Enough articles exist on the criticism of capitalism as told by Squid Game. Enough articles also exist on people “missing the point” and wanting to feed the system more to give us a second season (“we just like watching people die!” (cosigned by America)). There’s a criticism in here somewhere that director Hwang had no plans to write a second season and when Netflix dumped a truckload of money on his doorstep, he got out a pen and paper.
I wasn’t sure how a second season was going to work, since they would just play the games again and why would Gi-Hun would even want to go back, but the reason is surfacely simple: the money he won is tainted and he wants to save people from ever playing again. He’s got notbody else in life, so why not have a martyr complex. Gi-Hun also forgot that people are greedy af and they didn’t want to be saved from the game, they wanted to be saved through the game. By his attempts to save them, he has to keep playing the game or also does look out for his own interest, which implicitly does cost people their lives. Would he be able to spend his winnings without guilt if he does complete this round of games with more than one person alive? Would it even be allowed?
This season focuses more on the players and their circumstance that brought them here, such as: the crypto-coin YouTuber who “took” people’s money and the people whose money he took; the transgender woman who needs money for bottom surgery and a new life. It goes from psychological horror to action-drama and I kinda hate it for it. Director Hwang says he wanted to represent underrepresented walks of life in the show, which does amount to the transgendered character in the show, which even then has drawn criticism from western transgendered audiences. The show does also bring back singer/actor T.O.P, who has been completely abandoned by South Korea due to his personal drug use, as a caricature of himself: a rapper (who lost his money from the aforementioned Crypto YouTuber) who also takes recreational drugs. His character was wholly annoying to me and the meta was additionally annoying.
The show ends ready to let you know about Season 3 and I’m looking forward to it as little as I did with Season 2.
5/10