IT'S OCTOBER, the month of the mysterious, the otherworldly, and the dark. I’ve compiled my top favorite fantasy shows from Netflix sure to be as addictive as Halloween candy. Check out my recommendations below and share your own!
Best Dystopia
3%: Dystopian societies are all the rage in YA
fiction these days (Divergent, Legend, The Hunger Games).
Usually a calamity has befallen the world, and the group in power has come up
with some obscene scheme to handle the remaining resources. Featuring a
Brazilian cast, 3% offers a fresh and enthralling take on such a future
civilization. 97% of the population of “Inland” live in a slum after the world
is devastated, but come their 20th birthday, they have one chance to
earn their spot on the luxurious “Offshore” paradise through a set of grueling
tests known as the Process. The series opens with hundreds of hopefuls
journeying up from the underbelly of the slum to a gleaming futuristic hall,
where they participate in trials of character and skill to determine if they
are “worthy” to join the technology affluent Offshore population. If they lose,
they face living out the rest of their days in poverty.
The show nails it with creating sympathetic and compelling
characters. Participants Michele (Bianca Comparato), Fernando (Michael Gomes), Rafael
(Rodolfo Valente), and Joana (Vaneza Oliveira) are particularly memorable with
their own motivations for competing in the Process, and even the Process’s
leader, Ezequiel (João Miguel), has his own secrets. Best of all: if you hate
it when television series get canceled without a definite conclusion, 3%
wraps up satisfactorily after 3 seasons.
Best Thriller Competition You Would Never Enter
Squid Game: Since we’re on a roll with shows about
disturbing contests that pit people against one another, look no further than
the breakout Korean hit Squid Game. Unlike 3%, the contestants of
Squid Game are no angels. They’re billions of won in debt, down on-their-luck
gamblers like our lead Lee Jung Jae (Seong Gi Hun), or flat-out violent. A
mysterious man approaches these downtrodden folks and offers them a chance to
win riches beyond their wildest dreams—all they have to do is compete in a
series of children’s games with nasty twists (namely, losing means paying with
your life).
It’s Hunger Games meets The Purge, but Squid
Game is wholly unique in its great care with character development,
artistic expression (which is no small feat considering each games murders tons
of people), and stylish overseers with very cool masks. Each scene is extremely
well-shot to be candy for the eyes, and episode 6 is absolutely heartbreaking.
If the majority of contestants vote to end the game, then the overseers will
honor it, but time and again, they choose to continue to the next brutal level.
Personally, by game three I’d be a goner! A must-watch for fans of murderous
game competitions.
Best Fantasy
Shadow and Bone: I adored the Shadow and Bone
Trilogy by Leigh Bardugo, and so I was thrilled to hear of the Netflix
adaptation, doubly so when Ben Barnes was cast to play the fascinating and
brooding Darkling character (known in the show as General Kirigan). This series
also intertwines the plot of another Bardugo offering, the Six of Crows.
I’d found that book to be a bit dense, but it really works in this series with
the splendid casting of Inej (Amita Suman) and the scene-stealing Jasper (Kit
Young).
A long time ago, a sorcerer created the Fold, a place of
darkness and monsters, which cleaved the land of Russian-inspired Ravka in
half. The West seeks independence, but both sides are targets of the
warmongering Fjerda, who seek to destroy Ravka’s Grisha people who can control
different elements. Orphan pair Alina and Mal find themselves swept up in the
struggle when Alina discovers she is the mythical Sun Summoner capable of
destroying the Fold. Alina (Jessie Mei Li) struggles to come to terms with her
power even as forces such as General Kirigan conspire to use her magic for
their own purposes.
The plot is action-packed with never a dull moment, and the
show does justice to the multiple vivid personalities that made this series a
best-seller. Very excited for Season 2!
Diablero: For fans of Supernatural and Wynonna
Earp, meet Elvis (Horacio García Rojas) and Keta (Fátima Molina)—brother
and sister living in México City who were trained to be Diableros: awesomely
cool demon hunters. Well, Elvis was—Keta didn’t get as much love because she
was a girl, but she has picked up enough tricks to be just as dangerous as her
wise-cracking, smooth-talking brother. Elvis and Keta reluctantly sign on to
help Father Ramiro (Christopher von Uckermann) when a demon begins stealing
children for nefarious purposes. Rounding out this adorable ass-kicking crew is
Nancy (Gisselle Kuri), who can withstand demonic possession, and is quite
simply the best.
Season 1 starts out a bit rough—the pacing is uneven, and it
loses some of its suspense as it takes a very convoluted road to discovering
the identity of the person summoning demons. However, I loved the main Scooby
Doo gang and the side characters are equally fun (I love Elvis’s snarky
nieces!). The stakes get raised by the end of Season 1, and Season 2 really
hits the ground running and doesn’t look back. The mythology is wonderfully
incorporated and the show feels darkly humorous and unique.
Based on the book El Diablo me obligó by Francisco
Haghenbeck, Diablero has really found its rhythm in Season 2, and I’m so
pumped for Season 3!
Best Scooby-Doo-Gang-Feel
Stranger Things: Speaking of loveable Brady Bunch
types who will steal your heart, there’s no better smalltown group to take on a
secretive government-run corporation than Mike (Finn Wolfhard), Dustin (Gaten
Matarazzo), Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin), and the mysterious Eleven (Millie Bobby
Brown). When their friend Will disappears under strange circumstances, the kids
arm up with their bicycles and set out to uncover the truth about the sinister
facility in the woods. Meanwhile, Will’s mother is convinced she can
communicate with her missing child via Christmas lights, and a horrifying
monster from an alternate dimension known as the Upside Down begins hunting the
frightened townsfolk. That’s just Season 1.
Eleven is very compelling as a child with supernatural
abilities escaped from the government-run facility, and the main gang is a joy
to watch. Season 2 stumbles a bit as it tries to give storylines to too many
characters, but Stranger Things doesn’t run out of chilling monsters from
other dimensions, and I’m interested to see what Season 4 brings.
Best Horror
The Haunting of Hill House: For me, the best types of
horror stories are those that keep the ghosts at arm’s length—they’re there,
out of the corner of your eye, or just a fleeting glimpse, but it’s terrifying
enough that you can’t bear to look. The Haunting of Hill House is
excellent at this. It succeeds at distracting you with the everyday troubles of
the Crain family, and the ghosts are such a soft, subtle presence, that you
don’t realize they’re right behind you until it’s too late. Recommended not
to watch when drinking red wine over carpet.
In a truly tragic tale, we meet the grown-up Crain children,
who’ve been estranged after the terrible loss that defined their childhood. The
series alternates between flashbacks of their lives in the creepy mansion to
present day, where something sinister continues to haunt the Crain family—and
it won’t stop until they return to where it all began.
For a chilling Halloween nail-biter, you can’t ask for much
better than this.
*For Religious Horror, check out Midnight Mass.
Philosophy, madness, and mayhem descend on an isolated predominantly Catholic
island community.
Best Suspense & Mystery
Lupin: Is it fantasy? No, but Gentleman Burglar Assane
Diop, played brilliantly by the magnetic Omar Sy, has enough tricks up his
sleeve to make you believe it’s magic. Lupin is Paris’s answer to Locke
Lamora, with a dash of Ocean’s Eleven thrown in. It’s fun, it’s
thrilling, and it has artistic flair, with the cat-and-mouse games between Diop
and Hubert Pellegrini (Hervé Pierre) climbing to increasingly precarious
heights.
As a child, Diop was fascinated with the stories of the
legendary Gentleman Burglar Lupin, who pulled off a series of heists with his
wit and mastery of disguises. In present day Paris, Diop takes on the charming
thief persona to help cope with the loss of his father, who hanged himself in
prison, and to uncover the true reason behind his father’s death.
Lupin moves at a breakneck pace with lots of hijinks
and plot twists, but it balances them all with effortless skill. Best of all,
there may be a Season 3.
Best Potential
Warrior Nun: It’s really a toss-up between Warrior
Nun and the King-Arthur-folklore-retelling in Cursed, but I think Warrior
Nun has such a fascinating premise. The title alone are two words you don’t
see together, and, as promised, it’s about a secret sect of demon-hunting nuns in
picturesque Spain who have mad martial arts skills. Ava Silva (Alba Baptista)
is a quadriplegic orphan who endures a truly awful Sister in the orphanage. She
dies, only to wake up in a morgue with a strange symbol on her back and the
ability to not only walk again but mind-bending new abilities. The spirit of
the Warrior Nun has chosen her—mistakenly, some of the Sisterhood feel—to lead her
fellow Sisters in the age-old battle against evil.
This show, like Diablero, doesn’t really know what to
do with itself at first. It has so many interesting ideas—the mythos; who is
the real evil; Ava not believing in the faith or wanting anything to do with
demon fighting—but it isn’t focused, and a couple episodes fall into a lull
whenever Ava and the Sisters are separated. However, the nuns Shotgun Mary
(Toya Turner), Beatrice (Kristina Tonteri-Young), and Lilith (Lorena Andrea) are
really well-cast, and the show has started to find its footing by the end. Very
curious to see what Season 2 brings.
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