Lead cast: Park Hae-soo, Shin Min-a, Lee Hee-joon, Lee Kwang-soo

After watching the first few episodes of Karma, a gruelling new original Korean thriller presented by Netflix, you might come away with the idea that it is a loosely connected anthology series about desperate characters doing very bad things.

That is because those first episodes, which are largely about different characters and narratively self-contained, are reminiscent of the many omnibus films and series that long-time viewers of modern Korean media will be familiar with.

While we expect some interconnectedness in omnibus stories, the true scope of the web that is this series only comes into view starting with episode three, when the characters really begin to overlap.