“Squid Game” Season 2 heads back into the arena
NPR invited me back on their Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast to discuss the second season of the Korean series “Squid Game.”
Journalist, Author & Syndicated Columnist
NPR invited me back on their Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast to discuss the second season of the Korean series “Squid Game.”
“Squid Game” season 2 introduces a whole new set of compelling characters. Will they make us forget fan favorites like North Korean defector Sae-byeok (Jung Ho-yeon) and Pakistani immigrant Ali (Anupam Tripathi)? No, but the star power of veteran K-drama stars, including Park Sung-hoon (“The Glory”), Park Hee-soon (“Moving”) and Im Si-wan (“Misaeng: Incomplete Life”), is a nice concession to killing off nearly all of last season’s characters.
“At eight years of age, it was an easy transition [to the U.S.],” said “Squid Game: The Challenge” winner Mai Whelan. “The hardest was learning English, because there are so many tenses. In Vietnamese, we have general, formal and no tenses.”
Here’s where to start on your K-drama journey — including the one romance everyone seems to be talking about.
“I wasn’t told about the violent scenes with the doll [in ‘Squid Game’], so all I was imagining was a friendly doll that was staying calm but was getting more excited to play,” said Reagan To, 10. “I was thinking back to when I was playing with my friends back in school, and that helped me to create a young and innocent voice. I think that made the character even more scary and creepy.”
Narrowing down the best-of list to just 11 K-dramas was painstaking. But these shows from 2021 are must-sees that you will want to add to your watch list. Below, dive into the best K-dramas of 2021.
“Having diverse characters leads to endless possibilities for storytelling. And there are infinite ways to tell an adoptee’s story…”
NPR asked me to share my thoughts about the Korean series, “Squid Game,” for their Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast. We discussed the controversy about the subtitles, whether the Western actors in Episodes 7 lended anything to the series and whether a Season 2 would be a good thing or not.
Can’t get enough of the “Squid Game” stars? Then you’ll be happy to know that Ho Yeon (who played No. 067), Anupam Tripathi (No. 199) and Oh Young Su (No. 001) are set to appear on three Korean variety series!
Get to know “Squid Game” stars Jung Ho Yeon (who played North Korean defector Sae Byeok) and Wi Ha Joon (who portrayed the police officer Jun Ho).