The dystopian Netflix thriller Squid Game blended compelling characters, tense stakes, relevant themes of class conflict, and a distinctive visual style in a way that turned it into the biggest TV hit of 2021, connecting with millions of viewers all over the world. It gives hope to TV creators that original ideas can still be massive hits if they’re executed right.
And part of the secret of Squid Game’s success is that it’s not actually that original. There are a lot of other shows and movies that will remind you in some way or another of creator Hwang Dong-hyuk’s series about a game where debt-ridden people compete to the death for an enormous sum of money.
While you wait for Squid Game Season 2, check out these other shows and movies, many of which hail from Korea and other parts of Asia. They feature high-stakes games with major consequences, or are bleak tales of morality. Here are more shows and movies like Squid Game to watch next.
Panic
This young adult series came out on Prime Video a few months before Squid Game. It was canceled after one season, but if you’re fascinated by the premise of people willing to face death for the opportunity to earn a life-changing amount of money, it’s worth checking out anyway. It’s set in the small, dead-end town of Carp, Texas. Every summer, graduating high school seniors compete in a competition called “Panic,” where they perform dangerous challenges to try to win $50,000, enough money to get the hell out of Carp. It’s admittedly not as good as Squid Game, and it’s designed for a more limited YA audience, but it shows that Squid Game’s themes of economic desperation are just as relevant in America as they are in South Korea.
All of Us Are Dead
Some of South Korea’s biggest global hits have been stories about the undead, and Netflix’s All of Us Are Dead is one of the biggest of them all. It’s Netflix’s third-most-popular series not in English ever. The jolting thriller about a zombie virus outbreak at a high school follows students as they desperately fight against flesh-eating monsters — some of whom had been their human friends just minutes before. The series stars Yoon Chan-young, Park Ji-hu, Park Solomon, Cho Yi-hyun, and Lee Yoo-mi, who you may recognize from her role as Squid Game’s best supporting character, the self-sacrificing Player 240. All of Us Are Dead, which is based on the webtoon Now at Our School, is a fresh take on the zombie genre with its centering of teen characters and its setting that transforms ordinary classrooms into vicious battlegrounds. As the virus spreads beyond the walls of the school, the show’s exploration of Squid Game-esque themes including the corruption of authority and the abuse of power also becomes increasingly apparent. -Kat Moon
Hellbound
If Squid Game was your first Korean drama, then be sure to give the new Netflix thriller Hellbound a whirl to see what else Korean TV producers do best. The series, created and directed by Train to Busan director Yeon Sang-ho and based on his webtoon Hell, mixes horror with morality superbly, just as Squid Game mixes thrills with morality. When angels begin to descend upon Earth to let sinners know when they will die and that they’re being taken to hell via a trio of smoking creatures who beat the victims to a bloody pulp before frying them, the rest of the world begins to take notice, especially a religious cult who see this as God’s answer to our growing ambivalence of right and wrong. Like Squid Game, you’ll go into it thinking it’s one thing, but realize it’s something much more complex.
