|
CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION | ||
|
Positive:
48
Mixed:
23
Negative:
4
|
Critic Reviews
The PlaylistOct 7, 2021
Season 1 Review:
Hwang knows how much convincing he needs to do to bring his viewers on board with the premise; unlike the cop, the audience will buy into “Squid Game’s” world without a fuss, a credit to Hwang’s skills as a filmmaker and writer. Forget the negative connotations the phrase “bingeworthy” stirs up. In the binge era, this show is as good as they come.
Read full review
Jun 27, 2025
Season 3 Review:
Though we do get the occasional glimpse of hope, it’s overshadowed by horror after horror, each revealing a new dimension of Director Hwang’s diatribe against greed. This doesn’t make Season 3 a rehash of Season 1 but a profound, frequently poignant, and, yes, thrillingly twist-packed deepening of its themes.
Read full review
Dec 26, 2024
Season 2 Review:
Boasting several mind-blowing twists, these seven episodes advance the story to what will undoubtedly be an electric conclusion when Season 3 debuts in 2025. Additionally, the show is a reminder that it is not radical to protest injustice. After all, dissent might be the only thing to save us.
Read full review
Dec 26, 2024
Season 2 Review:
The seven new episodes of Squid Game are stunning, shocking, heartbreaking, and even exhilarating. Squid Game Season 2 is good! It isn’t quite as good as the spectacular first season, but coming up a smidge short of utter genius means Squid Game is still pretty great.
Read full review
Oct 1, 2021
Season 1 Review:
Superb acting performances heighten the drama, particularly from Lee, who makes Gi-hun irresistibly likable despite his many flaws. All of the characters undergo enormous trauma and transformation, and the actors rise to the challenge of portraying believable emotions in an unbelievable setting. A big part of the series' success lies in its dramatic and eye-catching aesthetic. ... What makes it so well-suited for binge-watching is how well Hwang uses pacing and cliffhangers to make the series absurdly addictive.
Read full review
Jan 6, 2025
Season 2 Review:
It’s not just the violence; it’s not even the desperation. It’s the way the villains endlessly remind their victims that they chose to be there; that what’s happening to them is happening with their own consent, and is their own fault. That ugly paternalism, which arrives here primarily through Gong’s nigh-unflappable grin, has always been the true horror of Squid Game, and it’s what has me hooked again after so long away from its black and bitter charms.
Read full review
PolygonSep 24, 2021
Jun 27, 2025
Season 3 Review:
“Squid Game” Season 3 isn’t as haunting and spectacular as the first two seasons, mainly because of the repetitive structure of the games and the lack of new characters. Still, there are certainly some compelling twists that make the last six episodes of this intense saga worthwhile.
Read full review
Dec 30, 2024
Season 2 Review:
Hwang puts aside writing a cluster of dramatic types to surround Lee and Wi to build memorable portraits. .... This season allows us to get to know more of them beyond a few quirks or twirls of the figurative mustache, although there’s a share of that. But more are developed amply enough to give their performers something to sink their teeth into.
Read full review
EmpireDec 26, 2024
Season 2 Review:
But with a season finale which asks more questions than it solves, this very much feels like the middle act of Squid Game. Those who want answers will have to wait for its final season, due in late 2025. For now, there are still these seven episodes to enjoy: a dystopian treat for people who still all live in a country called capitalism.
Read full review
Dec 26, 2024
Season 2 Review:
Squid Game finds its second wind by exploring the complex layers of a deadly system. Storytelling continues to be the series’ strongest asset, and a leaner season helps to focus energy on a more nuanced approach to this expanding fictional universe. Season 2’s framework is a natural breeding ground for new characters and deeper backstories with Gong Yoo, Kang Ae-shim, Park Sung-hoon, and Choi Seung-hyun joining Lee Jung-jae and Lee Byung-hun as cast standouts. Most importantly, these seven episodes continue to be a cleverly gripping reflection of the world around us – one with plenty left to say.
Read full review
Oct 8, 2021
Season 1 Review:
The show is most intense and horrifying, most fully and confidently itself, at the moments when there seems to be no end to the abyss. The show’s gorgeous, intense visuals work best early, when it’s still full of mystery. ... As Squid Game’s ending reaches for answers and for a future, it gets less surprising and less visually virtuosic. It’s not the kind of apocalypse story that longs for hopeful human resilience; it’s most eloquent on the topics of financial despondence and weaponized nostalgia.
Read full review
The Daily BeastOct 8, 2021
Season 1 Review:
It’s black comedy at its bleakest, a tonal juxtaposition that is to be admired. I think it’s so effective, especially in a genre that is so extreme in its gore, that it masquerades as “fun.” ... Like Parasite, it uses genre as a Trojan horse for discussions about capitalism and class. We’re a culture attuned to hyper-violence, but the series manages to show it in a way that you never become desensitized.
Read full review
Sep 24, 2021
Season 1 Review:
The fate of the more sympathetic characters among them is where the drama lies. The ins and outs of the games are thrilling. When the team of scrappy protagonists—male and female, young and old—tugs and tugs at a rope, trying to drag a much stronger, all-male team over a precipice, I cheered for every step back they took, even though them winning would mean a bunch of other people would get crushed to death.
Read full review
Dec 25, 2024
Season 2 Review:
While this latest run of Squid Game feels like it would have been better served if it was cut down and combined with the upcoming third and final season, the series is still full of incisive commentary, well-founded rage, and fleeting moments of camaraderie. Its pacing may leave much to be desired, but at least its central rebellious spirit is alive and well. That said, it would be nice if it still had both.
Read full review
Dec 30, 2024
Season 2 Review:
Sure, Squid Game 2 gives us a satisfying roster of new games and twists, populated by a fresh cast of well-conceived contenders. However, the format loses some of its impact as we explore similar conflicts motivated by greed, betrayal, and the perils of buying into a sunk cost fallacy.
Read full review
Dec 25, 2024
Season 2 Review:
Season 2’s biggest flaw is ultimately that it’s an incomplete story — these seven episodes certainly take you on a journey, but it’s all setup for the third and final season, which has already been greenlit and is set to premiere in 2025. By the end of the seventh episode, you’ll be craving that conclusion, while continuing to wonder at the forces which keep you watching.
Read full review
ColliderJun 27, 2025
RogerEbert.comDec 30, 2024
Season 2 Review:
The art direction this year is consistently engaging, including some new games that once again turn childhood joys into adult nightmares. Some of it echoes last season thematically and visually, but when it’s good, which is often, it’s very good. The writing in the back half of the season struggles when it has to check in with characters outside of the Squid Game compound, but it hums in-game, introducing new ideas and bouncing these new personalities off each other.
Read full review
TV Guide MagazineOct 21, 2021
Season 1 Review:
Ultraviolent and terrifically gripping thriller. [25 Oct - 7 Nov 2021, p.9]
Sep 29, 2021
Season 1 Review:
There is some serious exploration of social and character dynamics in between sequences of mass carnage and gladiatorial combat. As these things go, “Squid Game” is fairly thoughtful, and the fact that there is no sexual component to the violence is something in its favor.
Read full review
Jun 30, 2025
Season 3 Review:
While the plotting could be tighter, that doesn’t diminish the amount of cruelty flung at both these characters and the audience alike. .... A good ending can be tough for any show, but it definitely helps if the showrunner knows exactly what they want to say with it, and that’s very true in this case.
Read full review
Current TV Shows
By MetascoreBy User Score