Netflix’s New ‘Squid Game’ Replacement Officially Becomes a Global Streaming Hit

Erielle Sudario is a Collider News and Feature Author from Australia and has worked in the journalism industry since 2018. She has a passion for entertainment and pop culture news and has interviewed YouTubers, voice actors, film directors, and musicians throughout her career. When she’s not writing, you can see Erielle building keyboards, reading a good book, playing video games, and creating content on social media.

Would you risk your life for a large cash reward? While this might sound like something out of Squid Game, it’s also the premise of Netflix’s latest series, which has recently become a streaming hit. This latest binge-worthy show should also scratch the itch if you’re looking for something similar to Squid Game, especially since the franchise has ended and its U.S. adaptation has reportedly been scrapped.

The series in question is Dead-End Job, created by Han Jun-hee and directed by A Killer Paradox writer Kim Da-min. The show was first announced in early October and premiered before Halloween. It follows Hyeok-jun, played by Lee Jae-wook (True Beauty), who accepts an unusual job from the Spider Staffing Agency that pays “50 times the minimum wage,” only to discover that it comes with deadly risks. The series consists of eight episodes, each running nearly 40 minutes, and also stars Go Min-si (Love Alarm) as Eum Yeon-joo, an investigator looking into the unsettling events at the Spider Staffing Agency.

Nearly a week after its release, Dead-End Job has become a streaming hit. In addition to debuting on Rotten Tomatoes with a 100% critics’ score, the series also landed at No. 4 during its first week on Netflix’s Global Top 10 Non-English Shows chart, between The Fall of El Mayo and Doctor X: Mafia in White. Despite its cliffhanger ending, Netflix has not announced whether Dead End Job will receive a second season. Now the series has climbed as high as the spot overall on the platform.

Four Netflix characters, four completely different ways of showing up
for somebody. This is the one who fits how you actually do friendship, and what having them in your
life would be like.

You do not do friendship at half volume, and neither does he.
What you want is somebody who says yes to the plan before you have finished describing the
plan.

• Dustin is the friend the entire show runs on: loyal past the point of sense,
  enthusiastic about everything, and incapable of leaving anybody behind.
• You have the same instinct. Your friendships are loud, specific and slightly ridiculous,
  and they last for decades because of it.
• He is also the one person who would take your strangest interest completely seriously,
  which is far rarer than it sounds.
• You would have a group chat. It would never once be quiet.

You are the friend who makes things happen, and so is she.
Together you would be mildly exhausting to everyone around you and completely delighted with
yourselves.

• Emily treats an ordinary Tuesday as something that could be turned into an occasion,
  which is either the best or the worst quality in a friend depending on your energy
  levels.
• You share her refusal to sit still. Neither of you has ever accepted a night in when
  something was happening somewhere else.
• She is far more loyal than people give her credit for. She defends her friends loudly,
  publicly, and occasionally before checking the facts.
• She would post the photo without asking. You would forgive her, because it is a very
  good photo.

You have no patience for pleasant lies, and she has no ability to
tell them. What looks like coldness from the outside is the most reliable friendship on this
list.

• Wednesday never says a kind thing she does not mean, which makes the rare ones count for
  an enormous amount.
• You would rather be told the truth than be made comfortable. She is constitutionally
  incapable of offering you anything else.
• Underneath all of it she is ferociously protective. She simply refuses to make a
  performance out of caring.
• Do not expect a birthday message. Do expect her to ruin anyone who wrongs you.

You look after whoever is having the worst day. So does he. It is
the least strategic way to move through the world and the best possible quality in a friend.

• Gi-hun is not the strongest player in Squid Game, or the cleverest. He is the one who
  keeps choosing to protect somebody else, over and over, at genuine cost to himself.
• You have the same instinct. You notice who is struggling and you stay with them, long
  after anybody would blame you for leaving.
• He is a flawed friend, and that is part of why it lands. He lets people down, then comes
  back and tries again, which is more than most manage.
• He would give you his last chance and never once mention that he had done it.

What To Watch If You Like ‘Dead End Job?’

With no news on whether Dead-End Job will continue, other shows could fill the gap while you wait. One of the easiest recommendations is Squid Game, a series in which 456 players compete in life-or-death children’s games for a ₩45.6 billion (US$34.02 million) cash prize. The series was a massive hit on Netflix, becoming one of the platform’s biggest titles alongside Stranger Things and Wednesday.

Another recommendation is the anime series Tomodachi Game, which premiered in 2022 and is available on Crunchyroll. It follows a group of friends whose friendship is put to the test after funds for their school trip are stolen. As a result, they are kidnapped and forced to participate in the Tomodachi Game, a series of high-stakes psychological challenges where they must repay a massive debt while testing their trust in one another.

All eight episodes of Dead End Job are available to stream on Netflix. Follow Collider for more updates.

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