9 Shows to Binge-Watch Next If You Loved 'Squid Game'
Having officially taken the crown for Netflix's biggest series ever, Squid Game has truly infiltrated our social media feeds and provided us with plenty of entertainment. The buzzy, gory, and super addictive Korean thriller taps into a cathartic vein of class satire, and our most basest instincts, making it impossible to turn away from the screen.
If you’ve already binged your way through this miniseries and are looking for something to fill the Squid Game-shaped hole in your life, here are some other addictive shows that we recommend you watch next.
1. Sweet Home
This Korean drama is often recommended as a follow-up to Squid Game, and it’s not difficult to see why. Released in 2020, it was a moderate success for Netflix and proved popular due to its addictive premise: a high school student has to save the world after people start turning into monsters that draw their power from deep, inner desires. Juicy.
Where to watch: Netflix
2. Alice in Borderland
All the guts, gore and glory of Squid Game can be found in Alice in Borderland, a dystopian Japanese television series that follows a young woman trying to make her way through a futuristic hellscape, one bloody battle sequence at a time. This show is badass and so bingeable. You’ll tear through the episodes in no time.
Where to watch: Netflix
3. Black Mirror
If you’ve never watched this iconic dystopian and deeply unsettling Netflix series, this might be your chance. All of that chilling ruthlessness in Squid Game, Black Mirror has in spades, but in standalone episodes rather than one long run-on series. It’s easier to take each story on its own merits this way, and the cumulative effect feels less piled on than Squid Game’s relentlessness, in our opinion.
Where to watch: Netflix
4. Altered Carbon
Gone but not forgotten, Altered Carbon is a science fiction series that ran on Netflix from 2018 until 2020. The show was sexy, stylish, and violent as hell, so will appeal to anyone who was watching Squid Game for all those very high production values. The premise was very simple: What if, when we died, we could upload our consciousness into a new, and better body, in perpetuity. A world without death, basically. It makes all the action sequences a lot more interesting, that’s for sure.
Where to watch: Netflix
5. Kingdom
Zombies + period drama = Kingdom, an epic Korean drama based on a web series and one of Netflix’s first original Korean series. A lot of people have been discovering this great show because of Squid Game, and it’s about time, too. Kingdom is lavishly produced and has a lot to offer to the occasionally tired period drama genre: namely, undead plagues, fancy fighting and a smart script. We love it.
Where to watch: Netflix
6. The 100
In a post-apocalyptic world, a group of teenagers are dropped from their space colony into a ravaged planet Earth, in a last-ditch effort to save humanity. It’s Lord of the Flies but after the apocalypse, basically, and this Young Adult series is really bingeable, courtesy of plenty of cliffhangers and twists.
Where to watch: Netflix
7. The One
The One premiered on Netflix in early 2021 but didn’t make as many waves as we thought it would. If you missed it back then, now’s the time to give it a try. The series is set in the near future, when a matchmaking service pairs people up based on their DNA, with a variety of different results. If you’ve ever despaired over the realities of online dating, you’ll love the eerie ickiness of The One, but it also taps into the societal commentary going on in Squid Game, too.
Where to watch: Netflix
8. Into The Night
This Belgian series has a really neat story hook that will remind viewers of taut horror thrillers such as Bird Box or A Quiet Place. What if sunlight could kill you? Set in a dystopian future, an overnight flight houses some of the only survivors of a devastating cosmic event. This show shares a lot of common DNA with Squid Game, not the least its central band of characters who group together in order to survive.
Where to watch: Netflix
9. You
Okay, yes. This might feel a little out of left field. But You remains one of the best and most watchable psychological thrillers out there, largely thanks to its knowing tone. Star Penn Badgley of Gossip Girl fame knows exactly what makes his character Joe so unsettling, and he leans into it wholeheartedly. A third season is about to drop on Netflix this month, and is the perfect palate cleanser after a Squid Game binge.
Where to watch: Netflix
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