Squid Game 2 : What Improv Taught Me About Unnecessary Sequels

Can anybody explain to me why we need a Squid Game sequel? Sure, the end of the first season left the door open to the possibility of a second season, but the show had already conveyed its message perfectly. There’s nothing more to say, so why keep talking?

I always knew there would be a second season, of course. After all, if you’re a studio exec, the answer to “why we need a Squid Game sequel” is simple : easy money. But between that and all the other disappointing sequels, spin-offs, and “cinematic universe” films, some thought started to grow in my subconscious.

And then, I watched Adventuring Academy.

Adventuring Academy : Improv and “Editing”

I know you, the reader, haven’t watched Adventuring Academy. It’s a niche show from a niche streaming service. But if you want to become a writer (or arguably any kind of creator), I can’t recommend it enough. It’s a show where people who play Dungeons & Dragons professionally discuss how they create characters, worlds, moments, and everything else to craft an interesting and impactful story. After all, creating a story is easy, creating a good story is hard, but creating a good story through improvisation? That’s a whole new level.

As an aspiring writer myself, I obviously can’t get enough of Adventuring Academy. But the show teaches me more than just how to create a compelling story, as one of the more recent episodes (with guest Zac Oyama) showed me by introducing me to a concept I’d never heard of before : editing.

Well, okay, fair, I’ve heard of editing, but not as it’s used in improv, which is what they were discussing. Basically, editing in improv is about ending a “scene” at its peak. Once the actors find a good joke and the audience is laughing, it’s time to kill it. It might seem counterintuitive - the fun’s only started! - but think about it : You have to leave the stage sooner or later. You can leave as a king, surrounded by laughter… or you can awkwardly shuffle off stage once you’ve beaten the joke to death.

You should always edit a scene at its peak - and the same logic applies to sequels.

Gone Too Soon, Or Just On Time?

I obviously can’t say that Squid Game will fall into the same trap as all the other sequels, but it’s hard to imagine that it won’t. It could have been "edited" after the first season and kept its status as a cultural icon, but now a second season is coming.

Even if the second season is more than just a cash grab, even if it has an actual story to tell, it has to find a way to outdo the first season. Otherwise, the best-case scenario is that it dies a slow death, losing quality and relevance every season until nobody really notices its cancellation. The worst-case scenario? Its lasting cultural impression will be the same as Game of Thrones, where you wonder how everything went so wrong.

A lack of good “editing” is also probably what’s behind some of our favourite (and least favourite) shows and movies. Shows that “ended before their time” like Firefly or Pushing Daisies, for example, are actually a blessing. As awful as it is to never get closure, it might be better that they’re forever frozen at their peak in our memory. The alternative is something like the recent Star Wars trilogy, the Ghostbusters remake, or anything else that people say “ruined” their childhoods. I don't think they deserve the hate they get, but I can empathise with the disappointment of a glorious end being marred by half-baked remakes and sequels.

They could have been edited while the audience was enjoying the high, but now they just keep limping along.

Calling Cut

Whatever you take away from this article, I don't want it to be that all sequels and remakes are bad. (In fact, I think Joker : Folie a Deux is a great example of a “bad sequel” that I don’t actually mind, but that’s a topic for another day.) Instead, I want you to blame Hollywood executives for constantly recycling material, valuing money over art.

It might be too late for Squid Game to be saved, but maybe we as an audience can save the next big hit. Let’s start enjoying shows for what they are instead of immediately looking forward to the next season or movie. Let’s make sure studios know we don’t want to watch anything that doesn’t have a reason to exist in the first place. Let’s look to alternative media like fanfiction instead of demanding more.

Let’s edit things before it’s too late.

PS : God is really testing me by canceling KAOS right after I wrote this. I'll take my own advice and go look on AO3 I guess…