Kpopalypse recently watched Squid Game 2, but should you? Does the series meet required standards? This post has all the trufax!
Kpopalypse.com generally does not investigate Korean TV shows, because traditional Korean dramas tend to suck massive amounts of balls. However I made an exception for the original Squid Game television series when it came out, because I heard the show was very high quality, the theme and setting appealed, and also everyone I knew was posting about it on the Internet every three seconds so I knew if I didn’t seize my chance to see it quickly, it would be spoilered for me. So when the sequel appeared late in 2024, which featured not one but two ex-kpop stars, I thought I should once again quickly grab the opportunity to see this thing before everyone went ahead and ruined it for me.
Released: 2024
Running time: 7 x 60 minutes (approx)
I figured that the chances of people ruining the second series for me were… oh wait, that’s the wrong image. Oops! Gosh, I have no idea how that image got here. Excuse me, while I just go and find the correct artwork… ah, here it is:
Released: 2024
Running time: 7 x 60 minutes (approx)
Okay, that’s better. Gosh I’m not sure how that happened, but please no hate, I mean I’m sure that it’s a mistake that could happen to anybody. Anyway, like I was saying, I figured that the chances of people ruining the second series for me were in fact higher than the original series, due to the k-pop connection, which is why it’s of course getting coverage here. Those two ex-kpop people are T.O.P, formerly of BigBang, and Jo Yuri, formerly of IZ*ONE. I was already noticing a lot of online chatter about T.O.P’s performance in this series being… not that great, and not much at all about Jo Yuri, so I wanted to check them out for myself and make up my own mind. So how did they do, how is the series as a whole, and should you watch it?
Plot synopsis: I’ll try and keep details of the plot light to prevent critical plot spoilers, but there will necessarily be a few anyway as we’re discussing an entire-ass series that’s a sequel to another entire-ass series where the plot has already progressed a certain way through. Although if you ask me, there’s more spoilers in the official preview material than in this review. I’ve embedded the preview below but I actually recommend that you don’t watch it unless you’ve already seen all the episodes in the second series and are just checking out this review for funsies, because there’s a few things in the preview material that genuinely surprised me when they happened in the actual series and you’ll ruin those surprises for yourself. I also think that at the very least, before reading this review, that you go and watch the original Squid Game series if you haven’t, as I can’t help but spoil the first series when talking about a second series that picks up from where it left off, and it’s really good so stop reading this review and don’t click the video below either but just go and watch the original series right now.
Okay, if you’re just joining us, now that you’re back, we can continue. I mean when you think about it, just the posters for Squid Game 2 are a spoiler of Squid Game 1 if you’ve never seen the first series because they reveal that the main guy survived until the end of the first film, which may be “obvious” but it’s also the premise for a lot of the tension in the original series. Anyway enough of that, let’s get on with it.
So as mentioned, the second series does literally pick up from exactly where the first one left off, and shows our main character contestant 456 Seong Gihun (Lee Jungjae) investing his Squid Game winnings into attempting to expose and take down the entire operation, with several characters saying to him “you should have gotten on that plane and left Korea to live a happy life with the money instead”. Like, no fucking shit. You’ll be thinking the exact same thought as he comes up across several obvious obstacles to success, like not knowing who the fuck any of these people are or where to find them, or even seemingly having much of a plan once he does find them. Of course it wouldn’t be a Squid Game sequel in spirit if there weren’t more games, so naturally he finds himself dragged back into competing again so the show can recycle a similar format to the original series, because if they did anything else people would probably be wildly disappointed. It makes sense I guess, as it was well-publicised before the series even came out that the director was just doing the sequel so he can put money in the bank, so why on earth would he fuck with a winning formula, he probably needs the money even more than the contestants do.
Appeal to average TV watchers: I wasn’t super hopeful about this series going into it because of the aforementioned money-first motivation, which might be a neat allegory of the plot itself and underscore the need for a series like this to exist, but still don’t bode well for creative endeavour in general. However at first I was pleasantly surprised. The first couple of episodes have some genuinely intriguing moments in them, and most interestingly of all, they cover off not just the recruitment of new players, but also the recruitment of the facility staff. The subplot that follows around Kang Noeul aka soldier 11 (Park Gyuyoung) represents some of the show’s freshest and most interesting moments, as we’ve never seen this perspective before. I spent quite a bit of time wishing that the show would dump the focus on Gihun (who becomes increasingly annoyingly preachy and illogical as the series wears on) and show a bit more of itself from her point of view.
Anyway as the show wears on it gets gradually weaker – once we settle into the “games” it’s a fairly predictable formula from there. The constant interrupting of the story for lengthy discussions and voting on whether the games should continue or not has some valid social commentary but also gets tiresome, because these scenes have no tension – of course the games are going to continue, or we don’t have a series. It’s also not clear why Gihun doesn’t just try to bribe a few people to vote his way, given how cliffhanger the voting scenes are he’d only need a few votes, and he’s got all that Squid Game 1 competition prize money just sitting there at home. Gihun never saying the right thing at the right time despite having all that knowledge from the first series is irritating, watching him bumble around has all the frustration of a lazily-written horror movie where protagonists split up so they can conveniently get themselves killed. Also some very charismatic characters who could have made the show a lot more interesting if the director had chosen to do more with them end up dying way too early. Meanwhile we have to put with another annoying religious character again, and I get the reasons for her inclusion, but the character is such a one-note caricature that she becomes irritating almost immediately. Worst of all though is the final episode which pretty much just devolves into a generic action movie with generic action movie problems and setups, you’ll yearn for the series to stop fucking around with trying to be lame Hollywood action 101 and just get back to the things that made it great… but you’ll probably have to wait for the third season (coming later in 2025) for that. Also notably missing are the VIPs who weren’t even touched on in this second series so I really hope they get more involved in the third one, as they represented some of the original series’ best moments and the series suffers without the context that their scenes bring.
Appeal to k-pop fans: Okay, so I haven’t discussed any of our k-pop friends yet, have I. Let’s get it out of the way. T.O.P plays Choi Subong aka contestant 230 aka Thanos, which is his “rapper name”. As has been written about extensively in the k-pop media, his character is a rapper who is also a drug addict, and much of both the praise and criticism of him in the role from the public comes from this similarity between T.O.P’s real life and that of his character, the criticism being “this feels like they’re trying to exonerate his real-life crimes with self-deprecating humour” and the praise being “well at least he knows how to play a character like this, he’s got the qualifications”. However while T.O.P in real life just puffed a little harmless weed from Han Seo Hee’s private stash, Thanos is into some weird unspecified pills that turn him into a total lunatic, so neither the praise nor the criticism seems sensible if you ask me. The way people in the k-pop media were crapping on about how T.O.P supposedly ruined this thing, I had assumed he was the new main character or something, but as it happens he’s not the main character anywhere except in his own mind. Honestly, I didn’t think his performace was too bad – yes, he is annoying, but he’s playing a very annoying person, so he should be annoying. I’m sorry to say that I’ve sent quite a bit of time with rappers in my own country who were also drug addicts, and T.O.P’s performace wasn’t too far from the mark. In fact in a couple scenes, like the one where he’s asked to pose for the cameras, I think he absolutely nailed it, but you probably have to be someone like me who has been up close and personal with dickhead types like this to really appreciate just how cringingly accurate this portrayal is. Suggestions that the director should have hired Swings instead seem off-base to me, I think he would have tried to be too “cool” for the role and blown it due to his rapper ego, but T.O.P debases himself enough to bring some welcome lightness into the pretty heavy and violent proceedings.
Jo Yuri is the other k-pop who is in this thing, and she plays Kim Junhee aka contestant 222. There’s a lot less to say about her character because she just kind of mopes around clutching her abdomen for all her scenes because she’s late-stage pregnant and has a shitty ex-boyfriend who is into crypto. Yes those are valid reasons to be miserable and she certainly plays the part fine but in a series where there’s already so much misery especially from the main character, it’s hard to really get behind her, except in the few scenes where she’s telling her ex to fuck off, which are actually quite satisfying. Anyway nothing wrong with her acting credentials here either, and she’s not annoying or anything, but if you’re looking for a female with the proactive charisma of Saebyong from the first series, she definitely isn’t it (I’d give that title to the aforementioned solider 11 instead).
Appeal to k-pop fappers: Given the amount of Squid Game porn remakes that now exist, I think that the Squid Game green and white tracksuits and numbered shirts are now well on their way to becoming fetish wear for a lot of people. I don’t count myself as among those people, but clearly it’s becoming a popular look for adult content worldwide thanks to Squid Game’s cultural penetration (pun intended). Not only is there the “Squirt Game” JAV listed above (that’s DASS-534, starring Misono Waka and also featuring Mizuki Igarashi, the same girl who dances to Seo Eve’s “Malatanghulu” in FTKD-019), but there’s also not one but two Taiwanese “Squirt Games” (RAS-0107 and RAS-0108) that came out not long after the first Squid Game series was released. Aren’t you glad I went to the trouble to find all of this out, feel free to thank me by donating or buying a book, they probably cost a lot less than a Squirt Game film. Anyway, I really think that if you were interested in fap (and if you are I know you’re reading, my boobs posts don’t trend for no reason) you’d be better off checking out those films instead of bothering with Squid Game 2 as T.O.P acts like too much of a dickhead and Jo Yuri is just too goddamn miserable for words, neither of them are putting me in the mood for much at all.
Conclusion: It’s annoying that the series is clearly just a warm-up for the conclusion in Squid Game 3, because it definitely feels like a lot of the things that are happening in series 2 are just setups that will be resolved later. This series doesn’t have a satisfying mini-ending of its own, the heavy focus towards action at the end feels like it’s supposed to give the viewer that kind of end-of-the-action-movie catharsis but it just didn’t do it for me because almost no plot threads are resolved, it’s cliffhanger all the way. That said, it’s probably worth watching this anyway if you’re at all into the “Squid Game universe” because there are some great moments here that will stick with you that I deliberately haven’t discussed here. Also the social commentary is as biting as ever and is probably the one area of the series where the value of the narrative has actually increased, and I’ll definitely also be checking out the third season. So I guess that’s a cautious recommendation, if nothing else I can confirm that the k-pop folks definitely don’t ruin it anywhere near as much as you might be led to believe by reading bullshit comments on k-pop forums and translation sites.
Final score: 3 squirts out of 5, but add an extra half a squirt if you ever wanted to see your favourite k-pop boy punch a crypto bro.