South Korean stocks related to Netflix’s hit series Squid Game fell sharply on Friday after viewers and critics alike expressed disappointment in its second season.
Movie distributor firm Artist United Inc, which also does marketing, dropped almost 30%. The show’s main actor, Lee Jung-jae, is the largest shareholder in the company, according to Bloomberg. Another entertainment industry stock, Wysiwyg Studios Co., Ltd., fell by over 25%. Dexter Studios Co., which holds a partnership with Netflix, fell by 24%.
By contrast, the show caused rallies in local entertainment stocks, when its first season premiered on Netflix three years ago.
After the the critically-acclaimed Korean survival drama became a surprise juggernaut in 2021, winning six Emmy awards, many had high expectations of the Dec. 26 second season release. But social media posts showed that viewers were disappointed by the show’s cliffhanger ending and fewer episodes, with the final season of Squid Game set to be released in 2025.
“Waiting 3 years for Squid Game 2 only for 7 episodes is actually sick works,” wrote a user on X.
“No way squid game season 2 was just seven episodes and then ended like that,” wrote another.
On Rotten Tomatoes, the first season of the show received 95%; For Season 2, it dropped just a bit to 84%.
“It takes almost the entire season to break through various forms of monotony,” Time magazine wrote in its review. “And when interesting stuff finally starts to happen, you get the sense that you’ve just spent seven hours watching what amounts to a supersize teaser for Season 3.”
And the Daily Beast’s own Nick Schager concluded that “there’s something disheartening about a season that can’t devise a rewarding way to start or finish—and, by extension, to develop its conceit in a consistently captivating manner.”
