If you had told us earlier today that we would get emotional over a Coldplay cover, we wouldn’t have believed you. But that was before we saw the trailer for season two of PachinkoApple TV’s award-winning historical drama. The trailer for the returning second season shows a beautiful version of Long live life performed by BLACKPINK’s Rosé, and it sets the tone perfectly: with stories set in 1945 and 1989, the new season promises to be even more epic than the first.
Pachinkos first season was “so good it makes the competition seem unworthy”, LA Times said. At its best, which it usually is, “it’s a lesson in how to do melodrama well.” It’s a very expensive show with beautiful people in beautiful but dramatic situations, telling the story of four generations of the same family in Korea and Japan. This new season of the best Apple TV Plus show continues the time-travel tales, this time between the final days of World War II and the greed-is-good late ‘80s.
Why Pachinko is Worth Playing
The series, one of three highly rated Apple TV Plus series we can’t get enough of, is based on the best-selling novel by Min Jin Lee and is notable for being trilingual: the characters speak Korean and Japanese, with English as a third language.
As LAT explains, it is “a story about racism, sexism, classism, subjugation, resistance, assimilation and the search for self-knowledge in a society that tells you who you are, where you belong and what you can do. If you’re not prepared to cry profusely, you probably have no business watching it.” According to CNN“From the first frame to the last, it captures your attention – and occasionally your tears.”
Season two continues the story of matriarch Sunja, this time in 1945 Osaka, where she must make dangerous decisions to ensure her family’s survival. And the more modern storyline follows Solomon, Sunja’s grandchild, as he explores new and considerably more humble beginnings in 1989 Tokyo.
Apple clearly has high hopes for the show: it nabbed 11 international awards for season one and currently holds an impressive 97% on Rotten Tomatoes. Not all reviews have been glowing – some reviewers have noted issues with the show’s depiction of Korean families – but most have been glowing: Empire Magazine said it was one of the “most satisfying TV shows of the year” so far.
Season two of Pachinko will premiere on Apple TV Plus on August 23, 2024.