the games in “Squid Game” season 2 were fairly underwhelming, to the point that I started to suspect that “Squid Game” creator Hwang Dong-hyuk, who’s admitted to being a bit sick of the series, may have run out of ideas. But then came “The Starry Night.”
“Squid Game” season 3, episode 2 is the cue for me to eat my cynical words with a generous side order of crow. The team preparations and frantic pre-game bartering for the Hide and Seek game have already played out in episode 1, so “The Starry Night” has the luxury of diving right in. First, the blue team of key-wielding hiders enters the playing area, which is an eerie “starlit” maze littered with crude nursery rooms. Soon, the knife-wielding red seeker team follows, their lives depending on their ability to kill at least one blue player before the timer runs out.
The first big game of season 3 is bloody and dramatic enough to blow just about every game that came before it out of the water. Just as importantly, its sweaty desperation and abject horror tap directly into the examination of social injustice and humanity’s basest instincts that helped make “Squid Game” season 1 such a massive hit. With such building blocks at its disposal, it’s no wonder that “The Starry Night” is “Squid Game” rejuvenated — a tour de force that might very well be the finest hour of television the South Korean survival show has to offer.
