Warning: spoilers for the second season of Squid Game

Can watching a TV show give you post-traumatic stress disorder? Squid game It’s not listed as a cause in any medical journals, but when I watched the second season of Netflix’s global hit, I felt like the ghostly character in Edvard Munch’s novel The scream.

The first season of the series dropped in 2021, amid a pandemic that saw millions of people around the world die from Covid. Its apocalyptic atmosphere fit this death-soaked moment perfectly, even if the show’s driving plot distracted us from what was happening in our real world. His sharp criticism of capitalism was so cleverly wrapped in the guise of a thriller that Netflix was able to transform it Squid game into a cash cow that includes a video game, a live interactive game (yes, I tried it), a reality show (which, ironically, led to some complaints about exploitative treatment), and lots of merchandise – including green tracksuits – out of their environment and pink guard uniforms if you feel like cosplaying.

This time, Squid game doubles down on both its relentless brutality and its criticism of capitalism. One of the episodes is even titled “Bread and Lottery,” in case the premise of the drama doesn’t already have the idea of ​​“bread and circuses” floating around in your head. The show is steeped in income inequality and a winner-takes-all mentality in which broken, indebted people degrade themselves for bored billionaires. What could be more current?

Our guide through this wasteland is once again Gi-hun (Lee Jung Jae), the survivor of last season’s game. His victory was the epitome of a Pyrrhic victory, and it changed him. Gi-hun is no longer a nervous gambler ready to throw his fate into the wind, but a traumatized man. He views his prize money as “blood money,” used only to track down the game’s creators and stop the carnage. This hunt brings Gi-hun and Jun-ho together (Wi Ha-jun), the police officer from last season trying to find his way back to the island.

Both men are fixated on bringing the perpetrators of the game to justice, and both actors bring a pleasant humanity to their roles. Unfortunately, the complicated plotting and searching takes up the first two episodes of the season and significantly slows down the start of this round.

“You manipulate people who feel like they’re stuck in a dead end,” says Gi-hun with tears in his eyes as he finally makes contact with the Darth Vader-masked frontman (Lee Byung-hun). “You think people are just horses in a race and you own the horses.” The frontman is scornful and quotes (in a funny reference to our distorted current politics) The Matrix. “They could have lived in peace if they had taken the blue pill, but they still chose the red pill to play the heroes. Do you also believe that you are a hero who can change the world?” The answer is yes, and so the season begins properly as Gi-hun re-enters the game as player 456.