This is the sensational replacing the sombre. While diversity has evolved considerably, the foundations of high-end drama so far this century has been stern and detailed – character studies stretched over multiple seasons. The lineage that runs from The Sopranos to Breaking Bad, with their flawed but formidable anti-heroes, is rebuked by this next generation. A decade ago, drama’s defining figure was Mad Men’s Don Draper, a square-jawed 1960s enigma; now it’s the creepy giant robot doll whose monotone cadence and motion-sensor eyes spark the massacre that closes the first episode of Squid Game.

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It’s not a coincidence that neither title emanates from America. Getting past the dominance of HBO requires a different perspective. America’s free-to-air networks have increasingly been airing urgent weekly procedurals such as the FBI and 9-1-1 franchises, but they are blunt, repetitive objects compared to Vigil and Squid Game. Each in their own way feels like the overflow of hardy creative eras. Tom Edge’s Vigil, for example, is from the same philosophy (and production house) as Line of Duty and Bodyguard – clipped, shock-laden whodunits.

Squid Game makes use of South Korea’s knack for revving up genre works and matching them to a breadth of performance styles that isn’t afraid to stress the florid edges of a role. Rivers of sweat roll off the show’s characters as they play life-or-death games, and there is a theatrical tinge to the acting that’s so old-fashioned it’s new. It’s the same with a Vigil cliffhanger, where a trapped police detective comes to inside a torpedo tube filling with water. That’s a 21st century version of being tied to the railroad tracks.

With its symbolic critique of wealth’s disparity, Squid Game holds a harsher thematic gaze than Vigil, which eventually makes do with floppy geopolitics. But between them they’ve juiced up the scripted drama so it can compete with the on-demand satisfaction of reality television (Squid Game takes this a step further by depicting the production values of the reality genre as an integral part of its monstrous netherworld). Their ambitions have kicked in the door: what forthcoming series will be ready to follow them through?