Netflix’s New ‘Severance’ Replacement Is Officially Taking Over the World

1 week ago 29

Published Oct 31, 2026, 11:00 AM EDT

Rohan Naahar is a News Writer for Collider. From Francois Ozon to David Fincher, he'll watch anything once.

He has covered everything from Marvel to the Oscars, and Marvel at the Oscars. He also writes obsessively about the box office, charting the many hits and misses that are released weekly, and how their commercial performance shapes public perception. In his time at Collider, he has also helped drive diversity by writing stories about the multiple Indian film industries, with a goal of introducing audiences to a whole new world of cinema.

Hot off the success of Doctor X: Mafia in White, Netflix has a major new South Korean series making a mark on its global charts. The eight-part fantasy mystery series debuted on the platform on October 30 with huge shoes to fill. Netflix has found tremendous success in the Korean market, with several shows having crossed over worldwide. In fact, Doctor X has spent three weeks in the top-10 leaderboard, which is often dominated by Korean titles. The three seasons of Squid Game remain Netflix's most-watched non-English series of all time, with the first season perched at the number-one spot, having amassed 265 million views in the first three months of release in 2021. The streamer's latest hit not only has thematic overlaps with Squid Game, but also with the blockbuster Apple TV series Severance.

Created by Han Jun-hee, who earlier worked on the Netflix series The Blue Road, the new series has been directed by Kim Da-min. It stars matinée idol Lee Jae-wook as a young man who takes a mysterious part-time job with sinister consequences. The job pays 50 times the normal wage, but puts employees through unexpected tasks. The first three episodes of the series premiered at the Busan International Film Festival, and all eight episodes are now streaming on Netflix. According to FlixPatrol, the new series debuted on the Korean and international streaming charts.

Here's Your Next Netflix Obsession

We're talking about Dead-End Job, which doesn't yet have an official score on the aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, but has received positive early praise. The reviews currently listed on the platform praised the show's old-fashioned episodic nature and likable characters. It remains to be seen where Dead-End Job places in Netflix's weekly viewership report on Tuesday, and if it has the legs to break out like so many past Korean hits. Meanwhile, Severance remains a flagship title for Apple TV. It returned with a long-awaited second season in 2025, and has been renewed for a third. You can watch Squid Game and Dead-End Job on Netflix, and stay tuned to Collider for more updates.