‘Squid Game’ season two review: Netflix’s survival thriller will wrap its tentacles around you again

It’s no accident that Netflix is premiering Squid Game season two on December 26, a day when millions will be chilling at home. Released in September 2021, the first season of the South Korean survival thriller wasn’t just a hit, but a global phenomenon that became the streaming giant’s most-watched show ever.

• READ MORE: ‘Squid Game’ review: child’s play turns deadly in a cutting critique of late-stage capitalism
  

The original Squid Game stood out from blander Netflix fodder because it was visceral, very bloody and demanded your full attention. It even spawned a spin-off reality show, Squid Game: The Challenge, that felt low-stakes in comparison because its hefty cash prize couldn’t escalate tension like the imminent threat of death.

But now, more than three years later, you may need reminding what made it great, so here goes. Season one followed a shocking survival contest where 456 players – all in crippling debt – took on a series of twisted children’s games to win a share of ₩45.6billion (£30million). Elimination meant being shot dead, so players progressed knowing that their share of the jackpot would only grow if others got killed. Call it an “amorality contest” that doubled as a satire of how capitalism can exacerbate social inequality.

At the end, stoic gambling addict Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae) was the sole survivor, so he walked away rich and presumably very traumatised. Season two follows Gi-hun as he tries to re-enter the house of deadly games so he can bring it down from the inside. With money no object, he hires dozens of lackeys to track down the slick salesman (Gong Yoo) who recruits new players, but at first he proves elusive.

Gi-hun’s quest to find the salesman and the mysterious island where the contest is held consumes the first two episodes, which is probably too much. Squid Game without the games is less compelling and more overwrought: the show’s slightly hysterical tone makes sense in the contest, which would make anyone hysterical, but feels a little jarring in the outside world.

Thankfully, when Gi-hun does re-enter, the season really finds its feet. The first game he and 455 new players attempt is Red Light, Green Light, a brutal highlight from season one that Gi-hun dominates because he knows how it works. But after that, Dong-hyuk cleverly upends our expectations by turning Gi-hun into a figure of suspicion as well as a potential leader – if he’s won the money already, why the hell is he doing this again?

Season two also introduces gripping new games including Mingle, which proves particularly exposing for two players who seemed to share an unbreakable bond. As more players are eliminated, Dong-hyuk hones in on players with compelling backstories. The show’s creator has been criticised for casting a cis male actor, Park Sung-hoon, as a trans character called Hyun-ju – a decision Dong-hyuk has defended by saying that “in Korea, there are close to no actors [who] are openly trans”. This controversy is unlikely to simmer down because Hyun-ju, skilled and sensitive, is a standout competitor who’s easy to root for.

It all builds towards an attempted insurrection led by Gi-hun – you could call it ‘lunatics take over the asylum’ because trying to beat the contest’s battalion of armed guards looks a lot like lunacy. With Squid Game‘s third and final season due next year, it’s hardly a spoiler to say there’s no clear resolution. But the final episode is still breathlessly exciting and chokingly emotional. You’ll be left gasping as Squid Game gets its tentacles around you and squeezes hard.

Squid Game season two premieres December 26 exclusively on Netflix