Squid Game Season 2 Review: Netflix's High-Stakes Epic Takes Its Action To Bold New Heights

When Squid Game season 2 premieres, it will have been over three years since the first season hit Netflix like a freight train. It sounds outrageous the streamer waited this long to follow up the international hit, but it's the norm. When Stranger Things season 5 premieres, it will have been roughly three years as well. Apple TV+'s Severance returns in January, nearly two years since the first season debuted to critical acclaim.

When released in 2021, Squid Game exploded and became a bonafide word-of-mouth phenomenon. It's still the most-watched Netflix series of all time—even Wednesday and Stranger Things season 4 weren't able to topple it. Bloomberg reported in October 2021, just one month after the show's release, that Squid Game could add $900 billion in value to Netflix.

This kind of success, of course, puts pressure on any sort of follow-up, so it's no wonder it took creator Hwang Dong-hyuk all this time to craft new episodes. Squid Game seasons 2 and 3 were filmed back-to-back, so the wait between this middle chapter and the end will be much shorter. In bridging this gap, though, Hwang deepens the world of the games while introducing new characters that will play a key role in the show's endgame.

So, Does Squid Game Season 2 Live Up To Its Predecessor?

The Short Answer Is Yes

After Squid Game season 1's ending, Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae) is intent on stopping the games, and he plans on re-entering them to bring them down from the inside. With the help of Jun-ho (Wi Ha-joon), he's able to track down The Salesman (Gong Yoo) and finagle his way back to the island that homes the games. Gi-hun and Jun-ho joining forces certainly helps make the outside world more compelling, but it still remains the show's weakest element.

Fortunately, Squid Game season 2 offsets this by making the games much more interesting, introducing dynamics between new game players that allow for more complex stories. More people know each other this time around — one crypto YouTuber finds himself trapped with various people who lost money thanks to his poor financial advice. A mother, there to earn money to pay off her son's debts, finds that her son has also joined the games.

A pregnant woman, hoping to make money to start a new life as a single mom, sees the father of her child in the games. Most shocking of all, though, is Player #1, who you may recognize as The Front Man (Lee Byund-hun). Fascinated by Gi-hun's desire to re-enter the games, The Front Man (also known as In-ho) makes a trustworthy ally for the hopeful disruptor, playing along with Gi-hun as he gathers allies.

There are other tertiary characters that ally with Gi-hun and add layers to this season's games, though the main story is really about Gi-hun's relationship with In-ho and another of his friends from the outside world, Jung-bae (Lee Seo-hwan). The first season's heavy-handed exploration of income inequality is still present, but these new dynamics raise questions that allow the series to expand its scope.

There's a clear caste system within the games, beginning, of course, with those who pay to watch them and trickling down to those who participate. It's how this system makes the players and guards turn on each other that's the most fascinating. Gi-hun is well aware of this dynamic, and he knows the game's "upper class" is sowing division among those who, united, could work together to bring them down, the fantasy of a class uprising squandered before it can leave the mouths of those who dreamed it.

It's clear this is what fascinates In-ho about Gi-hun. It's not only his ability to bring people together but his passion for seeking justice for all those who have died in the games. Squid Game season 2 asks what happens when this passion for justice is exposed to constant violence and what moral and physical sacrifices must be made for what the righteous believe is the greater good.

That's what makes Gi-hun's position so complicated; when one person is deciding what's good or right, especially in a situation as extreme as a deadly set of children's games, the idea of justice is warped into something uglier. Gi-hun essentially holds the fates of over 400 people in his hands and Squid Game season 2 is about how he wields this power and how his quest for justice may be his downfall after all.

Squid Game season 2 is now streaming on Netflix. Season 3 is coming sometime in 2025.