The right binge watch is essential for surviving the start of January, and nothing does the trick quite like a twisty-turny thriller from the master of the genre, Harlan Coben. Following in the footsteps of Michelle Keegan in Fool Me Once (Netflix’s most-watched show in 2024), Rosalind Eleazar has officially become our New Year TV hero as the star of Missing You.
The eighth Netflix adaptation of the best-selling crime novelist’s work, like all Coben mysteries, the premise of Missing You is punchy. What do you do when your ex-fiancé, who disappeared without a trace, pops up on a dating app 11 years later – and he’s been visiting your father’s murderer in prison
This is what Eleazar’s character, Detective Kat Donavan, is forced to contend with in Missing You. ‘It’s the perfect hangover watch,’ says the actor, whose co-stars include Top Boy’s Ashley Walters and Coben veteran Richard Armitage. ‘There is something really fun about putting the pieces of a puzzle together. It’s almost like a game for the viewer. All of Harlan’s books are written in a way where you never see the ending coming. When I read the last 15 pages I could not believe that I had been duped.’
Missing You is Eleazar’s first lead role; until now she was best known for playing frustrated spook Louisa in award-winning spy drama Slow Horses, starring alongside Jack Lowden, Gary Oldman and Kristin Scott Thomas. With a dedicated cult following, a fifth season is expected this year (and it really is as good as everyone says).
With past projects ranging from a BBC version of Howard’s End to the TV adaptation of Zadie Smith’s NW and a critically-acclaimed performance on stage in Uncle Vanya, Missing You is new territory for Eleazar. ‘It’s the most commercial show I’ve done, and I thought that was a different sort of challenge,’ she says.
Commercial it may be, but the series is not without depth. Eleazar was drawn to the show, in part, because of the complex situation her character finds herself in – ghosted, grieving and riddled with unanswered questions. ‘These themes can be triggering. Obviously, this is an extreme version of someone leaving with no trace, but we’ve probably all been in a situation where someone you want, or desire, doesn’t want you back.’
With gobsmacking twists and tantalising cliffhangers tailing every episode, like Fool Me Once before it, all five episodes of Missing You seem perfectly crafted to be consumed in one sitting. Which, Eleazar jokes, makes her a little sad. ‘I know we’re in a binge culture, but we devour this in five hours and it’s been almost two years in the making – from the time it’s green lit to when first drafts are written to filming for months – and then it’s all over, like that!’
Stream all episodes of Missing You on Netflix now