Some seemingly supernatural horrors collide with those of real-world debt and dishonour in Taiwanese thriller Who’s By Your Side (continuing on HBO and HBO Go). Beginning with a passage of sinister bloodletting in an isolated house that may be haunted, the unsettling 10-part series, from director Peter Ho, switches to deal with the domestic trials and tribulations of the beatific, forgiving Yong-jie (Vivian Hsu) and her wastrel husband Zhi-sheng (Kaiser Chuang). She is a sometime supermarket assistant who balances two jobs to make ends meet; he is a gambling-addicted drunkard and car scrapyard worker who squanders the family savings and provokes their daughter into running away from home. Not surprising, then, that psychiatric problems, auditory hallucinations and fears of a curse start to bog down this dutiful wife. Consequently, Zhi-sheng is despised by Yong-jie’s stepsister, Yong-qi (Ning Chang), who enjoys an affluent lifestyle with the wealthy Hao-yuan (Ivan Chen) – but it transpires their marriage might not be perfect either. What is surprising is that the loser Zhi-sheng, increasingly tormented by mawkish reminiscences when it’s too late to affect any outcomes, does try to make amends; he even feels compassion for animals, so perhaps there is some hope for him. Who’s By Your Side shows what existence might be like trapped in a sometimes violent union where the alcohol consumption (on one side) is out of control and threats from loan sharks, plus savage beatings, destroy any prospect of a quiet life. Which makes for a tough, suspenseful watch – especially when glimpses of a ghostly girl and suggestions of black magic come into play. Shin Min-a is a fish out of water in Netflix’s Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha With past malevolence leaking into the present and long-buried grievances doubling up on contemporary problems, all seem destined for a spell down the most taxing of rabbit holes. And there’s no telling who might emerge the most unscathed. The family battles continue in Succession Who knew that vicious family infighting could be this much fun? As the movers and sneaky shakers of conglomerate Waystar Royco battle through a nine-part third series of back-stabbing and corporate sabotage in Succession (HBO and HBO Go), they are still being bullied and belittled by billionaire and CEO Logan Roy, played in first-rate, foul-mouthed form by Brian Cox. Having broken ranks to expose a scandal in the company, son Kendall Roy (Jeremy Strong) is now at war with his father and siblings as the question of who takes over the empire intensifies. Meanwhile, Logan is left resembling a flailing, hysterical herder of claws-out cats rather than a general marshalling his troops for battle as he tries to pull in closer any allies he might still have. The fact that the two camps contain splinter divisions of traitors and opportunists, all with their own agendas, heightens the bitter horse-trading – itself a counterpoint to the hilarity spawned by the incompetence of obsequious flunkeys. At times, the incessant insult-slinging threatens to bury the bigger picture, which is one of accelerating rot within the American political system and the fragmenting of the global economy. But a focus soon returns, allowing us to enjoy watching mendacious money-grabbers pouring on the vitriol, stroking their own egos while overestimating their importance and destroying each other and themselves. Beyond the share prices, mergers and acquisitions, tweeted opinions, PR spin, obscene wealth and megalomania, Succession really does prove that Shakespeare is “not of an age, but for all time”: this is King Lear for a Murdoch-type era, one it depicts triumphantly.