Let’s get something out of the way – Hwang Dong-hyuk, Squid Game‘s creator deserves residuals for this show. I also skimmed the Wikipedia page for Squid Game: The Challenge and there are some bothersome yet standard procedure things. Reality contestants always get long hours and less sleep, and of course the production rigs the games. I wanna give the show the benefit of the doubt that they have better food and heating now. Even then, Season 1 made for good reality trash TV, producing some people who’ll be on other Netflix shows. Jury’s out as to whether or not this season will produce another hot villain like Bryton but this season’s still competent, talking heads and all.

Just like the original Squid Game, this show has six games but more episodes, usually nine or ten. This season has nine and viewers will see four today, starting out with a ‘minor’ counting game. The production divides the show into two big groups, and the show, then, ‘kills’ half of the 456 contestants. The leader of the two groups, 431 and 432 (Raul and Jacob), must choose then to eliminate three players to play the game. But this show is not all about the mini games because it has the contestants playing ‘real’ games. Some of these games in Squid Game: The Challenge are the same from the OG show but others diverge in uniquely ‘deadly’ ways. And a lot of players are going to cry while others ‘die’.

As other critics point out, the original Squid Game took cues from reality TV, exaggerating the genre. Squid Game: The Challenge takes games from most people’s childhoods but again, 455 of the contestants won’t win the $4.56. The production knows how to make compelling story lines, like what happens during the first game – Pentathlon. I never knew what one of the Pentathlon games, Gong-gi, was until this season and now the mere mention of it stresses me out. Anyway, daughter and father 369 and 370 (Zoe and Curt) decide to go on separate groups and Curt’s group wins first. Zoe’s group plays later than him and he had to watch his daughter play the same games. He gets most of the winning contestants to root for her and somehow I rooted for her too.

This season of Squid Games: The Challenge is probably as manipulative as the first one but so what? It’s basically Takeshi Castle with more dire consequences. I like watching these contestants play non-OG games to figure out the right way to play catch. Player 152, Viper, thinks he’s athletic enough to go last, but seeing other players not catch may psych him out. Let’s back up a bit – the surviving players separate themselves into four groups, with three leftovers. One of those leftovers is Jonti, Player 118, who doesn’t ‘die’ but has to bet on a player to make it too. He chooses Player 152, Viper, the former putting his ‘life’ on the latter’s hands – the stakes are so high.

Coming up on Squid Game: The Challenge Season 2 – the surviving players are happy to see less beds. But this is three games in, and after that third game they immediately go into the fourth – what can it be? And will players like 183, 302, and 327 (Steven, Dajah, and Kate) use part of their outside lives to backstab, play the game, and step up, risking it all?

Netflix is the only place to stream the first four episodes of Squid Game: The Challenge, Season Two. Maybe see youse next week.