Just finished season 2 of Squid Game and damn was this a rollercoaster ride and even more brutal and depressing than the first season.
I liked the time jump and Gi-Hun using his wealth trying to track down the location of the game and the identity of those involved while building a small organization to help him. He's come a LONG way since he came onto the radar as a candidate for the first Squid Games.
Spending the first 2 episodes outside the compound allowed the show to evolve the setting while showcasing how extremely well the games have been organized and how deep their pockets are ( well, if you can splurge 300 million+ USD as prize money for the winner(s) it shouldn't come as a surprise but over the course of the show we see just how deep their influence goes.
Once in the games it pretty much plays out lile the first season - players play and get killed, unrest starts to form but this season it's amped up i felt, maybe due to the Nazi like mandatory sign they need to wear showing how they voted ( thus speeding up the division amongst the players).
One masterstroke of writing was to smuggle in the game's chief into the player crowd and for the entire season i was wondering why and it drove me nuts, especially because he participated and could have died ( i think - don't know what would have really happened if his team had dropped the ball). That he betrayed the players during the season finale was therefore no real shock but i still wonder why he did it. The old guy from season 1, who created the game, did it because he wanted to feel like a child again but the motivation of the black man is still a mystery
What makes the show so great is that they make you care about the players, at least the decent ones, and the rising dread that they will not make it at some point. So this season most of my favorites, especially Grandma and the Transwoman, made it but the events are not done since the events are still in full swing even with the season done.
Speaking of grandma and the transwoman their stories were the highlight as well as the most heartbreaking. It was a showcase, maybe a little too on the nose, how prejudices are formed and how they can be overcome. Grandma at first being sceptical to put it mildly towards the transwoman but over the course of the games she got to know the real person and included her soon in this ad hoc family she started to care for.
For all the modern society criticism this show is built around i am happy they also show who we can be and what we can do if we just tried.
Now the long wait for season 3 begins. Personally i hope the story is done then and they don't overstay their welcome and try to find convoluted reasons for yet another season with basically the same plot over and over.
Spending the first 2 episodes outside the compound allowed the show to evolve the setting while showcasing how extremely well the games have been organized and how deep their pockets are ( well, if you can splurge 300 million+ USD as prize money for the winner(s) it shouldn't come as a surprise but over the course of the show we see just how deep their influence goes.
Once in the games it pretty much plays out lile the first season - players play and get killed, unrest starts to form but this season it's amped up i felt, maybe due to the Nazi like mandatory sign they need to wear showing how they voted ( thus speeding up the division amongst the players).
One masterstroke of writing was to smuggle in the game's chief into the player crowd and for the entire season i was wondering why and it drove me nuts, especially because he participated and could have died ( i think - don't know what would have really happened if his team had dropped the ball). That he betrayed the players during the season finale was therefore no real shock but i still wonder why he did it. The old guy from season 1, who created the game, did it because he wanted to feel like a child again but the motivation of the black man is still a mystery
What makes the show so great is that they make you care about the players, at least the decent ones, and the rising dread that they will not make it at some point. So this season most of my favorites, especially Grandma and the Transwoman, made it but the events are not done since the events are still in full swing even with the season done.
Speaking of grandma and the transwoman their stories were the highlight as well as the most heartbreaking. It was a showcase, maybe a little too on the nose, how prejudices are formed and how they can be overcome. Grandma at first being sceptical to put it mildly towards the transwoman but over the course of the games she got to know the real person and included her soon in this ad hoc family she started to care for.
For all the modern society criticism this show is built around i am happy they also show who we can be and what we can do if we just tried.
Now the long wait for season 3 begins. Personally i hope the story is done then and they don't overstay their welcome and try to find convoluted reasons for yet another season with basically the same plot over and over.
