'The Squid Game' returns with new plot and style

Three years later, the most anticipated sequel. Can Netflix handle it?

Five days before its end, Netflix’s second season of ‘The Squid Game’ premiered, possibly its most important day of 2024. Netflix took more than three years to follow up on its 2021 Korean success, which was unprecedented for the streaming industry and the platform. Netflix has promoted everything. One of the most anticipated series of the year, Netflix will likely address the long wait in the coming weeks.

Netflix’s biggest hit. That’s significant. The first season of ‘Wednesday’ comes close to the 2021 series’ 265,200,000 views, which is the platform’s most watched in any language. Although the platform no longer provides these figures, 142 million viewers in 28 days and 1.65 billion hours were reported. Bloomberg estimates that Netflix made $900 million with a $21.4 million series.

Take the second. The unexpected success of the first ‘Squid Game’ put Korean series on the radar, which were already cult hits. Netflix should want to repeat or get close to the move. The first season’s success was such that all of Netflix’s competitors began producing outside of Hollywood without fear of language or non-Caucasian casts. They are cheaper to produce, so ‘Squid Game’ and ‘Money Heist’ may have had a greater impact on the international invasion of non-Hollywood series than millions of hours of European and Asian productions.

More accessible season. Even today, the first season’s success is hard to explain: a visually striking series with a video game-like plot structure that made it easily recognizable, but full of hopeless and bitter messages from its premise: how many corpses would you leave behind to become a millionaire? The second part returns to the games, but it is cleaner and more empathetic and asks how to overthrow the oppressors rather than how to protect oneself from one’s neighbor. From Korean-style libertarianism to light communism, it becomes more hopeful. This is Netflix’s first step to repeat the series’ success.

Uncensored Link. Netflix released ‘Squid Game: Unleashed’ on December 17, a multiplayer battle royale that was less festive than ‘Fall Guys’ and was available in limited access without a Netflix subscription for the first time in the company’s history. Watching the series earns in-game prizes, but the biggest prize is watching it all at once. Netflix’s largest interactive project (it took two years to develop) is a good example of how the platform wants to promote its most powerful series.

A pop phenomenon. The first ‘Squid Game’s skill, sometimes involuntary and difficult to replicate, in turning many of its elements into pop icons cannot be quantified. The guards’ costumes were Halloween fodder, and the games’ recognizability, the detailed tracksuits, and the symbolic settings all entered the collective imagination immediately. Netflix produced a “real” version of the contest (better than expected) and a variety of exploitations, from the recent Beast Games (Mr. Beast already made his own Squid Game on Youtube) to Korean contests for strong and brown beasts, halfway between ‘Squid Game’ and ‘Ultimate Beastmaster’ and North American derivatives.

Netflix playing price? Images: the series was nominated for Best Series at the Golden Globes before its release, indicating high expectations. The luxurious interactive experience ‘The Squid Game – The Experience‘ has been running in Madrid for weeks. Xbox (with a special controller), Domino’s, Johnnie Walker (special bottles), and Duolingo (customized Korean course) have participated in the promotion. The iconic doll from the first test and uniformed guards have been seen in the world’s major cities for weeks. This marketing monster: Netflix needs a success like the first or we’ll feel like it’s reached a “ceiling” it can’t break.

‘The Squid Game’ returns with new plot and style

By knl9j

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