Squid Game: Season 2 First Reviews: Equally twisted and ruthless, with plenty of surprises

The worldwide phenomenon is back, which Play octopus returns to Netflix this week for another exciting season. Three years after the Korean drama first arrived on the streamer, this sequel is receiving similarly positive reviews, confirming that season 2 was worth the wait. Fans of the original season will enjoy the revisited premise, especially the violent games played by desperate contestants, as well as some new directions for the show. However, many reviews point out that Season 2’s storylines end up unresolved, as the series mostly forms the final Squid Game: Season 3.

Here’s what critics are saying about Squid Game: Season 2:

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How does season 2 compare to the first?

Play octopus Season 2 is a worthy follow-up that expands on the ominous themes of its predecessor.
— Aramid Tinubu, Variety

By all accounts, it’s every bit as good as the show’s first outing.
— Aaron Pruner, CNET

This new set of episodes is also richer and more cohesive than what came before, without ever betraying the roots of where it came from.
— Pierce Conran, South China Morning Post

It ups the ante of almost all the stakes and shocks of the first season by losing itself to the spectacle.
— Kate Sánchez, but why? A geek community

Not just a continuation, but an evolution – and in the process an escalation… the new episodes retain the exciting spirit of the first season, but its many individual departures build into something new and fascinating.
— Siddhant Adlakha, JoySauce.com

This show remains sharp, thought-provoking and justifiably angry about the status quo.
— Elijah Gonzalez, Paste Magazine

It’s a thorough letdown… missing the fun and whimsy that kept the first season from wallowing in its backdrop of misery, and completely lacking in new details or insight into the nature of the game.
— Daniel Fienberg, Hollywood Reporter

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(Photo by No Ju-han/Netflix)

Will it keep the audience guessing?

Prepare for many shocking surprises and long stretches of white-knuckle tension.
— Pierce Conran, South China Morning Post

There’s an unexpected twist around every turn that ultimately changes (or rather, magnifies) what the show is about at its core.
— Siddhant Adlakha, JoySauce.com

These seven episodes boast several mind-blowing twists and take the story to what will undoubtedly be an electric conclusion when Season 3 debuts in 2025.
— Aramid Tinubu, Variety

You can spot the plot twists coming a mile away even when a new game is introduced—and if you don’t, the show flashes lights in your face to make sure you’re prepared for the incoming twist.
— Therese Lacson, Collider

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How are the games this time?

The games are equally surreal and perverse.
— Laura Martin, BBC.com

Like red light, green light, they are incongruously barbaric. This isn’t a place for spoilery details, but I can say that each game generates gut-wrenching, shout-at-the-screen excitement, even on a different watch.
— Kristin Baldwin, Entertainment Weekly

The variety of games reaches into childhood, but also looks beyond that and tries to make the most of every relationship and person… The ruthlessness it draws out of people is higher, as well as trying to force companionship at the same time.
— Kate Sánchez, but why? A geek community

The individual games range from “similar to what we’ve seen” to “variations on a theme”, but what has changed is the downtime between them.
— Siddhant Adlakha, JoySauce.com

The games feel different this time… After each game, all the surviving players can vote on whether to continue, and those moments of counting hundreds of X’s and O’s are extremely tense.
— Andrew Webster, The Verge

These games eventually come to new locations that recreate some of the cold dread of the first season as we see new depraved challenges, but it’s still not quite as exciting.
— Elijah Gonzalez, Paste Magazine

There’s no evidence that anyone gave the MC Escher day-glo set a fresh coat of paint, and the new games themselves barely feel on theme.
— Daniel Fienberg, Hollywood Reporter

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(Photo by No Ju-han/Netflix)

Is it still as violent and terrifying?

Things eventually culminate in a bloody massacre that pushes on Play octopus further into horror than it has ever been.
— Andrew Webster, The Verge

The high points are nail-bitingly tense, often euphoric.
— Debopriyaa Dutta, High on film

The show’s signature brutal violence, blood, guts and gore are still hyper-present, but the terror among the players, including Gi-hun, who has experienced it all before, is still palpable.
— Aramid Tinubu, Variety

There’s lots of bloodshed, no impact.
— Daniel Fienberg, Hollywood Reporter

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Does season 2 do anything new?

Season 2 devotes itself to elevating the first by throwing a wrench into every element of the machine we thought we understood.
— Kate Sánchez, but why? A geek community

The show’s second season doesn’t really deviate from the (original) premise, but it remixes familiar elements just enough to feel fresh, with musical motifs that take exciting shape.
— Siddhant Adlakha, JoySauce.com

One of the most interesting aspects of Season 2 is that it moves beyond the players…(It) illustrates how easily people can inflict pain and violence on others when emboldened by a glimmer of power.
— Aramid Tinubu, Variety

What season 2 does best — aside from cranking the risk-and-thriller meter to a 100 — is cementing Gi-hun’s inner self as a changed man.
— Debopriyaa Dutta, High on film

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(Photo by No Ju-han/Netflix)

How is the writing?

With a much leaner seven-episode run at his disposal, creator, writer and director Hwang Dong-hyuk explores the layers of this universe with rich storytelling that doesn’t just play up the cruelties and inequities of this system.
— Shannon Miller, IGN Movies

This is a deliberately disjointed narrative, meant to raise the itch for next season. The gamble is not over yet, and the results of this zero-sum game leave too many unresolved threads in the stasis.
— Debopriyaa Dutta, High on film

Season 2 feels more like a “Part 1” than its own story, and that’s partly by design… a means to an end that we’ve yet to see.
— Laura Babiak, Observer

It’s not as tightly written and falls into common TV problems as it struggles to get to the point. Fortunately, however, there is still enough here thematically to largely compensate for these shortcomings.
— Elijah Gonzalez, Paste Magazine

Too often it forgets what makes it tick – and just as frustratingly, it fails to resolve its many storylines by the end of its all-too-brief seven-episode run.
— Nick Schager, The Daily Beast

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Does the new season have something important to say?

It becomes a commentary on how often democracy forces people to vote against their interests, either as individuals or as a collective, which can be applied to South Korea, but really any democracy.
— Daniel Fienberg, Hollywood Reporter

This latest season has a timely focus on how capitalism overlaps with flawed democratic processes.
— Elijah Gonzalez, Paste Magazine

It mostly thwarts repetition by finding new angles to examine what seems to ail contemporary Korea: capitalist exploitation, the erosion of morals, and class inequalities.
— Aramid Tinubu, Variety

Play octopus Season 2 focuses on us. Those of us who tuned in to this new season…What happens when we are the problem?
— Kate Sánchez, but why? A geek community

The show never stoops to sermonizing, but there’s no question that it criticizes the main characters for their responsibility for their predicament, both before and during the games, and that angle lends the material welcome added complexity.
— Nick Schager, The Daily Beast

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(Photo by No Ju-han/Netflix)

How is the acting this time?

Lee Jung-jae really proves his mettle this season, especially when you compare his performance in the series premiere to where he ends up at the end of season 2. He’s a delight as a main character.
— Therese Lacson, Collider

Lee Jung-jae is a good enough actor to make Gi-hun’s haunting aspect of a note an appropriate development of the character… (His) performance remains robust, if less entertaining than what attracted audiences in the first place.
— Daniel Fienberg, Hollywood Reporter

It is the role of a lifetime for Lee Jung-jae, whose expressive face conveys the horrors of what he is witnessing; the only voice of reason in an insane world. He won an Emmy for Best Actor for the drama in 2022; probably more on the way to the show at the next ceremony.
— Laura Martin, BBC.com

Lee Byung-hun really impresses as the increasingly captivating frontman.
— Laura Babiak, Observer

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Are there any memorable new characters?

Hyun-ju is a wonderful addition to the cast. A trans character, her growing relationship with Geum-ja is not only heartfelt, but a window into understanding the importance of communicating across generations.
— Kate Sánchez, but why? A geek community

One of the new players is a transgender woman, Hyun Ju… She ends up being one of the most surprising and meaningful characters.
— Siddhant Adlakha, JoySauce.com

Thanos is a bolt of unrelenting mayhem in an already electric environment, and (Choi Seung-hyun) has found a way to infuse pitch-perfect physical comedy, fury and tragic ruthlessness into a character that makes the viewer hold their breath at the same time . fear and beg for more.
— Shannon Miller, IGN Films

Of the new faces, Jo and Kang are close to making their characters memorable.
— Daniel Fienberg, Hollywood Reporter

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(Photo by No Ju-han/Netflix)

What does the show look like this season?

Ace cinematographer Kim Ji-yong’s dynamic and kinetic camerawork adds an exciting edge to the show’s many vibrant backdrops.
— Pierce Conran, South China Morning Post

Hwang Dong-hyuk, who has written and directed all sixteen episodes of the series, remains a master of turning screws at just the right moment, keeping his camera alert but ready to pounce with sudden pans and push-ins when needed is most appropriate.
— Siddhant Adlakha, JoySauce.com

What Play octopus still going for it is its visual imagination. Its themes of class struggle are rendered with flair, and not just in the pastel butchery of the playsets.
— James Poniewozik, New York Times

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Are there any problems?

Play octopus Season 2’s only fault is how it ramps up… The pacing of the first two episodes could be better.
— Kate Sánchez, but why? A geek community

Perhaps the biggest problem with this latest series is that the pacing is often sluggish, stretching circumstances that could have been conveyed in four or five episodes into a seven-episode season.
— Elijah Gonzalez, Paste Magazine

The only problem? The painful wait for the simultaneous shot Play octopus season 3 to be released in 2025.
— Pierce Conran, South China Morning Post

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82%

Squid Game: Season 2
(2024)
premiered on Netflix on December 26, 2024.

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