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'Squid Game' season 2 heads back into the arena

Lee Jung-jae in season two of Squid Game.
No Ju-han/Netflix
Lee Jung-jae in season two of Squid Game.

The Korean drama Squid Game became the most popular offering in Netflix's history by combining pitch-black satire of late-stage capitalism with bloody violence. In Season 2, Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae) winds up sucked back into the games, where he must fight for his life, try to destroy the system from the inside, and rally new players to his cause.

Stephen Thompson is a writer, editor and reviewer for NPR Music, where he speaks into any microphone that will have him and appears as a frequent panelist on All Songs Considered. Since 2010, Thompson has been a fixture on the NPR roundtable podcast Pop Culture Happy Hour, which he created and developed with NPR correspondent Linda Holmes. In 2008, he and Bob Boilen created the NPR Music video series Tiny Desk Concerts, in which musicians perform at Boilen's desk. (To be more specific, Thompson had the idea, which took seconds, while Boilen created the series, which took years. Thompson will insist upon equal billing until the day he dies.)