Back in the early days of the pandemic, Netflix provided a certain comfort to a nation unable to safely leave home. We gasped at the real-life exploits of Joe Exotic in Tiger King, savored the pluck of Anya Taylor-Joy’s self-destructive chess prodigy in The Queen’s Gambit, and thrilled to the conflict between the Kooks and the Pogues on Outer Banks. We whiled away the hours with Warrior Nuns and Teenage Bounty Hunters, Sneakerheads and Baby-Sitters Clubs. We accompanied Emily to Paris, the Bridgertons to the social season, and—so bored were we—occupied ourselves with something called Floor is Lava. But all of that was years ago, and the outside world has resumed, with the specific dynamics of 2020 largely buried in whatever deep hole most of us keep our low-level trauma. The unlikely question, then, for Netflix leadership, was this: Could those deep emotional bonds we formed with our favorite Netflix intellectual properties be translated into corporeal experiences? 

The answer, of course, is yes. (We wouldn’t have asked it like that if the answer were no.) Netflix has been popping up with IRL experiences around the country and, indeed, the world. It offered “Stranger Things: The Experience” in Atlanta, London, Los Angeles, New York, Paris, San Francisco, Seattle, and Toronto. (It’s currently in São Paulo.) “The Queen’s Ball: A Bridgerton Experience” similarly gave fans the chance to immerse themselves in a Regency-inspired event, and “Squid Game: The Trials” gave Angelenos the chance to compete in a seventy-minute obstacle course with slightly lower stakes than exist on its parent show. But those were just prelude to what’s coming: the Netflix House, where it will “create an unforgettable venue to explore your favorite Netflix stories and characters beyond the screen year-round.” And where will this venue be? The Galleria Dallas, baby. 

The exact details of what that will all look like aren’t entirely clear just yet, outside of this tantalizing description: “Imagine waltzing with your partner to an orchestral cover of a Taylor Swift song on a replica of the Bridgerton set—and then walking around the corner to compete in the Glass Bridge challenge from Squid Game.” We’re imagining it! We’re imagining it so hard right now. It’s, well, it’s a little disorienting, given that the consequences of failing the Glass Bridge challenge are rather more dire than waltzing through Bridgerton to a piped-in string quarter’s interpretation of “Snow on the Beach,” but we’re into it. The announcement promises that “at Netflix House, you can enjoy regularly updated immersive experiences, indulge in retail therapy, and get a taste—literally—of your favorite Netflix series and films through unique food and drink offerings.” Did you watch the fourth season of Stranger Things and think, “I wonder if Surfer Boy Pizza is any good when served fresh?” You may get an answer. 

The Galleria location of Netflix House is one of two launching in early 2025 (the other is in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania), and it promises to be big, with a footprint of 100,000 square feet—the size of, say, a very large Target or Home Depot location. We’ve already told you pretty much everything we know so far, so let’s get to the real fun and tell Netflix what we’d like to get from the immersive, interactive experience of interacting with our favorite intellectual properties from the brand in new and exciting ways.

The Cobra Kai Dojo

Want to learn karate? How about get emotionally abused by a sociopathic sensei who believes everything he’s doing is for your own good? (But, like, in a funny way.) Break boards, get a mohawk, and learn to strike hard, strike first, and show no mercy—or, if you’re more of a Miyagi-Do type, trim bonsai trees and practice kata while serene music plays. 

The Decameron: An Immersive Experience

Netflix’s forthcoming The Decameron, out next month, is a horny 14th century period piece about a group of Italian aristocrats and their servants, who are attempting to wait out the bubonic plague in the Tuscany hills. They drink and screw their way through the outbreak of the Black Death in hopes that the disease ravaging Florence will spare them. If the series is at all faithful to the 1353 work by Italian poet Giovanni Boccaccio upon which it’s based, it’s not going to go great for them! But if the Netflix House version of the experience just focuses on the good parts of hiding away with your fellow noblemen and women and passing the time in increasingly debauched ways, that could be a good way to kill an hour at the mall. 

BoJack Horseman’s Hollywood Hills House Party

While it’s been a few years since the cult animated series BoJack Horseman concluded, the show remains one of the finest and most beloved in the Netflix catalog. It tells the tragicomic tale of the titular anthropomorphic horse and star of the fictional nineties sitcom Horsin’ Around as he spirals into addiction and despair, destroying all of his most essential personal relationships. He often awakens from a drug-induced stupor to glimpse around at his empty mansion and recognize that for all of his material wealth, he’s dead inside. Who among us wouldn’t have some fun getting to experience waking up on a pool float only to recognize that our own actions have led us to experience a depth of personal hell stemming from an aching void that no amount of praise or success could possibly fill? 

The Queen’s Gambit’s Gambit

Lose to chess against a chain-smoking young lady in her underpants who hates herself, we guess? We’re spitballing here. 

The How To Become a Cult Leader Contest

Netflix is as well-known for its unscripted efforts as it is for the winding narrative mythology of shows such as Bridgerton and Stranger Things. Among the many projects in that vein is the 2023 Peter Dinklage-narrated How To Become a Cult Leader, a tonally baffling docuseries that offers viewers a cheeky, yet informative, look at how cults prey upon individuals in their weakest moments through a form of coercive control that often ends tragically. It sounds ripe for a game show–style experience, with participants competing to recruit the most followers and exploit them for their own ends before the seventy-minute game window concludes. Then everybody can go to H&M. 

My Next Guest Needs No Introduction with David Letterman: The Experience

This one’s pretty straightforward, just make David Letterman go to the Galleria and ask customers a bunch of deep, probing, insightful questions for an hour or so at a time. It’ll make guests feel really special. 

Black Mirror: The Challenge

Are you in an episode of Black Mirror, or are you just at a past-its-prime shopping mall in Far North Dallas paying too much for Stranger Things-branded ice cream and Outer Banks T-shirts in a building that used to be a Saks Fifth Avenue, where visitors play games based on a Korean television series about exploited members of the underclass who are forced to compete for their lives for the entertainment of others? If you can tell the difference, you may have already won Black Mirror: The Challenge.