Saagar Kote
Netflix’s ‘Mousetrap’ or ‘Deuljwi’ centers on Je Moon-jae (Ryu Jun-yeol), a novelist who has withdrawn from the world, living a quiet life. The isolation suddenly becomes a nightmare when his phone stops recognizing his fingerprint and the friend who handled his affairs mysteriously vanishes. Moon-jae soon discovers that someone called the “Rat” has effectively erased him, taking control of his name, identity, and property. Even more disturbing, the mysterious impostor looks exactly like him. With no straightforward way to establish who he really is, Moon-jae begins searching for the person responsible. His investigation eventually brings him to No-ja (Sul Kyung-gu), a loan shark who runs a private detective agency and has his own reason for finding Moon-jae.
After spending three years tracking Moon-jae over an unpaid loan, No-ja surprisingly agrees to join the hunt for the Rat. Together, the two men pursue the elusive man while attempting to uncover how Moon-jae’s entire life was taken from him. However, they soon realize that the one they are chasing is no simple target and may test their limits. Created by Kim Hong-sun and Lee Jae-gon, the Korean mystery thriller series is based on the Kakao webtoon ‘Field Mouse’ by Ludovico. These shows, similar to ‘Mousetrap,’ include puzzling mysteries, twisted conflicts, confused characters, unpredictable threats, and more.
8. Mr. Robot (2015-2019)
‘Mr. Robot’ is a Sam Esmail creation that follows Elliot Alderson (Rami Malek), an intensely private cybersecurity engineer whose ability to infiltrate computer systems has turned him into a vigilante hacker outside his day job. His routine changes when Darlene Alderson (Carly Chaikin) and the enigmatic Mr. Robot (Christian Slater) of F-Society approach him with an opportunity to use his skills against E-Corp, the powerful corporation he works to protect. Elliot is immediately caught between his professional responsibilities and his growing desire to dismantle the institutions he believes are damaging society. When he becomes involved in activities against E-Corp, Elliot’s personal beliefs clash with F-Society, which has its own values and aims.
What begins as Elliot’s chance to strike back at a corporation soon becomes a much larger, more unpredictable conspiracy. The psychological thriller series, akin to ‘Mousetrap,’ places a highly isolated character in a world where hidden agendas constantly undermine his understanding of what is happening around him. The two shows build suspense through uncertainty, which tests the characters in unexpected ways.
7. The Capture (2019-)
Creator Ben Chanan’s ‘The Capture’ is a British conspiracy thriller series that begins with Shaun Emery (Callum Turner), a former soldier whose conviction for an alleged crime committed in Afghanistan is overturned. This is done after the video evidence used against him is found to be unreliable. His freedom does not last long, however, when new surveillance footage appears to show him assaulting and abducting a woman. Shaun finds himself fighting to prove that the footage is not truthful. DI Rachel Carey (Holliday Grainger), assigned to investigate the case, soon discovers that the evidence surrounding Shaun is far more complicated than it appears.
Once she digs deeper, Rachel encounters a world of technological deception, deepfakes, and lies, forcing her to question not only what happened to Shaun but whether anything captured on camera can still be trusted. Both ‘Mousetrap’ and ‘The Capture’ explore the paranoia that emerges when evidence itself can no longer be considered legitimate. Moon-jae cannot prove his identity because the person who has taken his life looks exactly like him, while Rachel Carey discovers that surveillance footage can be manipulated.
6. The Tourist (2022-2024)
‘The Tourist’ chronicles the experiences of a man (Jamie Dornan) who wakes up in an Australian hospital after a serious crash with no memory of his identity or the life he had before the accident. With only fragments to guide him, he turns to local policewoman Helen Chambers (Danielle Macdonald), who helps him investigate the few clues that might reveal who he is. His search becomes increasingly urgent when people from his unknown past begin hunting him, suggesting that the man he used to be may be very different from the person he believes himself to be.
When he tries to recover his memories, he is forced to confront the possibility that discovering his identity could also expose a dangerous history he would rather leave behind. With Harry Williams and Jack Williams lending their creative vision, the British comedy thriller series turns identity into the central puzzle of a man’s journey, similar to ‘Mousetrap.’ The two shows place two very different characters in circumstances where their very existence is threatened, forcing them to navigate difficult truths.
5. Flower of Evil (2020)
‘Flower of Evil’ or ‘Agui kkot’ is a Korean crime thriller series that deals with Cha Ji-won (Moon Chae-won), a homicide detective. Her investigation into a series of murders gradually turns her attention toward the man she thought she knew better than anyone. Ji-won’s husband, Baek Hee-sung (Lee Joon-gi), appears to be a devoted family man, but he seems to have built this ordinary life by concealing something sinister. While Ji-won uncovers connections between the present-day investigation and a string of murders from years earlier, subtle changes in her husband’s behavior begin to make her suspicious.
The police investigation becomes deeply personal, forcing Ji-won to question whether her perfect marriage has been built on a lie. The Studio Dragon creation explores how a supposedly ordinary life can hide something deeply disturbing, reflecting the essence and mystery of ‘Mousetrap.’ Moon-jae tries to prove that he is himself, in contrast, Hee-sung actively conceals who he really is.
4. Big Mouth (2022)
‘Big Mouth’ or ‘Big Mauseu’ tells the story of Park Chang-ho (Lee Jong-suk), a struggling lawyer whose reputation is built mainly on his ability to talk. In the Korean crime thriller series, Chang-ho’s life takes a dangerous turn after he becomes involved in a murder case and is suspected of being the notorious con artist known as Big Mouse. Framed and thrown into prison, Chang-ho finds himself trapped in a situation where proving his innocence could be a matter of survival. Outside prison, his wife, Ko Mi-ho (Im Yoon-ah), refuses to accept that her husband is the criminal everyone believes him to be.
Determined to clear his name, Mi-ho begins investigating the case herself, only to uncover increasingly troubling secrets. While Chang-ho and Mi-ho search for answers from opposite sides, the truth behind the Big Mouse identity remains extremely puzzling. With Jang Young-chul and Jung Kyung-soon serving as the creative team, the narrative is a commentary on truths and secrets, much like ‘Mousetrap.’ Moon-jae and Chang-ho are both men whose ordinary lives collapse after their identities become the center of a larger conspiracy.
3. Echoes (2022)
Created by Vanessa Gazy, ‘Echoes’ follows identical twins Leni McCleary and Gina McCleary (Michelle Monaghan), whose unusual closeness has led them to secretly trade identities for years. Rather than living separate lives, the sisters have created a complicated arrangement in which they take turns inhabiting each other’s worlds, from their homes and relationships to their family responsibilities. The arrangement begins to collapse when Leni suddenly disappears, leaving Gina with no choice but to return to their hometown and figure out what happened to her.
But the search quickly becomes more complicated as the truth about their shared existence surfaces. Gina is forced to confront secrets that could completely change her understanding of both Leni and the life they built together. The mystery thriller drama series, similar to ‘Mousetrap,’ is built around the idea that one person’s identity is inseparable from another’s, building the mystery of who is actually living which life. Moon-jae discovers that another man looks exactly like him and has taken control of his identity, while Leni and Gina deliberately exchange identities.
2. Orphan Black (2013-2017)
Graeme Manson and John Fawcett are the creators of ‘Orphan Black,’ which depicts the journey of Sarah Manning (Tatiana Maslany), a woman trying to rebuild her life and secure a better future for her daughter, Kira Manning (Skyler Wexler). Her plans take an extraordinary turn after she witnesses a woman who looks exactly like her die by suicide. Seeing an opportunity to escape her own problems, Sarah assumes the dead woman’s identity and begins a new life. What initially works out fine soon becomes something far more dangerous when Sarah discovers that the woman she impersonated was actually her genetic clone. Her investigation pulls her into a conspiracy involving other women who share her appearance.
When the identical women attempt to understand why they exist and who is monitoring them, Sarah realizes that the mystery surrounding their identities is only the beginning of a much larger and more dangerous story. The sci-fi thriller series captures the essence of ‘Mousetrap’ by turning a personal identity mystery into a much larger conspiracy involving hidden players and unanswered questions that the characters must face and overcome.
1. Duel (2017)
‘Duel’ or ‘Dyueol’ is the tale of Jang Deuk-cheon (Jung Jae-young), a detective whose tough exterior gives way to a deeply devoted father when it comes to his sick daughter. His world is thrown into chaos when she is kidnapped from an ambulance, leaving him with limited information about who took her. The investigation takes an extraordinary turn when Deuk-cheon realizes that he is hunting two men with exactly the same face. With no way of knowing which one is responsible, he begins pursuing both suspects and soon discovers that their identical appearances are connected to something far more unusual than a conventional kidnapping. One is a human clone, while the other is human, drawing Deuk-cheon into a conflict in which the two men are fighting not only against each other but also over what it means to be treated as human.
While he tries to uncover the truth, Deuk-cheon must keep moving before the mystery costs him the chance to bring his daughter home. Studio Dragon and Choi Jin-hee step in as the creative voices behind this Korean sci-fi thriller series, which asks provocative questions about the meaning of morality. Je Moon-jae in ‘Mousetrap’ and Jang Deuk-cheon in ‘Duel’ are both ordinary men pushed into relentless investigations by circumstances they cannot understand. In both stories, the search for the truth becomes a race against forces that threaten to take away what matters most to the main characters.
Read More: Where is Netflix’s Mousetrap Filmed?
