The Season Feels Cut In Half

We should’ve seen this coming when show creator Hwang Dong-hyuk told Entertainment Weekly that he envisioned the second and third seasons as one season until he realized there were too many episodes. Let me speak for the rest of us binge warriors who have routinely dedicated 30 hours of streaming to watch an entire 30-episode series in one weekend: there can never be too many episodes. As a result, the second season of Squid Game is good, but not as satisfying as the first season, which Dong-hyuk also admits was as far as he originally planned for the story to go.

The primary issue with the truncated season is that the stakes aren’t high enough for viewing interest to be guaranteed much longer. As of now, the third season will show what ramifications will be levied against players for threatening to kill the organizers, how voting on the game’s continuation will change after the bloodbath, whether Gi-hun’s backup arrives in time, and who ultimately will win the competition. Outside of the mutiny, we’ve experienced these stakes in the first season, but they all felt a bit higher because it was our first time. Plus, Squid Game is less of a mystery-style thriller and more of an action thriller that derives its suspense from us clicking to the next episode and finding out how else this show will depict the survival of the fittest.

While Squid Game’s third season will arrive sometime in 2025, cutting the final season into two parts wasn’t a smart move. Still, if it helped Dong-hyuk get more money (and lose less teeth), then job well done. See you back on the island.