The long-awaited second season of Squid Game is a story of two high-risk returns. One is that of Seong Gi-hun, season one’s winner of an underground tournament of reimagined schoolyard games that rewarded the victor with a colossal cash prize and left unsuccessful contestants for dead. Now, haunted by the human cost of his earnings, Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae) resolves to re-enter the competition and take it down from the inside.

The other is that of Hwang Dong-hyuk, creator of this irresistible, idiosyncratic Korean thriller which became a global phenomenon and the most watched show in Netflix history. Initially conceived as a standalone series, it was swiftly renewed for two more seasons. And so, like his hero, Hwang is back to do it all over again. But instead of a cadre of masked, gun-wielding guards scrutinising his every move, it’s millions of expectant fans.

The first couple of episodes might leave some viewers wondering whether both character and creator should have let things be. Largely revolving around a terse and gaunt Gi-hun as he frantically searches for the contest’s Mephistopheles-like recruiter in Seoul, these chapters serve as an inauspiciously protracted prologue that feels like filler.