Arisu has to battle the ‘King of Clubs’ to the death, but they are becoming close friends.

After a rip-roaring opener, Alice in Borderland is setting out a significantly different stall from that of its first season. The second ‘game’ – Osmosis – stretches over almost two episodes. Essentially, it’s an extremely complicated variant of playground ‘tag’ fought in a seemingly endless and labyrinthine container park. The rules take forever to explain and then, frankly, who cares, because what follows is mainly a slow and philosophical exploration of the meaning of life and friendship, as Arisu (Kento Yamazaki) establishes a close and almost tender relationship with Kyuma, the naked and mystical King of Clubs.

I think there’s little doubt the same story could have been covered in a single instalment but it’s still reasonably entertaining, not least because of all the ways the shots are constructed to conceal the rather buff opponent’s Mr Happy.

Midway through episode 3, we switch back to Chishiya (Nijirō Murakami) – possibly my favourite of the regular characters – who is caught up in a Jack of Hearts game in a prison; basically a variant on Traitors (recently a major reality hit for BBC1) but with added exploding heads (not likely to be seen on BBC1).

By the end of the third episode we still have a way to go with this challenge, and it’s clear that season 2 is determined to take a thoughtful, measured approach, rather than focusing on gore, horror and suspense.

Verdict: I’m enjoying how Alice in Borderland’s creative team are trying to deepen the format, although it’s yet to be seen whether this can sustain for another five hours.

7/10

Martin Jameson

www.ninjamarmoset.com