{"id":2394562,"date":"2025-01-23T23:09:02","date_gmt":"2025-01-24T04:09:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/the-tentacles-of-squid-games-success-washington-examiner\/"},"modified":"2025-01-23T23:12:11","modified_gmt":"2025-01-24T04:12:11","slug":"the-tentacles-of-squid-games-success-washington-examiner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/the-tentacles-of-squid-games-success-washington-examiner\/","title":{"rendered":"The tentacles of Squid Game\u2019s success &#8211; Washington Examiner"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fthe-tentacles-of-squid-games-success-washington-examiner%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2394562&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The article discusses\u200b the\u2064 impact \u2063and reception of Netflix&#8217;s hit series &#8220;Squid Game,&#8221;\u200b which debuted in 2021 and quickly became one of the most disturbing yet acclaimed shows\u2064 in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/rumors-of-the-office-reboot-heat-up-again-as-strike-ending-looms\/\" title=\"Rumors swirl as &#039;The Office&#039; reboot nears end of strike.\">recent television history<\/a>. The original series\u200d followed \u2064the\u200c story of Seong Gi-hun, a man facing\u200b financial struggles who \u200dis\u2062 lured into \u2062a deadly tournament where contestants play children&#8217;s \u2062games with\u2062 fatal consequences, highlighting South Korea&#8217;s debt crisis. The show&#8217;s blend of\u2063 compelling characters,\u2064 sharp social commentary, and unique storytelling resonated with audiences, making it netflix&#8217;s\u200b most-watched series\u2062 ever.<\/p>\n<p>However,\u200c the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/plans-to-ditch-biden-already-in-talks-before-debate-after-chuck-schumer-organizes-backup-betrayal-report\/\" title=\"Plans to Ditch Biden Already in Talks Before Debate After Chuck Schumer Organizes Backup Betrayal: Report\">article expresses skepticism<\/a> about\u2064 the newly released second \u200cseason, describing\u200d it as needless and at times unsatisfying. This\u200c follow-up attempts to expand\u2062 the show&#8217;s universe three\u2064 years after the original, but it&#8217;s suggested that it may retread familiar\u200d ground without\u200b the \u200dsame \u2062impact. Despite the potential for \u2062interesting developments, the author\u200b notes that the\u2064 creator initially \u2062had no intention of creating a sequel, leading to concerns about\u2064 the depth \u200band relevance of the new\u2064 content. while celebrating \u2062the\u2064 groundbreaking success of\u200d &#8220;Squid Game,&#8221; the piece critiques the\u2062 decision to continue the story without its \u200coriginal narrative coherence.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<p><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><\/p>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-button\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-icon td-icon-mobile\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-header-search-button-mob dropdown-toggle\" data-toggle=\"dropdown\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-search-icon td-icon-search\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-button\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-icon td-icon-mobile\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div class=\"tdb-drop-down-search\" aria-labelledby=\"td-header-search-button\">\n<div class=\"tdb-drop-down-search-inner\">\n<form method=\"get\" class=\"tdb-search-form\" action=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/\"><\/form>\n<div class=\"tdb-aj-search\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/#\" role=\"button\" aria-label=\"Search\" class=\"tdb-head-search-btn dropdown-toggle\" data-toggle=\"dropdown\"><i class=\"tdb-search-icon td-icon-search\"><\/i><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<h1 class=\"tdb-title-text\">The tentacles of Squid Game&rsquo;s success<\/h1>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-title-line\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<p>In 2021, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/netflix\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">Netflix<\/a>&rsquo;s miniseries <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/magazine-life-arts\/1285085\/squid-game-and-the-thrill-of-petty-tyranny\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\"><em>Squid Game<\/em><\/a>  immediately established itself as one of the most upsetting television series ever made &mdash;&nbsp;and one of the best. The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/south-korea\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">South Korean <\/a>show&rsquo;s new second season is a needless and unsatisfying, if sometimes interesting, coda to one of the most important television series of the streaming era. Three years after the original, which was not made with a sequel in mind, this season attempts to build out <em>Squid Game&rsquo;s<\/em> world, both retreading &mdash; sometimes too much &mdash; and deepening it.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"article-paywall\">\n<p>The first <em>Squid Game<\/em> was gripping, creative, and unforgettable &mdash; an ultraviolent, even traumatic, refreshing of the tired dystopia genre, populated by three-dimensional characters and laced with sharp social critique. The series followed a down-on-his-luck Korean man, Seong Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae), whose gambling problem had left him in hock to a scary gangster and fighting for custody of his daughter with an estranged ex-wife. One evening, a mysterious man dressed like a salesman (Gong Yoo) approached Gi-hun in the street and challenged him to a simple wager; the Faustian outcome saw Gi-hun drugged, kidnapped, and taken to a secret island complex.<\/p>\n<p>The island was filled with other Koreans suffering from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/scalise-vote-no-on-pelosi-payoff-to-progressives-act\/\" title=\"Scalise: Vote no on \u2018Pelosi payoff to progressives act\u2019\">financial problems<\/a> which embodied, in different ways, South Korea&rsquo;s massive crisis of personal debt, which some analysts have estimated is larger than the country&rsquo;s GDP. Mysterious jailers in bright-pink jumpsuits forced Gi-hun and his fellow inmates to be contestants in a terrifying tournament for the amusement of masked oligarchs, with a prize in the millions of dollars.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">(Courtesy of Netflix)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The tournament was a series of variations on common Korean children&rsquo;s games &mdash; think tic-tac-toe, hopscotch, and the like &mdash; this time with a penalty of death, often administered on the spot by <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\">submachine-gun-wielding guards<\/a>. At the same time as Gi-hun was enduring this ordeal, a police officer, Hwang Jun-ho (Wi Ha-joon), infiltrated the mysterious island in search of his missing brother.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em>Squid Game<\/em> was a perfect storm: a better-written <em>Hunger Games<\/em>, crossed with <em>Parasite<\/em> and a splash of <em>Eyes Wide Shut<\/em>, with striking art design that spawned a thousand Halloween costumes. The show arrived as a pandemic cooped people across the world inside and had them feeling a bit dystopian themselves, and it even had a compelling behind-the-scenes origin story: The creator, Hwang Dong-hyuk, had spent 10 years trying to get anyone interested in the project, which was inspired by his own money problems.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>That <em>Squid Games<\/em> became Netflix&rsquo;s most-viewed series of all time, edging out <em>Stranger Things<\/em>, proved, excitingly, that viewers would watch foreign-language content. The show also exposed Korean <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/tv\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">film and TV<\/a>, known for intricate plotting and wild tonal shifts, to a wider international audience.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The original nine-episode series was perfectly paced and mostly conclusive; it was not written to foreground an ongoing series, and Hwang has been frank about the fact that he agreed to continue the series because of audience and commercial pressure. <em>Squid Game&rsquo;s<\/em> showrunners have also said they split this (likely final) sequel series into two parts, meaning that what is called the second season is more like Season 2A. As other series such as <em>The Bear<\/em> have shown, splitting seasons like this is a risky decision that often leaves viewers unhappy.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Season Two picks up fairly closely where the first ended. All the major surviving characters are back, plus a character who did not, strictly speaking, survive but has been resuscitated with a classic screenwriting workaround that won&rsquo;t bother viewers too much.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Since winning the tournament, somewhat despite himself, at the end of the first season and swearing to seek justice for his murdered friends, Gi-hun has gone underground and off the grid. He&rsquo;s living in secret in a disused and fortified motel. Rather than luxuries, he&rsquo;s spent his winnings on a private investigation to find the exact location of the island and the identities of the games&rsquo; organizers. He has enlisted some local gangsters in his quest. The police detective, Hwang, is also continuing his parallel investigation.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Gi-hun is tantalizingly close to a major breakthrough, but there&rsquo;s one problem: His foes know it too and are determined to stop him. They outfox and kidnap him. He wakes up, back on the island, to discover that he&rsquo;s been made a contestant all over again.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The second season fleshes out some of the world created in the first. Through the eyes of Kang No-eul (Park Gyu-young), a guard, we see some of the inner workings of the island. As with any supervillain&rsquo;s lair, the island fortress has impressive internal logistics. Since the previous contestants are dead, there are also a slew of new characters, including a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/transgender\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">transgender woman<\/a> as well as a lot more younger contestants. (The writers of <em>Squid Game <\/em>seem poorly disposed to Korean 20-somethings, or young people generally; the younger characters are generally vapid, psychopaths, or cowards.)<\/p>\n<p>There are more developments that I don&rsquo;t wish to short-change or spoil, but attentive readers will have already noticed an obvious problem: The plot is, to a large extent, a rehash of the first season. Sure, making Gi-hun play the game again but with foresight raises some interesting angles. Among other things, he soon realizes that it&rsquo;s really hard to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/fighting-through-failure-in-memory-of-rush-limbaugh\/\" title=\"Fighting Through Failure: In Memory Of Rush Limbaugh\">persuade people<\/a> that the game they&rsquo;re about to play may kill them. And, as in the first season, there are provocative questions posed about human nature, the psychology of addiction, and game theory. The contestants can cancel the tournament if a majority vote to end it but repeatedly fail to do so. Is that because of greed? Because human beings have a tough time believing in their own mortality? Or because the contestants are so down and out that risking death for financial redemption feels like an acceptable trade?<\/p>\n<p>Nonetheless, the new season feels a bit baggy despite being two whole episodes shorter. More to the point, it feels redundant. The finale is genuinely exhilarating &mdash; but also unsatisfying, with a heroes-in-peril cliffhanger that sets up the next installment. It&rsquo;s a frustrating outcome but oddly apt. Like <em>Squid Game&rsquo;s<\/em> contestants, I&rsquo;ll return for Season Three, even if I know I shouldn&rsquo;t.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>J. Oliver Conroy&rsquo;s writing has been published in the&nbsp;<\/em>Guardian<em>,&nbsp;<\/em>New York&nbsp;<em>magazine, the&nbsp;<\/em>Spectator<em>, the&nbsp;<\/em>New Criterion<em>, and other publications.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Squid Game&#8217;s success continues with a new, unnecessary season<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3130,"featured_media":2394563,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/LA.TV_.webp","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[5158,49121,5440],"class_list":["post-2394562","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-netflix","tag-squid-game","tag-success"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/LA.TV_.webp","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2394562","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3130"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2394562"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2394562\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2394566,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2394562\/revisions\/2394566"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2394563"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2394562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2394562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2394562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}