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One of the biggest and most unexpected TV events of 2021 had to be Squid Game,

a South Korean survival thriller about a group of desperate people lured into a deadly game show

with the promise of vast wealth if they survive to the ends. The only catch is that failure in any

of the games means instant termination, and the more people who die, the greater the share of

the prize money goes to the survivors. It was an interesting concept that explored the best and

worst aspects of human nature, driven by superb performances from a big ensemble cast that were

largely unknown over here in the West, and probably helped a great deal by the fact that

everyone was stuck in their homes by the UNSPECIFIED VIRUS OF UNKNOWN ORIGIN and there

really wasn't much else to do except watch TV. Well, now it's three years later and it's time

to return once again to the world of Squid Game. Can the show possibly recapture that lightning

in a bottle of season one, or is it destined to be a one hit wonder that should have quit while

it was ahead? Well, for the most part I'm happy to say that it's actually still pretty damn good.

Yeah, that definitely comes with a few caveats. It's obviously not as fresh and innovative as

it was first time around, the script perhaps tries to juggle too many characters and subplots,

leaving the protagonist relegated to the background a lot of the time, and the cliffhanger ending is

definitely going to piss off a lot of people, but overall it was still more than enough to keep me

engaged and entertained for a few hours. And if you'll forgive the Star Trek analogy here,

if season one was Star Trek The Wrath of Khan, then season two feels more like The Search for

Spock, a safe and slightly workman-like sequel that builds on the plot points of its predecessor

and has some individually good moments but never quite manages to recapture the same magic.

Make of that what you will. Anyway, the show picks up about two years after the events of

Gi-hun, the last survivor of the previous squid game has teamed up with the cop who was trying

to infiltrate the games in season one, and together they've been working to track down

the men behind the games so they can put a stop to them once and for all. And holy shit man,

he must have had a tough old time because the actor looks like he's aged about a decade. Oh well,

that's what the acolyte does to a man I guess. It's funny as well because the showrunners must

have realised how fucking stupid his pink hair looked at the end of the last season so they

ditch it within like the first two minutes. I mean, I get that hair colour is kind of a big

deal in Korea, but over here it just makes him look like a washed up old K-pop star.

Anyway, whatever. His attempts to track down the recruiter finally bear fruit,

bringing him one step closer to his real target, but just when he thinks he's cornered the front

man who runs the whole operation, the tables get turned on him and before you know it he's

right back in the contest again. Oh Gi-hun, you silly sausage. Did you really think you were

gonna outsmart people like this? So I think you can guess the premise here. Gi-hun once again has

to fight for survival alongside a bunch of fellow contestants and a shit ton of extras who've all

been chosen because they have huge debts that need to be paid off in the real world, doing his best

to keep as many of them alive as possible while his buddies on the outside search for the hidden

island where all of this is going down so they can rescue him. The difference this time around

is that Gi-hun knows the true nature of the games and in theory at least, how to beat them. And to

be fair, the show does a good job of luring you into a false sense of security with the old red

light green light game before pulling the rug out from under you by making all the following games

completely different. Now he's no better off than anyone else. The other big change up from season

1 is that after every game the contestants are now allowed to vote on whether or not they continue

to the next round or call it quits and leave with the money they've won so far. The problem is that

the more people who get eliminated the more money will go to the survivors and so pretty soon two

camps emerge. Those who want to gamble everything by going all the way and those who just want to

get out with their lives. And naturally all the usual dramas you'd expect in squid games start

to emerge. Short-lived alliances and brutal betrayals, friendships, loyalties, sacrifices,

bravery and cowardice and unexpected twists and turns as the games get ever more deadly.

Complicating things even further is the fact that one of the players isn't what he seems and is

actively working against the group even as Gi-hun and the others plot a rebellion against the guards.

And don't get me started on the breakout attempt itself. The plan was so retarded and completely

underestimated the strength of their enemy that I don't see how it ever had a chance of succeeding.

I honestly can't believe it came from the mind of a guy who's been through squid game before

and knows exactly the kind of enemy he's up against. And on the outside his buddies struggle

to find him while contending with betrayals and spies of their own. Oh yeah and there's even a

subplot about an illicit organ harvesting operation within the games and a woman who's working to

prevent it. So as you probably guessed there's quite a lot happening this season and that really

brings me straight to my biggest criticism of the show. It's trying to keep far too many

plates spinning at the same time and inevitably some of them get dropped. One of the first big

casualties is Gi-hun himself who gets kind of pushed into the background after the first game

and becomes more of an observer than a protagonist only really coming back into things for the season

finale. There's a ton of periphery characters involved in this narrative all with their own

backstories and subplots and don't get me wrong they're all interesting in their own way and

generally played by really good actors and while it definitely helps you to get invested in them

I can't help feeling that a tighter focus on a smaller group of core characters would have worked

better. The storyline about a group of mercenaries trying to rescue Gi-hun from the outside is another

big downer for me. It eats up a lot of screen time without really going anywhere and starts to drag

the pace after a while and that's not even mentioning the organ harvesting subplot which

crops up so infrequently that you kind of forget it's even happening and it becomes more of an

annoying distraction than a gripping part of the narrative. Oh yeah I might as well address the

other big gripe here as well, the ending. See, season two feels more like part one of a complete

narrative rather than a full storyline that delivers a satisfying conclusion but also sets

things up for what's coming next. Instead it just kind of stopped right in the middle of a big

climactic breakout attempt and I can't shake the feeling that the writers were trying to spin out

a single season's worth of story into two frustratingly underdeveloped mini-seasons to

keep people coming back. I can't say for sure but when I think about the bloated cast of

periphery characters and the protracted subplots it seems like they probably could have condensed

all of this into one really strong concise season instead of what we got here. On the plus side

though the performances and character work are still strong, it doesn't take long to get a sense

of who everyone is and what motivates them and when they start to get killed off I felt genuinely

bad for them. That being said I could have done without the weird demented witch woman who keeps

cropping up. I don't really get the point of her character and she comes across as goofy and annoying

most of the time. The games themselves are all fine, maybe not as brutally unfair and heart wrenching

as some of the best moments from season one but they definitely test characters and their loyalties

in interesting ways. But probably the strongest and most gripping aspect of the season is the

voting system where you really get an insight into what each person values and how far they'll go to

get it. It delves into the core of what Squid Game is actually about, the conflict between

personal interest and the greater good, the temptation to risk it all on one more game

and the kind of people that might appeal to. Oh yeah and before any of the self-proclaimed

media literacy midwits take a break from sucking their own dicks to tell you that this show is

intended as a critique of capitalist systems and the exploitation of the working class by the corrupt

rich overlords? It isn't. It's an exploration of human nature, of greed, ambition and selfishness,

qualities that have existed in our species long before money was ever invented and persisted

even when it was removed. In fact I would argue it became even more pronounced when they tried

to remove it but that's another discussion. It's an imperfect sequel for sure but as long as you

don't go into it with sky high expectations I think there's still a lot of entertainment to

be had in Squid Game and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't interested to see how it all ends next

season. Anyway that's all I've got for today. Go away now.