Detention was a horror game set in a Taiwanese high school that mixed local mythology, Silent Hill-style psychodrama, and the political oppression of the White Terror period into a heady, creepy mix. It was the work of Red Candle Games, perhaps better known for their follow-up Devotion, and the way it was removed from Steam after the discovery in its files of an image critical of the president of China.
Though there was a movie based on Detention in 2019, this TV adaptation is a new collaboration between Netflix and Taiwan’s independent Public Television Service. It stars Lingwei Lee as Yunxiang Liu and Ning Han as Ruixin Fang, and is set several decades after the events of the game—depicted in flashback as they’re uncovered by a transfer student in the 1990s who learns that Greenwood High School is still haunted by its past. And also ghosts.
Rather than being dumped on the streaming platform all at once, the eight episodes of Detention: The Series are being staggered to coincide with their broadcasts in Taiwan. The first two episodes are available now.