The highly anticipated Korean series ‘Squid Game” season 2 premiered on Netflix on Dec. 26 and reviews expressed disappointment with the show.
Ahead of the premiere, Netflix rolled out a large-scale global promotion to ignite interest in the new season of “Squid Game.“
However, media outlets criticized season 2.
"Squid Game" season 2 (Netflix)
“But there’s a lot more misery than delight as the season returns us to the games, repeating the bloody spectacle with new twists but the same crabs-in-a-barrel personal dynamics,” the New York Times reported in its review of “Squid Game” season 2 titled "'Squid Game' Hits a Red Light."
It added that in the new season, actor Lee Jung-jae’s character Gi-hun “is thoroughly grim and hard-boiled, which makes him more formidable but less interesting,” adding that the actor “spends this season doing a lot of glowering and speechmaking.”
“Of course, he must return to the game in order to destroy it, but ‘Squid Game’ takes its time getting him there. It takes its time with everything, stopping and starting as if in its own game of Red Light, Green Light,” it said.
The New York Times added, “It continues a story but does little over its seven hours to expand it.”
Time magazine, in its review titled “Capitalism Killed Squid Game,” stated, “It takes almost the entire season to break through various forms of monotony, and when interesting stuff finally starts to happen, you get the sense that you’ve just spent seven hours watching what amounts to a supersize teaser for Season 3.”
“And what began as a stark satire of greed, exploitation, and economic polarization has largely devolved into a cash-cow franchise like any other. It reminds me of something the Front Man tells Gi-hun in the new season: ‘The game will not end unless the world changes.’ Will it ever?” it added.
USA Today gave “Squid Game” season 2 a rating of two out of four stars.
“The South Korean horror sleeper that became the biggest Netflix series of all time is back for a second season, with more deadly children's games and deeply unsettling musical motifs. It's all the same,” it said.
It added, “So it is in a new context and with major expectations that the most-viewed Netflix series returns to our streaming queues. All that hype doesn't do the new season any favors; it is underwhelming and underdone.”
“Some things are the same: It still has the piercing (Emmy-winning) performance from Korean actor Lee Jung-jae; the teal tracksuits and masked men in pink hoods have returned; and there is blood and plenty of shocking violence to go around. But there is less bite, less idealism and seemingly less care taken. The outlandishness of the plot requires an even larger suspension of disbelief, and narrative threads are left dangling at the unsatisfying end of the seven-episode season. There is great nuance and uniqueness lost. Overall, where once there was shock, now it's just, well, ‘ah,’" it said.
The review stated that “season 2 mostly offers cognitive dissonance and frustration. The second half morphs into a fairly generic action set piece, crescendoing to a bitterly underwhelming climax and a conclusion that offers no kind of closure. It gives the distinct impression that director and creator Hwang Dong-hyuk wrote Seasons 2 and 3 as a single story and just chopped it somewhere in the middle to prolong the series for another season for Netflix.”
"Squid Game" season 2 (Netflix)
The Guardian rated the show three out of five stars.
“Series three has some cleaning up to do,” it reported in its review of the show.
“The early episodes feel like delaying tactics, and considering that this is Squid Game, it is all rather ordinary. There are chase scenes, car crashes and gun fights. The satirical element has been replaced by a quest for vengeance. It is entertaining enough, but it does lead to an uncomfortably bloodthirsty sensation, of willing everyone to get back to the sports day with a body count. Given that the last episode feels very much like the halfway point in the story, which will continue with a final series next year, this dragging of heels is gratuitous,” it added.
It noted, “A rapper named Thanos is one of the most irritating characters to appear on TV in recent times.”
“For all of its unevenness, particularly as it is warming up to the proper action, there is one big twist that really works, though whether it is distinct enough from what happens in the first series is unclear. And when you think you know where it is going, it turns away from its trajectory, upping the ante and finding its feet. What a shame it takes so long to get there though,” the review added.