Del reviews Season 2 of ‘Squid Game’
Image by Netflix
“Squid Game” Season 2. Starring Lee Jung-jae as Seong Gi-hun, Lee Byung-hun as Hwayng In-ho, Park Gyu-young as Kang No-eul, and others. Directed by Hwang Dong-hyuk. Seven episodes, 33-76 minutes long per episode. Rated TV-MA. Streaming on Netflix.
Del’s take
Dystopian and violent, “Squid Game 2” can be seen as an intense metaphor for the rigged democracy and corrupted capitalism running amok in America today.
The original “Squid Game” Netflix series burst upon the scene in September 2021 and became an instant sensation with its dark theme of oppressed people battling each other and a faceless authority in contests where the odds were stacked against them.
In “Squid Game” deadbeats, drug addicts and gamblers whose luck has run out compete for a $31 million cash prize. What they don’t know going in is that the losers die and have their organs harvested. It’s like “The Running Man” without a quippy Richard Dawson to keep things moving along.
Lee Jung-jae reprises his role as the soulful Seong Gi-hun, who in Season 1 needed money to pay off his gambling debts and finance his mother’s medical treatments. He re-enters the game in Season 2 to bring down the organizers from within and expose the lethal abuse of contestants.
As in Season 1 the games are diabolically cruel, and it is here where “Squid Game,” as a vehicle for social commentary, takes on its shine. Games are packaged in the shiny colors and simple language of a children’s game, but nothing about “Red Light. Green Light” and “Tug-of-War” is child-like. If you don’t stop when the giant robot girl turns and opens its eyes, you die.
Meanwhile, contestants feud among themselves, trying to decide if they should continue the games or escape with their lives. That’s where Season 2 departs from the first season formula – participants vote after each game to play or go – as a group. In this outing one faction wants to continue playing, even if it costs them their lives, for the chance of winning a larger sum of money. The other wants to cut their losses and leave Squid Game island. It’s hard to ignore the parallels between that and the MAGA vs. Sane People rancor permeating American politics right now.
This season’s cast of characters includes a mother who joined to pay off her son’s gambling debts, a rapper who lost his fortune in cryptocurrency and a trans woman who needs the cash to complete her transition. Each has a story to tell and to be honest, they sound pityingly similar to the people being harmed by the current administration’s rampage through federal government services.
“Squid Game” is a dark and furious condemnation of authority and oppression, with notes of human greed and towering hubris thrown into the mix. But Season 2 departs from the script of the first season by offering a moment of hope. What will Season 3 bring? We’ll find out later this year.
Season 2 of “Squid Game” rates a grade of A.
Del Stone Jr. is a former journalist and writer.
Mom and Pat share a laugh on Christmas morning, 1976, at our house on Pryor Road in Fort Walton Beach, Fla. Image by Del Stone Sr.
I raided both my and my folks’ photos for images of holidays past for this Christmas Eve retrospective.
Image by Netflix
“Carry-On” Starring Taron Egerton, Jason Bateman, Sofia Carson. Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra. Rated PG-13. 1 hour, 59 minutes long.
Del’s take
“Carry-On,” the new thriller from Netflix, is “Die Hard” without the charismatic lead and relatable love interest. But its antagonist, while no Hans Gruber, does provide a satisfying level of menace and the Al Powell role is greatly and satisfyingly expanded.
“Carry-on” takes place at an airport, which I suppose makes it “Die Hard 2.” Taron Egerton plays the role of Ethan Kopek, the self-doubting and somewhat listless boyfriend of Nora Parisi (Sofia Carson), both of whom work at LAX. Kopek is languishing at his TSA job of running a metal detector over perpetually angry Karens flying from Los Angeles to wherever Karens go to roost. What he really wants to do is be a cop. But he applied and was rejected, so now he’s marking time and not really going anywhere in life.
After a pep talk from Nora, Kopek presses his boss, Phil Sarkowski (the always excellent Dean Norris of “Breaking Bad” fame) for a turn at the scanning machine, a step up from his lowly metal detecting duties. After some pushback Sarkowski obliges, and it’s here where events take a turn for the malevolent. Kopek is handed an ear piece over which he receives instructions to let a certain bag pass through the detector or people will die, including Nora.
Thus begins the meat of “Carry-On,” with Kopek racing against time, his fellow TSA agents, the Los Angeles PD and the mysterious voice over the ear piece (the unnamed Jason Bateman in a rare, dark role) to thwart a catastrophe.
“Carry-On” suffers from a couple of problems, most notably pacing, with fully the first half of the movie devoted to character development and backstory. At times the pacing was so glacial I was tempted to switch to “Squid Games 2.” But over a period of two days I managed to muck my way through all the nonsense about meeting Dad’s expectations and not letting one failure get you down, and finally the action commenced.
Once there the movie moved along briskly, admittedly with a few hitches in logic. I felt I was being asked to suspend my disbelief way too often, more frequently than in “Die Hard.”
The other problem was casting. Taron Egerton is a good enough actor and I loved him in the “Kingsman” movies, but here he seems weak and indecisive, not at all like Bruce Willis’ flawed but heroic John McClain. Sofia Carson was way too exotic for her role as Kopek’s pregnant girlfriend.
What Egerton and Carson lack as leads, however, Jason Bateman and Danielle Deadwyler more than make up for in their roles as antagonist and the LA PD detective who is inadvertently drawn into the terroristic confrontation. Bateman can’t match Alan Rickman’s energy as Hans Gruber in “Die Hard” but he doesn’t try. In “Carry-On” he’s a subdued avatar for evil, and maybe a symbol for the American imperative of capitalism at any cost. Deadwyler’s portrayal of Det. Elena Cole pretty much stole the show for me. I’d like to see her in a movie or TV show of her own. What else can I say? She was sensational!
If I were to grade “Carry-On” I’d give it a solid B. It’s a good enough action movie that’s slow to get going, and maybe I didn’t care as much as I should have about the protagonist and his love interest. But the action is terrific and the other characters are sufficiently engaging to carry me over the hump.
Del Stone Jr. is a former journalist and a writer.