This month millions of people around the world have returned to the bizarre, bloody and brightly coloured corridors of Squid Game, writes streaming columnist NICK OVERALL.

The hugely popular South Korean drama series, Squid Game, about deadly children’s games is back on Netflix with seven new episodes.

It’s been more than three years since the show debuted to international acclaim and became Netflix’s most popular series, and its return had many wondering whether it would once again be able to draw huge attention.

But Squid Game has proven it’s no one-trick pony.

In the first week of January season two was watched by 58.2 million people, making it the most viewed series for the first week of the new year.

For those unfamiliar with the premise, Squid Game revolves around a bizarre and gruesome set of children’s games that people compete in for a multi-million dollar prize.

Contestants are down on their luck, all in huge amounts of debt and many see the contest as their final chance to save themselves.

These games are held on a secret island and are overseen by ominous masked figures who enforce the rules with guns.

There’s more at stake than money. Those who lose the game also lose their life, all until only one player remains.

Season two picks up around two years after the first contest and follows the winner Seong Gi-Hun (or as many know him better “player 456”).

Now he’s out on a mission for revenge, trying to find the island where he endured the horror of Squid Game and put an end to them once and for all.

Part of what made the first season so successful was just how different it was. Nobody has ever seen anything like Squid Game on TV before and simple word-of-mouth made it the most watched series in 94 countries.

It was therefore critical that season two shake things up enough to keep people interested. While slow off the mark, once the new episodes get going they prove almost as compelling as the first season.

There’s better character work here, with a new cast of people from all walks of life fighting to survive.

Some are doing all they can to escape the games, only wanting freedom from their masked captors. Others want the money, and are fighting to keep everyone in play.

The split between these two factions forms the crux of season two.

Without going too far into spoiler territory, the new twist here is that after each game contestants are given the chance to vote to leave with the money they’ve won so far or to keep gambling their life for a chance at even more cash.

Despite retreading familiar ground, this second installment shows it has more interesting social commentary to offer.

The characters at times feel like they’re breaking the fourth wall in their conversations about “those who watch us for their own entertainment”.

Its swipe at the pitfalls of capitalism feel rather ironic though when major brands in real life try to cash in.

McDonald’s has jumped on the popularity by bizarrely covering its food packaging in the iconography of Squid Game. Given what the show is actually about, I probably wouldn’t be calling that a “happy meal”.

One major downside to season two is that it feels frustratingly incomplete.

Netflix made seven episodes available and ended things on a major cliffhanger, but it feels like this was only half a season worth of content. Cliffhangers are nothing new, of course, but this felt purely abrupt.

The third and final season was filmed back to back with the second season and is set to release later this year.

It seems the choice to split it up like this is Netflix once again trying to stretch out the hype for the show, and perhaps an attempt to combat platform rotation, where viewers will subscribe only for one month to watch the new season of their favourite show before leaving again.

Regardless, Squid Game has shown the world it has more to say and once again cemented a firm place in pop culture.

Much like many of the characters of the second season, audiences around the world are already calling out for “one more game”.