BEST NEW SHOWS ON NETFLIX
Five of the best shows to binge on right now
Looking for a new Netflix obsession to see you through this stuttering start to 2021? You’ve come to the right place. With so much new content available, it can be tough to know where to start, even with more time on your hands, which is why we stepped in and picked out the best TV shows we’ve seen. So, plump up the sofa cushions, set your phone on silent, grab some snacks, pick up the remote – and chill…
ALICE IN BORDERLAND
This eight-part Netflix Original series premiered on 10th December, but it’s based on a popular Japanese suspense manga series that ran from 2010 to 2016.
Essentially, Arisu, one of a trio of friends, wishes he “could go to some unknown place”. Bizarrely, his wish is granted and he and his pals are transported to an apocalyptic dimension which is also a gaming arena. Here, the reluctant gamers have no choice but to keep winning games in return for visas that last but a few days. Contestants who refuse to play (or allow their visas to expire without a fresh win) are zapped to death by a laser that shoots down from the sky. Yes, it sounds silly. It isn’t. It is intense, poignant, very well written, and incredibly addictive.
THE QUEEN’S GAMBIT
From the second a young American woman is summoned urgently from a bathtub in a pitch-black room by a man speaking only in French, you know Netflix has knocked it out the park here.
Created for Netflix by Scott Frank (Out of Sight, Logan) and Allan Scott (Regeneration) this sevenepisode series is based on Walter Tevis’s 1983 novel of the same name. It’s set in the 1950s, where we meet our heroine, Beth Harmon – portrayed magnificently by Anya Taylor-joy – who is sent to an ominouslooking orphanage where medicating young residents with “magic vitamins” is the norm.
Burdened by understandable emotional problems and a growing drug and alcohol dependency, she takes comfort in playing chess. Yes, chess – and she’s a formidable opponent, too.
ALIEN WORLDS
This four-part British mini series premiered on 2nd December 2020, and if it weren’t for the velvet voice of Sophie Okonedo (Dirty Pretty Things) making us aware that this isn’t one of David Attenborough’s triumphs, we’d have thought it was another stunning documentary about the natural world and what we’re doing to it.
But no, what we’re actually watching is a carefully researched CGI depiction of the creatures that might live on planets beyond our solar system, if scientists apply the laws of life on Earth (gravity, atmosphere, tidal forces) to the rest of the galaxy.
Nobel prize-winning astrophysicist Didier Queloz and ecologist Thomas Crowther put in appearances to lend credibility to the mind-boggling things you’ll see, but it’s the critters that will keep you hooked.
Watch out for the six-winged herbivores grazing on seed clouds on Atmos, a hypothetical exoplanet double the size of Earth and with twice the gravitational pull. Amazing scenes.
SONG EXPLODER
Want to hear Trent Reznor’s take on channelling his pain into Hurt, quite literally, why the success of R.E.M.’S “mistake” track – also known as Losing My Religion – still puzzles Michael Stipe to this day, or how a follow up mega-hit from The Killers started life as a simple three-chord riff in the Las Vegas desert? As a music-lover, you’d be mad not to.
Each episode in this 2020 Netflix Originals series is narrated by Hrishikesh Hirway – creator of the smash-hit podcast on which this spin-off TV show is based. The eight TV episodes are over all too soon, but don’t worry, there are 199 glorious instalments of the podcast to get stuck into once you’re done...
THE SOCIAL DILEMMA
Get ready: that odd sense someone’s looking over your shoulder as you type into Google’s search bar is about to feel completely justified, in the worst way. Have we crossed over from the era of information to the era of misinformation? How are the words we type into Facebook being logged, processed and used for financial gain? And, above all, why are so many of us addicted to our phones?
The Social Dilemma is a single, 90-minute 2020 docudrama that might just be more disturbing than any 2020 horror movie we can think of. Our take-away quote from the sometimes shocking interviews? “What I want people to know is that everything they’re doing online is being watched, is being tracked, is being measured. Every single action you take is carefully monitored and recorded. Exactly what image you stop and look at, for how long you look at it; oh yeah seriously, for how long you look at it”. Chilling.