‘Squid Game’ & the 10 Best International Shows on Netflix Right Now – Television

Slowly but surely, the global TV market is shifting. Whether it’s mainly due to the rise of streaming platforms, the rush for international imports brought on by a pandemic production shortage, or an audience finally taking advantage of a wealth of options, series in languages other than English are in the middle of a boom.

While some shows have certainly helped spur that influx of new fans (including ones that can be found below), the nature of the modern TV world is that there are precious few shows anymore that become can’t-miss phenomena. Netflix recently amended its weekly Top 10 report to include viewing totals in English and non-English categories, where (to the extent that those numbers are accurate and transparent) the top slots in the latter frequently outpace the former.

So in an attempt to help narrow down the wealth of international options available to Netflix subscribers, we’ve put together a list highlighting some of the most fruitful places to start. This is far from a comprehensive list, and it’s one that we’ll be adding to regularly over the course of the months to come. For now, here is an introductory collection of some of the best recent TV offerings on Netflix from around the world.

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“Alice in Borderland”

Haro Aso, Shogakukan/Robot

Part of a new effective wave of puzzle-based dystopias, this Japanese drama finds a group of friends unwittingly transported to a Tokyo that has transformed into a game-based fight for survival. In order to stave off the threat of execution (the nightly offings of people whose timecard is up is chilling), they must join the throng of other cross-dimensional survivors to compete in tasks that range from tests of teamwork to winner-take-all shows of deduction and/or force. Director Shinsuke Sato and fellow co-writers Yoshiki Watabe and Yasuko Kuramitsu, adapting the series from the original manga, manage to keep both the audience and the show’s characters at a healthy distance from the truth in a way that isn’t just driven by keeping a show going. That continues up through the opening season’s closing moments, which prove that there are far more discoveries to be made, wherever the people at its center manage to end up.

(Read more on “Alice in Borderland” here.)

“Babylon Berlin”

A handful of people find their lives intersecting with the decadence and foreboding of Weimar Germany in this sprawling historical drama. From its exhilarating musical sequences to its grounded detective story, it’s a series that reckons with the seismic changes on the horizon without losing track of the more-immediate stakes for everyone caught in this late 1920s/early 1930s web. The attention to detail here on a costuming and professional process level makes sure that this functions in both broad and specific strokes. If you’re on the fence, take a few minutes and revel in one of the true transcendent TV moments of the past decade.

“Borgen”

Balancing the practical realities of a national government with a TV tendency toward juicy behind-the-scene scandal is a task that not every political show is capable of doing. Yet this Danish drama, following the roller-coaster fortunes of a newly-minted Prime Minister (Sidse Babett Knudsen), handles those competing pulls and synthesizes them with ease. A dozen years after it debuted, this show still feels like a savvy look at the always-tricky intersection between public opinion and policymaking. Not just treating its characters as ideological stand-ins, but as people whose personal decisions end up having wide-reaching ramifications, “Borgen” is a drama that takes a full view of an institution without ignoring the potential toll on those who keep it running.

“Dark”

One mysterious cave in the middle of a German town becomes the center of a sprawling, multi-generational sci-fi epic that managed to never collapse under the weight of its own ambition. What could have easily stayed an elusive mystery about a disappearing child evolved into a thoughtful, dense look at how trauma manifests across generations. Series creators Baran bo Odar and Jantje Friese (whose upcoming “1899” looks to be just as far-reaching in its scope) pushed a drama with a knotty family tree to its cosmic limits, with the help of an ever-growing cast that helped everything stick together. It’s the kind of show that demands your attention and rewards you in kind.

(Read more on thoughts from the ends of Season 1, Season 2, and Season 3.)

“Ethos”

This Turkish drama presents a kaleidoscopic view of Istanbul from the perspective of different, seemingly unconnected people who live there — a cleaner, an actress, and a psychiatrist, among others, each carrying differing views on faith, relationships, and family. As the series progresses and shows how these people’s lives begin to intersect in unexpected way, “Ethos” tries to unpack what (if anything) they owe to each other as strangers, neighbors, and fellow human beings. Writer/Director Berkun Oya brings a patient and confident approach to this story, with a pace dictated not by the demands of TV but a more transparent, conversational style. From sweeping establishing shots of the city to unpredictable end credits sequences, it’s a show that follows its own instincts.

“Everything Will Be Fine”

Natalia Bermudez/Netflix

Diego Luna directs this eight-part series about a crumbling family trying to stay afloat. As estranged married couple Julia (Lucía Uribe) and Ruy (Flavio Medina) decide how they want to handle the responsibilities of raising their young daughter, each of them juggles the expectations they face outside their home. With more outside individuals caught in this festering dispute, “Everything Will Be Fine” gives Uribe and Medina moments of bleak comedy to complement a thoughtful actors’ showcase. Julia and Ruy each have points where they convince themselves that the show’s title is true. On the whole, “Everything Will Be Fine” offers a thoughtful reminder of how and why they each may not be right.

(Read more on “Everything Will Be Fine” here.)

“Hellbound”

Netflix

So many of the most memorable recent series, regardless of language or country of origin, revolve around characters being confronted with the inexplicable. Here, that comes in the form of giant smoky demons who arrive through a mysterious portal, single out an individual, and pummel their target into damnation. Not only does director Yeon Sang-ho execute these broad daylight spectacles with a jarring straightforwardness, the show thrives on looking at the way a modern society responds to such a profound splintering of the social fabric. Grifters, prophets, survivors, and nihilists all have their place in this fictional world, one that still draws on a very real and recognizable way that an unfathomable tragedy gets manipulated into attempted gains.

(Read more on “Hellbound” here.)

“Love & Anarchy”

Ulrika Malm

For those who like their TV romances with a razor-blade edge, here’s this Swedish comedy that grows out of an office flirtation. When an incoming publishing exec (Ida Engvoll) and the temp IT guy (Björn Mosten) set off a codependent blackmail game, their back-and-forth hijinks become a high-stakes emotional gamble. It’s a show that would work on its own as a workplace comedy, a charming and thorny love story, or a marriage drama. That it manages to seamlessly blend all of them and bring a different sense of control in how this kind of story usually plays out, is an impressive achievement. Season 2 is on its way and can’t get here soon enough.

(Read more on “Love & Anarchy” here.)

“Squid Game”

Netflix

A perfect storm of ambition and execution. It arrived in 2021 as a sensation, but its staying power will be as a high-concept standard bearer for an ever-growing subset of TV stories: one where crushing social and financial realities keep entire swaths of people locked in a cycle that’s not meant to be escaped. All credit to a cast that takes characters literally stripped of their identities and makes them each feel like they still have entire lives behind them. Those stories playing out against a tapestry of pastel-colored children’s game nightmares is another key part in ensuring this was more than the binge du jour. It’s simple dystopian torture rendered in an operatic way, all while trying to afford these individuals the humanity their predatory captors seem intent on taking away.

(Read more on “Squid Game” here.)

“Unorthodox”

Anika Molnar/Netflix

Another show that also helped pushed Netflix to see its international series as more than just library content, this is a portrait of one young woman’s quest to balance her upbringing with her changing desires from life. Shira Haas rightly gained widespread acclaim for her starring role as Esther, a young woman who leaves her home in Brooklyn and jumps into the deep end of an entirely different chapter in Berlin. “Unorthodox” is also a great calling card for Maria Schrader, who in addition to her on-camera work (“Deutschland 83” would certainly be on the Hulu version of this list) has become an exciting emerging director in her own right.

(Read more on “Unorthodox” here.)

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