Just over three years ago Squid Game made its debut on Netflix. It was exactly September 17, 2021 when what seemed like a strange but curious South Korean series turned into an unprecedented phenomenon in a very short time. The survival game created by Hwang Dong-hyuk, in fact, has become not only a worldwide success but, even today, holds two records: it is the most watched non-English language series ever on Netflix and its director, screenwriter and producer made history by becoming the first Asian to win an Emmy for Outstanding Director of a Drama Series.

Today, this K-drama that paved the way for the success of South Korean series also in the West is back on the streaming platform with its highly anticipated second season which marks the return to the small screen of one of the most powerful serial stories of recent years which has forever changed the way of making TV series and enjoying them.

Squid Game 2: what it’s about

The second season of Squid Game is set three years after the victory of player number 456 of the so-called “squid game” thanks to which he took home the entire prize money: 4.56 billion won. After realizing that despite having become a billionaire his life hasn’t changed at all, he has a new goal in mind, that of entering the terrible deadly game of the Squid Game again and destroying it from within.

A South Korean series that has become westernized (too much)

For Squid Game 2, replicating the brilliance, originality and unpredictability of the first season was practically impossible. This new chapter of the series, in fact, is objectively less beautiful, less captivating, less surprising than the previous one. And the “fault” for this is both ours – by now, as an audience, we already know what awaits us from the story – and that of the series itself which, despite having rightly changed in this new version, has not fully managed to renew itself without distorting itself too much and to maintain its identity in the midst of change. But we expected this a little.

After all, success changes the cards on the table, the public’s expectations change, there is more pressure in wanting – and having to – please a very broad spectrum of spectators but there is also the “weight” of a company aiming for a budget very high on a title from which a great success is expected to be repeated. And this, whether you want it or not, conditions.

The first “weak point” of Squid Game 2, in fact, is that it could not stand the pressure of having to become the new serial phenomenon of the moment, undergoing a clear process of Westernization in its structure which led the series to be increasingly similar to the products that we are used to seeing on the small screen. And so, we took a step back and lost one of the most interesting and distinctive features of this story, that of being different because it is strongly linked to the culture and place of origin. Something that a South Korean title like The 8 Show has, however, managed to do. Obviously with much less expectations from the public and critics.

There is a lot of action with crime implications in these new episodes of the South Korean survival game and much less attention to individual characters and their stories, an element that makes this new season decidedly more similar to a classic action thriller than to an introspective, philosophical survival game and of social denunciation as it was in the first episodes. Furthermore, there is less focus on the games that were a distinctive feature of the series and now become the less dominant element. And all of this is a real shame, just as it is a shame to choose not to focus enough on the dialogues, the pauses, the digressions, the new characters in the story that the public never manages to become attached to because they are not very detailed.

Squid Game 2 is a series made more from the head than from the heart, perhaps more for “corporate necessity” than for real creative drive and this can also be seen in the themes addressed which are perfectly in line with all the rest of the Western titles debuted in this last period on streaming platforms.

And although the good quality of this series and the creator’s commitment to trying to make a sequel worthy of the previous chapter is undeniable, this new part of the history of Squid Game does not excite as much as expected, it does not go deep enough and it seems to want to focus everything on the rhythm, on the dynamism of the scenes, on the speed of the story and on the philosophical, reflective, social ideas that are there but are almost put in the background compared to the action.

Don’t expect a masterpiece from Squid Game 2, simply expect a different series from the chapter that preceded it. A good but not exceptional series, one of those series that you watch with pleasure but don’t leave your mark. Expect from Squid Game 2 a less South Korean and more “American” story but know that, despite this, the one created by Hwang Dong-hyuk still remains a great series that has done what it could to continue its story in great style but only succeeding halfway.

Rating: 7.5