The Dark Herald Does Not Recommend Squid Game Season 2
Writer-Director Hwang Dong-hyuk (hold the comments you are three anymore) has not delivered I’m sad to say. This isn’t season 2, It’s season 1.5.
The original Squid Game was a surrealist horror story about people finding out what they will do to survive. Hwang, wrote the first iteration of Squid Game back in 2008. It was a project he couldn’t get made but never stopped pitching and when Netflix decided to start randomly financing K-Drama’s someone probably liked the rather blunt anti-capitalist message the VIPs provided. Sure it nearly sank the whole show but it was probably what got the show greenlit in first place.
During the second plague year of 2021, when everyone was still cooped up, (at least in Blue States which Michigan was at the moment), Squid Game became the most-watched show in Netflix history.
Hwang himself won the kind of Emmy that doesn’t get handed out to foreigners. That was for the Red Light Green Light (different name in Korean but the rules are pretty much identical). The scene that pretty much sold the entire show was all the bodies piled up at the doors. It was both realistic and surrealistic.
The show was not without its considerable flaws but for the most part, the drama made up for it.
This season just isn’t as good. It’s not bad but it drags, Gi-Hun does get back into the game. The actor playing the Recruiter, Gong Yoo, was given some decent material before being written completely out of the series. People who felt that an actor of his talent was wasted in the first season will feel the same way this time too.
The show took three episodes of its seven to reach Red Light Green Light this season. Front Man enters the game as the new 001. You’d think Gi-Hun would be more suspicious after the last time.
Each episode ends with a cliffhanger. This is fine if you want to keep the audience coming back week after week but as usual, Netflix dumped the entire season all at once. In this case, it was kind of dumb because Netflix split the season in two. Netflix does this to try and prevent branch swinging. People who sub for one show watch it and then pull the plug again. Smarter to just release it weekly if you have seven episodes.
Because this season has clearly been split in two with the next season to be released sometime in 2025, I will not give any kind of positive recommendation at this time. If you watched the first one and are hoping for seconds then wait until the “third” season drops in a few months. It wasn’t as good as the first season but had its moments, however because of the bait and switch…
The Dark Herald Does Not Recommend Squid Game Season 2 (0/5)
P.S. You’ll get an actual review when I finally see the rest of the season.
