing audiences to get to know the man behind the mask.

Despite a shorter episode order — seven this time instead of nine — Hwang allows for plenty of space around the proceedings, with his direction and writing (he’s on double duty for both tasks again this time) as strong as ever. What becomes quietly devastating is how willing the participants seem to be this time around, especially after realizing what’s at stake. The world has become a harsher place since the last games, and the players involved are willing to do whatever it takes to get to the prize money, despite Seong’s protests and attempts to play hero. The games are hauntingly photographed, allowing for tension to build and build, exploding with a propulsion that makes Season 2 even more watchable than last time.

The only part that slows things down is Hwang’s search for where the games occur. It’s not as dynamic as everything else. It’s very clearly a building block to a more substantial plot for the upcoming third and final season, and therefore, a little too early on how it will all resolve.

Lee Jung-jae is tasked with selling quite the transformation for Seong this season, moving closer in line to a full-on action hero than the stumbling and bumbling oaf he was in the season prior. It’s an extremely believable performance, becoming more empathic based on the audience’s pre-existing relationship. Every time he warns the new cadre of players about the dangers to come, we can feel the weight of his survivor’s guilt hanging over his every decision. Lee Byung-hun’s take on the Front Man this season will be a real standout, with his shifting role in the games marking one of the season’s best developments. Hwang gets a lot of mileage out of the pre-existing character relationships, most notably Yang and Kang’s mother/son duo, who are a consistent source of laughs across these continued dour times. Just like Jung Ho-yeon’s Kang Sae-byeok served as the show’s beating heart last season, so does Park as Cho, whose transgender journey is handled in a lovely and affecting way. And that’s to say nothing of Thanos, who joins the pantheon of television bad guys in short order, yet something about him remains endlessly appealing despite it. After last season’s cast of characters, it was going to be a tall order to make a new and compelling cast, and yet, Hwang makes it look effortless.

Sequels are always a difficult proposition. How do you appease fans of the previous iteration without it being a carbon copy of what’s come before? How do you evolve without losing the soul of what made it a hit in the first place? Can the show still have something meaningful to say? These questions, and many others, are ones that the series addresses head-on, resulting in the rare sequel that’s just as much a worthy successor to what’s come before.

The popularity and expectations around “Squid Game” may no longer be an unknown quantity. But that doesn’t mean the show can’t still find bold new ways to surprise.

“Squid Game” Season 2 is now streaming on Netflix.

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