Historian Roel Konijnendijk reviews ancient warfare scenes and battle tactics in movies and TV shows.

He looks at the naval battle and gladiator fights depicted in "Gladiator II," starring Paul Mescal, Pedro Pascal, and Denzel Washington. He talks about how armies would signal attacks in season two of "House of the Dragon," starring Matt Smith, Emma D'Arcy, and Olivia Cooke. He breaks down the many siege warfare methods in "Prince of Persia," starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Ben Kingsley, and Gemma Arterton; and season two of "The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power." He discusses the purposes behind cavalry charges in "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King," starring Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen, and Viggo Mortensen; and "Kingdom of Heaven," starring Orlando Bloom, Liam Neeson, and Edward Norton. He explains the ancient Greek shock tactics in "300: Rise of an Empire," starring Eva Green and Lena Headey. He points out how line formations operate in "Rome," starring Tobias Menzies and Kerry Condon. Finally, he examines the strengths and weaknesses of Kublai Khan's army in "Marco Polo," starring Benedict Wong.

Roel Konijnendijk is a historian of ancient warfare at Lincoln College, University of Oxford. He specializes in classical Greek warfare.

You can find Roel on social media here on Bluesky or X (formerly Twitter).

• The Front Man in "Squid Game" is Hwang In-ho, detective Hwang Jun-ho's brother.
• One fan theory suggests that In-ho could be related to another character in the series.
• It's not impossible, but the evidence isn't overwhelming.

In season two of "Squid Game," the game's steward — known as the Front Man, or Hwang In-ho under the mask — enters the game himself. Though he's already related to one other character in the show, a new theory suggests he could be further tied to the games.

In season one, detective Hwang Jun-ho (Wi Ha-jun) infiltrated the games in search of his older brother In-ho (Lee Byung-hun). In-ho wasn't a player in the games with Seong Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae), however — he was the one running them. But in season two, In-ho infiltrates the games as player 001 using the name Oh Young-il.

In-ho mostly seems to be there to break Gi-hun's spirit, treating him like a comrade until he sabotages Gi-hun's rebellion in the season finale. He's not the first player 001 to betray Gi-hun's trust: In season one, the game's creator Oh Il-nam plays alongside Gi-hun as well before revealing his true identity in the outside world.

One moment in season two has fans thinking that In-ho and Il-nam may be further connected — but it's far from conclusive.

Fans speculate that Il-nam is In-ho's father — because of two lines about milk

In season one, episode three, Gi-hun asks one of the guards distributing snacks to players if he could trade his regular milk for chocolate milk, saying that he's never been able to digest plain milk. The guard refuses, but Il-nam remarks on Gi-hun's preferences.

"I bet your father spanked you a lot when you were young," Il-nam says.

"How did you know?" Gi-hun asks.

"My son was just like you," Il-nam replies.

In season two, episode five, In-ho doesn't drink his plain milk either. After the guards serve the players a similar bread and milk snack, In-ho passes his milk to the pregnant Jun-hee instead of drinking it.

"I don't drink plain milk," he tells her.

The "milk theory" has proliferated on social media platforms like Reddit and X. However, one image in support of the theory being circulated online includes inaccurate dialogue.

The above screenshot, which was also posted to the r/squidgame subreddit, simplifies the dialogue in both scenes. Il-nam never tells Gi-hun, "you are just like my son he couldn't drink milk too," and In-ho never says, "here, I can't drink it anyway."

To be fair, the original dialogue in each respective scene isn't that different — but it is slightly more nuanced.

The 'milk theory' raises some other questions

A twist like this would feel a bit out of character for "Squid Game," particularly given that the show has already pulled a secret-family-member twist with the Front Man already. That doesn't necessarily mean it couldn't happen, but the evidence isn't overwhelming.

First, Il-nam says several times in season one that he has a son, singular. In the season finale, he tells Gi-hun on his deathbed that "long ago, I once lived in a house in an alley just like that one with my wife and son."

However, in season two, we learn that In-ho and Jun-ho are half brothers who share a father because Jun-ho's mother refers to In-ho as her stepson. If Il-nam was In-ho's father, he should be Jun-ho's as well.

That doesn't fully rule out the theory: it's possible that Il-nam abandoned In-ho with Jun-ho's mother, and that he didn't raise Jun-ho or consider him a son. Still, there's not much to go on.

If In-ho were Il-nam's son, the implications would be severe depending on the strength of their relationship as adults and if they knew of the others' existence before In-ho entered the games. At worst, it would mean that Il-nam didn't provide his son the money to save his wife's life, and knowingly let him participate in the games. At best, it would mean that they reunited after In-ho joined, and won, the games in 2015.

Furthermore, Il-nam and In-ho give the same surname, Oh, in the games, but they don't share one in real life. Il-nam tells Gi-hun in the season one finale that he didn't lie about his name in the games, but as far as we know, In-ho is lying about his: In-ho's true last name, which he shares with his brother, is Hwang.

Ultimately, it's not impossible that In-ho is Il-nam's son, but the evidence is far from conclusive. The milk thing is weird, sure — but lactose intolerance does not a paternal relationship make. After that cliffhanger ending, we'll have to wait for season three to see if the show goes any further with this particular thread.

"Squid Game" is streaming on Netflix.

• In "Squid Game," people who are in debt compete for money in survival contests inspired by children's games.

• Both seasons have had a high death count.
• Here are the most shocking deaths ranked

Warning: Spoilers ahead for "Squid Game" seasons one and two.

"Squid Game" is Netflix's biggest success — and it has a pretty high death toll, at over 700 in two seasons. 

 The story of characters in debt competing, and often dying, in gratuitously violent games inspired by children's games to win money had viewers hooked from its premiere in 2021, and quickly became Netflix's most-watched show of all time.

Season two is equally violent and has beat Netflix's record for the TV series with the most views in its first week on the platform.

Season two follows Seong Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae) as he competes in the survival competition for a second time after winning the contest in season one. 

This time, Gi-hun tries to shut down the games for good but is unable to stop more people getting killed.

Here are the most significant deaths from the first two seasons of "Squid Game," ranked from least to most shocking.

Balancing quality over quantity while combating worker crunch will pose challenges for the animation industry in 2025.

• The Netflix docuseries "Jerry Springer: Fights, Camera, Action" premiered on Tuesday.
• It explores the controversial rise of Springer's daytime talk show, which gained fame for its brawls.
• Former producers describe manipulative tactics they used to get guests riled up and ready to fight.

The unruly guests on "The Jerry Springer Show" were not professional actors — but their infamous brawls were encouraged and teased out behind the scenes, producers say.

Netflix's new two-part documentary, "Jerry Springer: Fights, Camera, Action," unpacks the show's outrageous premise and its rise to the top of daytime TV ratings in the late '90s. It features several interviews with former producers, who describe the tactics they used to recruit real people with real problems and coax them into having emotional meltdowns on air.

"Just like any other manipulative situation, you need to instinctually pull out of them those points of tension that create a soap opera," Melinda Chait Mele, a producer who'd been hired from the tabloid world, says in the doc.

"A lot of the guests were earnest. They literally did think they were coming on to solve a problem. You wouldn't believe how many people said to me on the telephone, 'I can't wait to meet Jerry. I really hope he can help me with this,'" Mele tells the camera. "Jerry didn't help anybody with any of it. He just stood there and did his thing."

As the show was gaining popularity and producers were under more pressure to orchestrate shock and awe, Mele hired Toby Yoshimura, a former bartender with no talk show experience. He proved exceptionally skilled at convincing people to publicly air their grievances.

"These are small-town folk, right? And you're really trying to sell it to them, like, 'You've got this great story. We want to give people an opportunity to see that,'" Yoshimura explains. "In order for them to deliver, they have to like you. So you treat them like they're kings."

Yoshimura says producers would send limousines to ferry guests to and from the airport. A "Jerry Springer" guest identified as Melanie says they were also supplied with plenty of alcohol.

"They did everything in their power to get us as crazy as possible," Melanie says. "They were like, 'Go hog wild! Have fun!' And so we got wasted." By the time she arrived on set the following morning, Melanie says she was hungover, sleep-deprived, and "ready to fuck it up." Meanwhile, producers were with her backstage, coaching her on "what to say and how to act."

Yoshimura describes the environment as a "pressure cooker" and admits that some stories went too far. (Some of the show's most controversial episodes include "I'm Pregnant By My Brother" and "I Married a Horse.")

"You had to reach into their brain and tap on the thing that would make them laugh, cry, scream, or fight. You rev 'em up to tornado level, and then you send 'em out onstage," Yoshimura says, adding later, "This was basically the Stanford Prison Experiment, in that you were playing with people's psyches until you get a result."

This methodology was designed to generate higher ratings, which spiked after an episode that saw a member of the Jewish Defense League start a fistfight with members of the Ku Klux Klan.

"It was brilliant. And it rated through the roof," says Richard Dominick, the executive producer for "Jerry Springer" who's widely credited as the show's mastermind. "If you're producing a show that you want to be insane, and unlike anything that's ever been on TV before, there's your goal. That's what you want."

From that point onward, producers were instructed to pursue on-camera confrontations — and for a while, Dominick's method got results. In 1998, Springer even beat out Oprah Winfrey in the ratings for the most-watched daytime talk show, a feat that producers previously thought was impossible.

"There was no question: Jerry and Richard were on top of the world. I mean, the riches that it gave them, and the fame, were very compelling," says Robert Feder, a longtime media critic who worked for the Chicago Sun-Times during the "Jerry Springer" era.

"But what did they have to do in order to achieve it?" Feder continues. "The degree to which Jerry sold himself out, and the degree to which he was complicit with Richard in exploiting the people who came on the show, is something that had serious consequences."

"The Jerry Springer Show" ran for 27 seasons before it was canceled in 2018; Springer died of pancreatic cancer in 2023. In the final years of his life, Springer disavowed his own show and publicly apologized for the role he played, declaring, "What have I done? I've ruined the culture."

"I look at some of the stuff that's being done now, and I go, 'We're kind of responsible for this crap,'" Dominick says in the doc, which pairs the quote with clips from "Keeping Up With the Kardashians," "The Real Housewives of New Jersey," and "The Apprentice." He adds: "Maybe I am gonna go to hell."

However, Yoshimura suggests the show's success reflects just as negatively on viewers — including any viewers of the Netflix doc today — as it does on hosts, creators, and producers.

"Look at the history of the show. A guy punches a girl in the face, it gets huge ratings. We put a girl without clothes on the show, everybody loses their mind," he explains. "All you guys wanna talk about is all that shit."

"But, you know, we're the problem," he adds. "If none of that happened, there's no documentary on Netflix. Full stop."

• Netflix's big night at the Golden Globes signals it could finally win the best picture Oscar.
• The irony? After years of campaigning, it doesn't matter much anymore, media analysts say.
• Netflix's status in Hollywood is cemented, and it's making waves elsewhere.

Netflix has spent years hunting for a best picture Oscar, and this year, it might finally get one. The twist: If it does, the win won't matter all that much to the streamer's business.

Netflix won big at the Golden Globes Sunday, crowing on its blog that the Spanish-language crime musical "Emilia Pérez" took "center stage" with four trophies, including a coveted Best Motion Picture prize in the musical or comedy category.

"Baby Reindeer" added to its haul with two awards, and Ali Wong took home a statue for her standup special. Netflix execs Ted Sarandos and Bela Bajaria received effusive shout-outs from the podium.

Netflix has spent millions of dollars over the years on Oscar campaigns but always come up short in the best picture category, the pinnacle of Hollywood glory. While Golden Globe and Oscar winners don't always intersect, the momentum for "Pérez" could mean the statue is finally in Netflix's crosshairs.

But the Oscar won't mean as much to Netflix as it would have a few years ago, industry analysts told Business Insider. Netflix has already won the streaming wars, and other areas of focus — like its live sports push — are more consequential to its current strategy.

"Winning best picture would be a nice PR win," Ross Benes, an EMARKETER senior analyst, told BI. "But business-wise, it would not matter all that much. Netflix already has convinced the top filmmakers and actors in the world to work with them."

Benes said that particularly with box-office returns down, "It's more clear than ever that the best movies go straight to streaming sometimes."

COVID also marked a "sea change" in the blurring of these lines after some top films began premiering on streaming services, said Robert Rosenberg, a former Showtime executive and a principal at Telluride Legal Strategies.

"The legitimacy question has basically been laid to rest," Rosenberg added, referring to whether Hollywood had fully accepted Netflix movies.

"Winning best picture would just be another feather in their cap," he said.

Netflix declined to comment.

Netflix's narrative has shifted

Netflix has been nominated for best picture several times — including noteworthy contenders like "Roma" and "The Power of the Dog." But Apple TV became the first streamer to cross the best picture threshold with "CODA" in 2022.

More recently, Netflix's aspirations have focused less on the red carpet and more on areas like the pro wrestling ring. The streamer has been increasingly scooping up sports rights and hosting massive broadcasts of boxing matches and NFL games as it builds an ad business.

Rosenberg called live content "a key new battleground" for Netflix. "I think we're going to see them get more aggressive in that area going forward," he said.

This week, Netflix will premiere "Monday Night Raw" — the first fruits of its multibillion-dollar deal with the WWE.

"Netflix laid the smackdown on traditional TV," Benes said. "It is enjoying its Hulkamania reign."

A new behind-the-scenes Netflix video digs into how season two's games, sets, and aesthetic details came into play.

The Netflix series concludes later this year—so here are all the burning questions we still have after season two.

Netflix's Stranger Things and Disney+ Star Wars series Andor return for their final seasons—but first, Apple TV+'s Severance kicks off 2025's must-see genre shows.

• Player 001 is a main character in seasons one and two of "Squid Game."
• The number was bestowed on Oh Il-nam, a dying old man, in season one.
• Here's what to know about the new Player 001, Oh Young-il.

Warning: Spoilers ahead for "Squid Game" seasons one and two.

In season two of Netflix's hit series "Squid Game," lead character Seong Gi-hun is betrayed again by Player 001.

The first season became streamer's most-watched show of all time and helped spark global interest in Korean dramas. One of the main characters, Oh Il-nam (O Yeong-su), is an old, dying man who entered the competition of deadly children's games to relive his childhood.

He is given the "Player 001" jumpsuit and becomes allies with Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae) and his friends before Il-nam is killed during the marbles game in episode six.

However, a year after Gi-hun wins the games, Il-nam reveals to him that he faked his death and was the creator of the games, posing as a player.

Before Il-nam dies of natural causes, he tells Gi-hun that he designed the games to amuse other wealthy people and test people's morals.

This inspires Gi-hun to shut down the games for good, and he agrees to enter the competition again in season two to complete this plan.

This time, he meets another Player 001, who wants to become his ally.

Player 001 is the Frontman without his disguise.

Season two's Player 001 tells his fellow survivors that his name is Oh Young-il, but he is really Hwang In-ho, the Frontman.

In-ho is played by Lee Byung-hun, a South Korean actor who has also starred in American action films including "G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra," "Red 2," and "Terminator Genisys."

In season one, In-ho led the competition from the command center and ensured it ran smoothly; however, for most of the season, he wore a black mask and raincoat, hiding his identity.

In-ho had spoken to Gi-hun before, but he was masked and using a voice changer. So Gi-hun doesn't recognize In-ho's voice in season two while pretending to be Young-il, so is never suspicious of him.

It is unclear what In-ho's plan is, but in season two, he infiltrates Gi-hun's group, tries to subtly talk him into supporting the games, and sabotages the players' rebellion in the season finale.

In the finale, In-ho also fakes his death, reapplies his mask as the Frontman, and kills Gi-hun's close friend right in front of him.

The Frontman is the brother of former detective, Hwang Jun-ho.

In season one, a detective, Hwang Jun-ho (Wi Ha-joon), infiltrates the competition as a guard in search of his missing brother, In-ho. He discovers that his brother won the competition five years ago and now runs it as the Frontman.

But Jun-ho is shot by In-ho during his escape. Jun-ho survives but loses all the evidence of the games to give to the police.

In season two, Jun-ho joins Gi-hun's team in tracking down the organization running the competition, but hides that his brother is in charge.

The Frontman enters the games to save his wife, but she dies.

While posing as Young-il, In-ho tells Gi-hun that he is competing in the games to get enough money to help his sick, pregnant wife. He says he was fired from his job after borrowing money from a vendor because his bosses thought it was a bribe.

This may be the one time In-ho tells the truth to Gi-hun.

In episode two, Jun-ho visits the grave of In-ho's wife to check for signs he has visited recently. Later, Jun-ho and his mother speak about how they couldn't afford to help In-ho save his sick wife. Jun-ho says In-ho decided to take a bribe, so they shouldn't blame themselves for her death.

If this is true, and In-ho did initially compete in the games to save his wife, perhaps he was too late to save her after winning. His story could be mirroring Gi-hun's, who competes in the games in season one to pay the medical bills for his mother, who dies before he returns.

• Netflix released dozens of original movies last year, both good and bad.
• While some Netflix originals may be getting Oscar buzz, not all of them can be great.
• "Mother of the Bride," "Rebel Moon," and "Uglies" are some of the streamer's worst 2024 releases.

Since Netflix released its first original film 10 years ago, it's become a giant studio, releasing hundreds of films that have been shown in millions of homes worldwide and generating billions of dollars in revenue.

But even though the streaming service is, by all accounts, a success, that doesn't mean it only releases films that are loved by critics. In fact, these movies were almost universally panned by critics when they were released in 2024.

We used Rotten Tomatoes to determine the worst original movies released by Netflix last year. Here were the 15 lowest-ranked films.

He's not saying much, of course, but Hwang Dong-hyuk knows you're dying to see what happens next.

• The tech founder Bryan Johnson has become the face of longevity; he's on a mission to live forever.
• A Netflix documentary details his journey into the world of longevity biohacking.
• I visited Johnson's home, and it's a bit different from what you see in the new Netflix doc.

A new documentary has arrived on Netflix, just in time for New Year's resolution season. It follows Bryan Johnson, or "that guy" in longevity, the tech founder who's tried pretty much everything — from fasting to infusing his son's blood plasma — to reverse-age his body.

The doc, "Don't Die: The Man Who Wants to Live Forever," streaming now, attempts to peel back the curtain on Johnson, who's become a leader in longevity biohacking.

As a reporter covering longevity, I've met Johnson several times over the past couple of years. We first met in September 2023 at the RAADfest — which stands for Revolution Against Aging and Death — near Disneyland in California. I interviewed him in a hotel room to avoid crowds of his adoring fans.

In October 2024, I visited him at home — the same one depicted in "Don't Die." While the 90-minute doc travels back in time to Johnson's Utah roots in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (along the way, we meet his parents, his eldest son, Talmage, and his longtime business partner, Kate Tolo, who's largely responsible for Johnson's internet success), in real life, Johnson's home is a bit less picture-perfect than what viewers see on-screen.

His house is HQ for a growing longevity brand

As the documentary shows, Johnson's home is a private, shrubbed-in concrete mansion on an unassuming Los Angeles street. It's a big, empty space perfect for shooting everything from YouTube Shorts to naked photo spreads.

It's less a home than a well-equipped stage with studio lights, sandbags, and social media staffers.

Still, the house displays some small but humanizing details of his everyday life, ones we don't see as much in the film.

In addition to being a decent stage, this home is Johnson's safe house, seemingly shielding him from a world of pollutants in food, water, and air. The big windows all have UV filters. The water is purified. The fridge is full of nutty pudding prepared by his chef, and the garage has been transformed into a home gym.

When I was there, I saw a few subtle signs that Johnson actually lived in the house: a half-empty bottle of rosé left on the refrigerator door, some Xbox controllers on the couch, and family photos taped up above the kitchen range.

His 'Don't Die' pitch versus scientific reality

Johnson is always tweaking his longevity "protocols," but his ethos is consistent.

He says that the corporate forces of fast food and institutionalized healthcare are making us sick. He told me he started his Blueprint company to offer people an alternative so they could take control of their health and longevity.

In many ways, he echoes Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s call to "make America healthy again," extolling the health virtues of preventive care, clean eating, and hitting the gym.

Johnson started his Don't Die brand with a specially labeled olive oil. It now extends to a blood-plasma microplastic test, a Don't Die app, and a line of powders, supplements, drinks, and prepared meals you can order online.

The documentary highlights the deep disconnect between the influencing Johnson does online and the actual professional geroscience and human-longevity research.

The film includes interviews with some of the world's most esteemed longevity scientists, including Dr. Andrea Maier, Brian Kennedy, Matt Kaeberlein, and Steve Horvath, the guy who pioneered the scientific idea of a "biological age."

Perhaps the most apt scientific commentary in the film comes from the Havard aging researcher Vadim Gladyshev. "What Bryan does, I guess, brings attention to our field — this will be positive," Gladyshev says. "But it has almost no contribution to science, right? It's not science. It's just attention."

It's attention that many longevity clinics and elite longevity doctors are seeing drive new business. More than 70% of the 72 longevity clinicians who participated in an ongoing online survey by the website Longevity.Technology said that they felt Johnson "contributes to" instead of "hinders" the progress of longevity medicine. Some said he helped grow awareness for what longevity scientists hope, but can't be sure, could one day be some real human longevity science advances.

"We are experimenting, and we are trialing out, and I think we will have a revolution in the next coming 10 years of very specific interventions we can apply to humans," Maier says in the film.

Any real-deal longevity interventions that may exist for humans in the future would likely be tightly tailored to each individual, not one-size-fits-all protocols. Leading longevity scientists and doctors already agree on this. So far, not one supplement or drug has been proven to slow human aging. Instead, longevity experts have said regular exercise and good nutrition can help.

His following is growing

As I've covered longevity, I've met Johnson's followers, from curious onlookers to devout copycats of his evolving formula.

On-screen, we watch an eye-popping transformation of a once devout Latter-day Saints kid who becomes a dad in his 20s, then a stressed tech founder operating on minimal sleep, losing his faith and sinking into a deep depression.

Johnson now has his own growing following worldwide. His adherents throw dance parties and organize hikes in California and Singapore.

Since filming wrapped, Johnson has traveled to China and India to promote the Don't Die movement in new countries. He's also created a Don't Die app for his followers to connect with one another wherever they live.

Once the cameras were turned off and the show was over, I left the documentary feeling much like I did when I left his house.

Johnson seems to be eagerly wrestling with how to live his healthiest, most fulfilled life. He's a dad of three who cried in the aisles of Target when his firstborn son went off to college. He's a dutiful son — according to the documentary, he's the only person who visited his dad in jail.

It seems what he's endlessly searching for — along with peace and well-being — is clicks, follows, and sales. It's a logical next business move for the guy who once ran Venmo: turning the longevity movement into one more thing we can shop for on the internet.

Squid Game's hotly anticipated second season debuted on Netflix the day after Christmas and racked up more than 68 million views in just three days. It had already been renewed for a third and final season—filmed back-to-back with S2—but Netflix ushered in the new year by gracing us with a 15-second teaser on X, introducing a brand new killer doll dubbed Chul-su—similar to the giant "Red Light, Green Light" doll Young-hee.

(Spoilers for S1 below; some spoilers for S2 but no major reveals.)

As previously reported, the first season followed Seong Gi-hun (Lee Jung-Jae, seen earlier this year in The Acolyte), a down-on-his-luck gambler who has little left to lose when he agrees to play children's playground games against 455 other players for money. The twist? If you lose a game, you die. If you cheat, you die. And if you win, you might also die.

Read full article

Comments

© Netflix

Superheroes are coming back in a big way, but 2025 will also be huge for horror as well as unconventional nostalgia.

• Netflix's "Missing You" is based on the book of the same name by Harlan Coben.
• The mystery writer has worked with the streamer on several shows.
• Here's how critics rank Netflix's Coben adaptations.

"Missing You" is Netflix's ninth adaptation of a Harlan Coben novel, following huge hits including "Fool Me Once."

Here is a ranking of all of the streamers shows based on Coben's work, according to critics' scores on Rotten Tomatoes.

Note: All scores were accurate on the date of publication and are subject to change.

• Netflix says season two of "Squid Game" got 68 million views in the first four days after its debut.
• The South Korean drama surpassed a record held by "Wednesday" for most views in a premiere week.
• The dystopian thriller is Netflix's top non-English show, with over 265 million views.

Netflix says season two of its hit streaming series "Squid Game" amassed 68 million views in the first four days of its release, blowing past the viewership record for a show's premiere week on the streaming platform.

The record was previously held by the first season of "Wednesday," which had more than 50 million views after it launched in 2022.

The South Korean dystopian thriller also broke records when it debuted in 2021, and Netflix says it remains its most popular non-English show, with over 265 million views.

The series, created by Hwang Dong-hyuk and starring Lee Jung-jae, is broadly about people heavily in debt competing in deadly versions of children's games for a big cash prize.

Shortly after the first season debuted, Bloomberg reported that Netflix expected the series to create nearly $900 million in value for the company.

Alvin Foo, then a Netflix director of strategy and operators for APAC marketing, wrote a LinkedIn post in 2021 describing 10 reasons he thought the show became a global phenomenon. One was the broader popularity of the "survival-game" genre.

Foo also noted that it touched on themes such as economic inequality and said it was "instantly meme-able" for its visually striking set design and costumes.

In an interview with Variety in late December, Hwang said fans wouldn't need to wait too long for season three.

"After season two launches, I believe we will be announcing the launch date for Season 3 soon," he said. "I probably expect that to launch around summer or fall next year."

• These are the best movies to watch on Netflix in January.
• Watch Christopher Nolan's "Interstellar" and "Inception."
• You can also check out 1990s hits like "I Know What You Did Last Summer" and "Rush Hour."

From Christopher Nolan classics to Jennifer Garner doing the "Thriller" dance, here are the best movies on Netflix in January.

• Netflix has delivered another thriller based on one of Harlan Coben's books.
• "Missing You" follows a detective whose fiancé has been missing for 11 years.
• The show is billed as a limited series, but there would be plenty to explore in a second season.

Warning: Major spoilers ahead for "Missing You."

Fans of "Missing You," Netflix's latest adaptation of a Harlan Coben book, may be wondering if a second season is coming.

The show comes after Coben's "Fool Me Once," which was released on January 1, 2024 and became one of Netflix's most-watched shows of all time. It has been viewed 98 million times, according to the streamer.

In "Missing You," detective Kat Donovan (Rosalind Eleazar) tries to uncover why her fiancé disappeared and her father died 11 years ago.

Netflix has promoted the show as a limited series, so it seems unlikely a second season will be made. None of the other Coben adaptations have had one, either.

But the ending leaves things on an emotional cliffhanger and it would be possible for Netflix to continue the story, which it might be tempted to do if it's as big a success as "Fool Me Once."

The series ends with Josh Buchanan (Ashley Walters), Kat's fiancé, confessing to her that he accidentally killed her father, Clint Donovan (Lenny Henry) while trying to defend his friend, Aqua Venech (Mary Malone).

Aqua accidentally learned that Clint was secretly gay and had been in a relationship with a man for 14 years. Josh arrived at Aqua's apartment when Clint was threatening her with a knife, and accidentally stabbed him during the fight.

Josh then left Kat suddenly because he couldn't deal with the guilt of killing her father.

Kat is shocked, and although the couple had started to rekindle their relationship, it's unclear whether they could stay together now she knows the truth.

A hypothetical second season of "Missing You" could explore whether the pair stay together and if Kat goes to the police. It could also return to the organized crime subplot involving gangster Dominic Calligan (James Nesbitt).

But for now, it looks like "Missing You" is a one-off.

• "Missing You" follows Kat Donovan whose fiancé, Josh Buchanan, disappears.
• She starts hunting for answers after she spots him on a dating app 11 years later.
• Her investigation also forces her to ask who murdered Clint Donovan, her father.

Warning: Spoilers ahead for "Missing You."

Netflix has kicked 2025 off strong with "Missing You," the latest thriller based on a Harlan Coben book.

It follows the hugely successful Coben adaptation "Fool Me Once," which became one of Netflix's most-watched shows of all time in 2024.

The new series revolves around Kat Donovan (Rosalind Eleazar), a detective who has never gotten over her fiancé, Josh Buchanan (Ashley Walters) disappearing without warning 11 years ago.

He left shortly after her father Clint Donovan (Lenny Henry), a police inspector, was murdered. It's another incident that she wants answers for after a hitman confessed to the killing.

Who really killed Kat's father? Why did Josh leave? All the answers are revealed by the end of "Missing You."

Josh Buchanan was never on the dating app, his profile was created by Titus Monroe's scamming group

"Missing You" starts with Kat spotting Josh on the Melody Cupid dating app. But it emerges his account was faked as part of an extensive romance scam being run by a man called Titus Monroe (Steve Pemberton), from his remote farm.

He and his associates had a room full of laptops, computers, and phones that they used to lure unsuspecting single people into fake online relationships.

Once their victims were invested, the scammers invited them on a fake romantic getaway, kidnapped them, and held them at the farm where Titus forced them to transfer him thousands of pounds.

That's what happened to Rishi Maghari (Rudi Dharmalingam), the lecturer, who audiences meet in the first episode.

Buchanan's dating profile was harvested from a Facebook account made by his secret daughter, Sadie (Amelie Dokubo), whom he had with an unknown woman after leaving Kat.

In the final episode, the scam operation is stopped when Titus realizes that the police are closing in and he burns the farm down. He tries to kill Dana Fells (Lisa Faulkner), one of his scam victims, and her son Brendan (Oscar Kennedy) to cover his tracks. But Kat arrives and shoots Titus dead before he can kill anyone.

But none of this answers the key mystery behind Josh's disappearance or Clint's death, it just ties up the subplot regarding the various missing people that Kat was investigating.

Clint Donovan was blackmailed into working for a gangster to hide that he was gay

By the end of "Missing You," Kat learns that her father was a corrupt officer working for Calligan (James Nesbitt), a gangster.

It's a surprise because Kat had an idealistic view of her father as a hardworking police officer. But that's not the only twist: Calligan points her toward someone called Parker (Cyril Nri), who is revealed to be a man that Clint was having an affair with.

Kat learns that her father was secretly gay, and Calligan was using that to blackmail him into working for him. Parker and Clint were in a committed relationship, which they kept secret because of Clint's family and his job.

Josh left after accidentally killing Clint, who was trying to cover up his secret relationship

When Kat finds Josh in Scotland, she initially thinks he left because he knew Clint was corrupt and, for a moment, it looks like they could rekindle their relationship.

But when the tech genius Charlie Pitt (Charlie Hambley) finds Josh's fingerprint on the knife that killed Clint, it all comes crashing down, and Josh tells Kat the truth about why he left.

11 years ago, on the night of Clint's death, Kat's friend Aqua Vanech (Mary Malone), saw a heated exchange between the police officer and Parker, which made it clear they were together. In his desperation to keep his secret, Clint attacked Aqua at her home while berating her for being able to live as her true self as a transgender woman.

Josh happened to arrive at Aqua's home while Clint threatened her with a knife and stepped in to defend his friend. In the ensuing struggle, Josh accidentally stabbed Clint, killing him.

Then DCI Stagger (Richard Armitage) arrived. He covered up Clint's death — including paying off hitman Monte Leburne (Marc Warren) — to hide Clint's corruption and protect his family.

The guilt Josh felt led him to leave Kat.

"Missing You" ends on an emotional cliffhanger, as it's clear that Kat and Josh aren't sure whether their relationship can continue now that she knows he killed her father.