{"id":37727,"date":"2021-10-13T14:50:20","date_gmt":"2021-10-13T14:50:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/?post_type=articles&p=37727"},"modified":"2021-10-13T16:50:37","modified_gmt":"2021-10-13T16:50:37","slug":"squid-game-season-2-netflix","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/squid-game-season-2-netflix\/","title":{"rendered":"Do We Really Want a Second Season of \u2018Squid Game\u2019?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The
The cast of Squid Game<\/i> (Photo: Youngkyu Park\/Netflix)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Squid Game<\/em>, the violent South Korean critique of capitalism that\u2019s become a surprise global phenomenon on Netflix, ends in such a way as to suggest the potential for a second season. Even if you haven\u2019t finished the series \u2014 and if you haven\u2019t, you should get on it, because there are spoilers ahead \u2014 you\u2019re probably familiar with the general outline of the show\u2019s plot: 400-plus economically disadvantaged people agree to play children\u2019s games like tug of war and red light\/green light in a strange, dystopian complex, for the amusement of wealthy masked voyeurs. If they succeed, they move on to the next game, and the chance to win a life altering cash prize, equivalent to about $38 million. If they lose, they die.<\/p>\n

In the end, one player is left standing \u2014 flush with cash, though traumatized by the atrocities he\u2019s seen and in which he\u2019s participated. There are lingering questions about the shadowy organization behind the games: Who are they? What\u2019s their deal? How long has this been going on? How do they get away with it? What\u2019s happened to the other winners of previous tournaments? But the biggest, most pervasive question is probably the easiest to answer: will there be a second season?<\/p>\n

Nothing has been officially announced yet, but it\u2019s a safe bet that Netflix wants more Squid Game<\/em>. Though the steamer rarely reveals actual viewership numbers, Netflix announced<\/a> yesterday that the series has reached 111 million viewers so far. It has remained in the No. 1 spot on Netflix\u2019s own list of its top 10 most streamed content for weeks now. And there are the memes<\/a> and media coverage<\/a> and merch<\/a>. In the quest for viewership, you don\u2019t walk away from that kind of global attention. It\u2019s ironic, given the show\u2019s themes, but capitalism basically demands more Squid Game<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"Park
Park Hae-soo, Lee Jung-jae and Jung Ho-yeon in Squid Game<\/i>(Photo: Youngkyu Park \/ Netflix)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Meanwhile, series creator Hwang Dong-hyuk has indicated that he\u2019s cautiously open to the idea of returning to the Squid Game<\/em> complex for another round. \u201cThere\u2019s nothing confirmed at the moment, but so many people are enthusiastic that I\u2019m really contemplating it,\u201d he told CNN<\/a> recently.<\/p>\n

In terms of storytelling and world building, there\u2019s certainly more to explore. The final episode lays the groundwork for what could be a standard revenge narrative: Having survived the games, Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae) sets out to discover who is behind the whole thing now and bring them down. Without a doubt, that\u2019s exactly what many Squid Game<\/em> fans \u2014 the folks who will surely be dressing up in track suits<\/a> and white Vans for Halloween \u2014 want: more dystopian stakes, more action, more bizarre and terrifying twists on familiar playground games, more bloody violence. It\u2019s easy to imagine that kind of follow-up being another massive hit, scoring even more international subscribers for Netflix.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s harder to imagine is how a second season would maintain Squid Game<\/em>\u2019s critique of global capitalism. Of course, it\u2019s debatable how effective that critique is in the show\u2019s first season. The New York Times<\/em>\u2019 Mike Hale criticized<\/a> Squid Game<\/em> for layering a thin veneer of fairly obvious social commentary over gratuitous violence and a body count that amounts to \u201cempty, bloody calories.\u201d Slate\u2019s Isaac Butler compared<\/a> it unfavorably to Parasite<\/em>, noting that while Bong Joon-ho\u2019s Oscar-winning film continuously complicates its ideas and themes, Squid Game <\/em>makes just about every point it\u2019s going to make about violence and income inequality within the first few episodes and then continues its grisly massacre.<\/p>\n

\"A
A masked guard in Squid Game<\/i> (Photo: Youngkyu Park\/Netflix)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Still, an undeniable part of the show\u2019s appeal is that it is an unflinching reflection of what many working people the world over understand implicitly: that capitalism is a game none but a very select few can win. It\u2019s a contemporary parable about the way capitalism traps the poor and drives them to extremes. Parables work because they\u2019re short and self-contained. They use contrivances to illustrate a moral or spiritual lesson within a specific set of circumstances. Once you begin to broaden the scope, the story becomes something else, and the lesson gets lost.<\/p>\n

You can see the pitfalls of this kind of thing in Hulu\u2019s ongoing adaptation of The Handmaid\u2019s Tale<\/em><\/a>. Margaret Atwood\u2019s 1985 novel works because it gives us a brief glimpse into the experience of a woman living in a reproductive dystopia and leaves us with chilling ambiguity. The lesson is: this is what could <\/em>happen; do what you can to prevent it. Of course, it\u2019s natural to wonder what happens to characters after the final frame, after the curtain falls. Life, after all, goes on. But by attempting to answer that question\u2014Then what?\u2014in Season 2 and Season 3 and Season 4, The Handmaid\u2019s Tale <\/em>has in many ways lost the plot. Each consecutive season has inflicted more violence and trauma on its characters and by proxy its audience. These may be the kinds of things that would happen if June (Elisabeth Moss) and her fellow handmaids<\/a> were real people in these circumstances, but what is the point of watching people be brutalized over and over again? What are we as viewers supposed to gain from that? Meanwhile, the show\u2019s rare moments of triumph strain credibility. A story that was once an urgent warning about the perils of complacency when it comes to reproductive freedoms is now routinely referred to as torture porn<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Squid Game<\/em> risks something similar if Hwang and Netflix decide to continue the story. The show, as Butler insists, has made its point. Whatever comes next risks devolving into further gratuitous spectacle: more artfully deadly games, more gruesome fights, more bodies piling up. That may be enough to bring a lot of fans back for a second season. And if that\u2019s the case, you have to wonder: At what point do those fans trade their track suits and white Vans for glittering animal masks and satin robes?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29097,"featured_media":37728,"template":"","format":"standard","categories":[38,16,3925],"yoast_head":"\nDo We Really Want a Second Season of \u2018Squid Game\u2019?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Netflix\u2014and capitalism\u2014basically demand more Squid Game. But would a second season maintain its social critique or devolve into violent revenge torture porn?\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/squid-game-season-2-netflix\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Do We Really Want a Second Season of \u2018Squid Game\u2019?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Netflix\u2014and capitalism\u2014basically demand more Squid Game. But would a second season maintain its social critique or devolve into violent revenge torture porn?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/squid-game-season-2-netflix\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Grazia USA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-10-13T16:50:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2021\/10\/SquidGame_Unit_101_584.jpg?resize=1024,683\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"683\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/squid-game-season-2-netflix\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/squid-game-season-2-netflix\/\",\"name\":\"Do We Really Want a Second Season of \u2018Squid Game\u2019?\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2021-10-13T14:50:20+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-10-13T16:50:37+00:00\",\"description\":\"Netflix\u2014and capitalism\u2014basically demand more Squid Game. But would a second season maintain its social critique or devolve into violent revenge torture porn?\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/squid-game-season-2-netflix\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/squid-game-season-2-netflix\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/squid-game-season-2-netflix\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Do We Really Want a Second Season of \u2018Squid Game\u2019?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/\",\"name\":\"Grazia USA\",\"description\":\"Driving tastemakers in Fashion, Beauty and Culture\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Do We Really Want a Second Season of \u2018Squid Game\u2019?","description":"Netflix\u2014and capitalism\u2014basically demand more Squid Game. But would a second season maintain its social critique or devolve into violent revenge torture porn?","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/squid-game-season-2-netflix\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Do We Really Want a Second Season of \u2018Squid Game\u2019?","og_description":"Netflix\u2014and capitalism\u2014basically demand more Squid Game. But would a second season maintain its social critique or devolve into violent revenge torture porn?","og_url":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/squid-game-season-2-netflix\/","og_site_name":"Grazia USA","article_modified_time":"2021-10-13T16:50:37+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1024,"height":683,"url":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2021\/10\/SquidGame_Unit_101_584.jpg?resize=1024,683","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/squid-game-season-2-netflix\/","url":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/squid-game-season-2-netflix\/","name":"Do We Really Want a Second Season of \u2018Squid Game\u2019?","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/#website"},"datePublished":"2021-10-13T14:50:20+00:00","dateModified":"2021-10-13T16:50:37+00:00","description":"Netflix\u2014and capitalism\u2014basically demand more Squid Game. But would a second season maintain its social critique or devolve into violent revenge torture porn?","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/squid-game-season-2-netflix\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/squid-game-season-2-netflix\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/squid-game-season-2-netflix\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Do We Really Want a Second Season of \u2018Squid Game\u2019?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/#website","url":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/","name":"Grazia USA","description":"Driving tastemakers in Fashion, Beauty and Culture","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"}]}},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"Grazia USA","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/articles\/37727"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/articles"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/articles"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29097"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}