Mercy for None (2025)

I'm actually quite surprised this series was produced by Netflix. Its certainly not the standard fare, I've come to expect from them. "Mercy for None" is your typical, gritty, South Korean organised crime drama, on steroids. This is wall to wall unrelenting action, with a seemingly endless stream of well choreographed fights, delivered in bloody style, by a key character, who feels unstoppable. Like many Korean series, it is intelligently rendered, with a moderately complex back story, replete with interesting characters, with often surprisingly subtle, at at times fatalistic, motives. This isn't just brute force and brawn, although there is plenty of that, on offer. Where this series falls down a little, is the extremity of violence, that plays out, on the screen. It can be wincingly visceral and could, I feel, have been dialled down, a couple of notches. In summary, for the most part this is a cracker of a series for those of us who like gritty street crime tales, with a bleak, uncompromising heart. Very definitely worth a look.