SQUID GAME
You fell in love with that incredible new TV show. And then it ended! Don’t despair — Boyd Hilton recommends the sibling shows to watch next
MY NAME (NETFLIX)
Following in the bloody footsteps of Squid Game, the newest Netflix global phenomenon from South Korea is this twisted gangster saga. Han So-hee stars as Yoon Ji-woo, the daughter of a gangster who witnesses his brutal murder on her 17th birthday and goes undercover with the police on a revenge mission. The highly stylised direction from Kim Jin-min has flavours of Hitchcock and Brian De Palma, while the fight scenes are spectacular — but it’s Han’s ultracommitted performance as the generally furious Ji-woo that will keep you gripped, playing the police against the criminals and vice versa.
ALICE IN BORDERLAND (NETLFIX)
Nearly a year before Squid Game, this Japanese eight-parter arrived on Netflix with a similar premise: a bunch of youngsters find themselves in an alternate-reality, abandoned version of Tokyo where they’re summoned by a mysterious force to take part in a serious of brutal, elaborate games. Adapted from a manga series, the storytelling is propulsive and the visuals — especially the empty cityscape backdrop — are stunning. Although it lacks the key class-conflict element of Squid Game, Alice In Borderland is still an impressively immersive mind-bender of a series. A second season is on the way.
PANIC (AMAZON PRIME VIDEO)
“No-one knows who invented Panic, or when it first began,” says Heather (Olivia Welch), the protagonist of this ten-part Prime Video drama adapted by Lauren Oliver from her own novel. The “Panic” she’s referring to is a competition in which thrusting young people take part in a potentially lethal series of challenges organised in secret by the locals in the small town of Carp, Texas. Even more than Squid Game, there’s a distinct Hunger Games vibe to this show, with its YA leanings, and if it doesn’t always make much sense, it is never less than entertaining.
THE PRISONER (BRITBOX)
There are few shows as queasily disconcerting as Squid Game, but this all-time classic British series is one of them. The two shows also have much in common thematically, with the 1967 oneseries wonder, comprised of 17 mind-bogglingly odd episodes, toying relentlessly with its main character known as Number Six, played by Patrick Mcgoohan. The series sees Number Six attempt to work out what the hell is happening to him, after waking up one day trapped in a mysterious coastal village seemingly run by faceless operatives with giant white balloons. Part social satire, part Kafkaesque nightmare, The Prisoner will beguile you. SQUID GAME IS ON NETFLIX NOW