Netflix’s original series Alice in Borderland follows a lazy gamer and his troublesome friends in a dystopian universe in which life in Tokyo is a survival game. 

The Japanese sci-fi drama starts with Arisu, an obsessed gamer who completely lost himself after his mother’s death. He and his two friends are teleported to an empty world with no people. There, they are forced to complete a series of games to survive. 

The games correlate with a deck of cards, with the difficulty and objective being determined by a card suit and number. Diamond games test knowledge, spade games test physical ability, club games are both physical and mental, and games of hearts are the hardest to pass, testing a player’s mental ability to a breaking point. 

While some games result in everyone surviving, others can only have one survivor. Arisu is able to apply his knowledge of video games to the survival games, but there is a bigger force that also has the plan of surviving and returning to the real world.

The characters are all well developed with a backstory, allowing viewers to establish an emotional connection. As attachment with each character grows, suspense also rises, as there is a limit on how many people can make it out alive. Unlike many other shows, there is nothing that ensures the main characters will survive.

Aside from the survival games, the show includes an indirect romance between Arisu and a female player, as well as a hierarchy system that eventually collapses on itself. With an intense plot, this psychological thriller shows how humans react when their lives are on the line.