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Squid Recreation did not invent its model of lethal aggressive hijinks, which was first popularized method again in 2000 in Kinji Fukasaku’s kids-killing-kids motion fest Battle Royale, nevertheless it’s definitely been smarter and sharper in its social satire, in addition to buzzier: toys, video games, Halloween costumes, and extra have all sprung from the Squid Recreation font. (Attention-grabbing that we won’t even take pleasure in a brutal takedown of late-stage capitalism with out working out to purchase some merch.)
With Squid Recreation presently at an finish (at the least till the potential David Fincher-led reboot), and with a yr or so to go till the subsequent Starvation Video games film, you is perhaps on the hunt for a brand new high-stakes obsession. Listed here are 10 potentialities. (Simply attempt to take pleasure in them whereas they’re fictional: The US Division of Homeland Safety is reportedly contemplating an immigration actuality present by which refugees would compete for inexperienced playing cards, so we’re already relatively impressively near a real-life Squid Recreation.)
The 8 Present (2024, miniseries)
A premise which may have appeared excessively on-the-nose a decade in the past now appears like a fairly good distillation of our present capitalist hellscape—and usually, South Korean TV reveals and flicks have been forward of the curve relating to addressing the exploitative nature of late-stage capitalism. Right here, eight strangers are chosen to compete in a sport by which they’re locked collectively in a constructing and sequestered on completely different flooring every evening. They earn cash for every minute they final within the sport, however all their provisions should be bought with cash they’ve gained, at an excessive markup. At first, the contestants pool their sources so that everybody will get extra money—till they study that individuals on greater flooring are getting extra. Then issues get nasty. You’ll be able to stream The 8 Present on Netflix.
3% (2016 – 2020, 4 seasons)
It could be tempting to see this as a metaphor for the American dream however, after all, it’s a Brazilian present, and it’s not as if inequality was invented in america—we’re simply notably good at it. In 3%, the impoverished younger Inlanders have one shot at success: finishing “The Course of,” a collection of interviews, puzzles, and escape rooms designed to check their worthiness to affix a futuristic offshore utopia. Most fail, and lots of don’t survive, leaving a hit charge of…3%. That is very a lot Starvation Video games territory, however the present has a darker, extra grownup edge. It additionally has 4 seasons by which to develop its characters and mythology, permitting it to dig a bit deeper than a few of its YA contemporaries. You’ll be able to stream 3% on Netflix.
Panic (2021, miniseries)
There’s so much right here that’s acquainted. A gaggle of teenagers from a small Texas city compete within the annual competitors of the title—a bunch of TV-attractive youngsters competing in a collection of harmful stunts. The first innovation, as within the Lauren Oliver novel on which the present relies (she’s additionally the author and present runner) are the stakes: They’re atypically low, and that is very a lot the purpose. Many of the different reveals and flicks on this record constructed rigidity by dangling dramatically huge prizes earlier than starry-eyed contestants. Right here, the winner will get simply $50,000 for participating in a collection of life-threatening stunts—certainly, because the collection opens, two folks had died the earlier yr, and the present yr’s Panic gained’t be with out casualties. It’s good cash, nevertheless it’s not precisely going to set anybody up for all times, and it’s not almost sufficient to encourage the city’s better-situated youngsters to become involved. For some, it represents a shot at shifting out of city, or going to varsity—goals properly past many of the contributors. Whereas the richer youngsters youngsters go about their lives, the poor youngsters battle over scraps. You’ll be able to stream Panic on Prime Video.
All of Us Are Lifeless (2022 – , renewed for a second season)
Stepping away from the “lethal video games” style, All of Us Are Lifeless is, as a substitute, a zombie thriller. Right here, highschool is hell, virtually actually, as a viral outbreak sees a faculty develop into floor zero for an odd plague. Although it is not clear at first, the youngsters quickly notice that they have been quarantined from the remainder of town. Assist is not coming. Nihilism is not unusual in zombie narratives, nor are themes involving the breakdown of social constructions. All of Us Are Lifeless, as a substitute, explores the world of a cloistered highschool below fixed risk as a parallel to our personal world: Class and background proceed to be potent forces, even (or particularly) amid the trauma of the assaults, and arbitrary social hierarchies solidify below the fixed trauma relatively than adapt. The closed faculty location is brilliantly utilized, and there is some appropriately soapy drama, as properly. Search for Squid Recreation‘s Emmy-winner Lee Yoo-mi as spoiled wealthy child Lee Na-yeon. You’ll be able to stream All of Us Are Lifeless on Netflix.
The Wilds (2020 – 2022, two seasons)
In an indication of our streaming occasions, The Wilds was a buzzy, surprising hit for Prime Video in its first season, solely to lose viewership after taking a two-year break. The present works as a YA model of Misplaced—together with a barely ridiculous situation involving a airplane crash—with characters who get extra participating because the present goes alongside. Located between flashbacks and flash-forwards, an airplane stuffed with teenage women from completely different locations crashes on the best way to an empowerment program in Hawaii. It shortly turns into clear that the accident was engineered, and that the entire thing is a few kind of social experiment, forcing the survivors to compete towards one another for survival. The present’s good sufficient to know the methods by which younger girls within the real-world are exploited and anticipated to compete towards one another, which grounds the flowery plot twists. You’ll be able to stream The Wilds on Prime Video.
Alice in Borderland (2020 – renewed for a 3rd season)
Video-game obsessed Arisu will get his want, after a trend, when he finds himself, together with a few associates, transported to an alternate, eerily deserted model of Tokyo—the title’s Borderland—vividly delivered to life by way of some intelligent inexperienced display work. The three are directed to an area and given the directions for the sport, which they’ll be enjoying whether or not they wish to or not. The primary competitors includes a locked-room-style puzzle; in the event that they fail, the room goes up in flames with them in it—assume Prepared Participant One, with deadlier stakes. There are video games every evening, although the principles permit for winners to get break day…there are a whole lot of guidelines, really, however the video games are cleverly and sadistically constructed. It’s been renewed for a 3rd season, coming in September. You’ll be able to stream Alice in Borderland on Netflix.
What do you assume up to now?
Snowpiercer (2020 – 2024)
Although it initially looks like an unnecessarily prolonged imitation of Bong Joon Ho’s allegorical post-apocalyptic movie, the present shortly takes on a lifetime of its personal as a intelligent sci-fi melodrama, neatly recognizing that there aren’t any heroes and few true villains on the finish of the world—principally simply folks doing no matter they’ll to outlive. In a frozen future (2026 to be exact), humanity survives on an extraordinarily lengthy practice that circumnavigates the globe. If it have been ever to sop, everybody dies. Those that got here aboard with wealth reside close to the entrance in relative luxurious, whereas the poor reside on scraps within the practice’s tail. Daveed Diggs stars as former detective Andre Layton, a Tailie deputized by Jennifer Connelly’s Melanie Cavill, engineer and the practice’s Head of Hospitality, to resolve a collection of murders. The inevitable rebellion that follows sees the 2 of them on completely different sides of a violent battle, earlier than every realizes they’re being manipulated by others. You’ll be able to stream Snowpiercer on AMC+ or purchase episodes from Prime Video.
The Purge (2018 – 2019, two seasons)
The Purge movie collection has all the time projected a high-minded veneer of social allegory over what are, in essence, exploitation-style house invasion thrillers. The collection exists in a lot the identical vein, tying in to the films whereas additionally serving as an entry level. Right here, we meet former Marine Miguel (Gabriel Chavarria), whose sister Penelope (Jessica Garza) has joined up with a Purge-adjacent cult. Jane (Amanda Warren) is spending the Purge evening holed up in her workplace making an attempt to get some work executed for her boss (William Baldwin); a few actual property builders are attending a Purge Night time gala hoping for an funding from an ultra-wealthy oligarch (Reed Diamond). The disparate tales come collectively over the course of a number of episodes that additionally dig into franchise mythology slightly extra deeply than within the movies. You’ll be able to stream The Purge on Hulu and Peacock.
Kaiji: Final Survivor (2007 – 2008)
Individuals in deep debt are given the chance to play lethal variations of kids’s video games towards different gamers, with the hope of getting sufficient money to pay their payments. Sound acquainted? Although it is from one other nation and a unique decade, the anime Kaiji is about as shut as you are prone to come to Squid Recreation‘s model of darkly satirical thrills. (Squid Recreation creator Hwang Dong-hyuk has cited the unique manga as an affect.) Kaiji Itō is a gambler who’s misplaced every thing when he is approached by a mortgage shark to take part in a extremely secretive offshore playing occasion. He’ll compete in occasions, together with a deadly model of “Rock, Paper, Scissors,” whereas others gamble on him and his opponents for his or her amusement. You’ll be able to stream Kaiji on Crunchyroll and HIDIVE or lease episodes from Prime Video.
Demise’s Recreation (2023 – 2024)
Website positioning In-guk stars as Choi Yee-jae, a younger man who provides up on life after years of being unable to seek out work, finally resolving to finish his personal life. Demise (Park So-dam) is not in any respect impressed by his cavalier perspective—in truth, she’s pissed, and sentences him to expertise a dozen lives getting ready to loss of life earlier than she drags him to hell. First he is a robust inheritor, then a bullied highs faculty scholar, then a uncared for youngster, and so on. Assume Quantum Leap, however with extra dying. Experiencing lives (and deaths) by means of the eyes of others, Yee-jae comes to understand that he’d favor to reside, thanks very a lot and, additional, if he can save the lifetime of anybody he enters, he’ll have the ability to keep. You’ll be able to stream Demise’s Recreation on Prime Video.
Kaiji, The Purge
