Netflix‘s viewership rankings tend to be the natural habitat of such genres as romantic comedies, action thrillers, and true crime, so seeing such players as Happy Madison and Robert Rodriguez make their best invasive species impression is nothing short of grin-worthy, even if their respective films don’t elicit anything of the sort.
Meanwhile, as fans of Cobra Kai lie in wait for updates on the halted sixth and final season of the martial arts dramedy, the streamer has offered up the best band-aid solution it can muster as the writers’ strike continues tossing tragically necessary wrenches into the entertainment industry.
Cobra Kai fans get a four-pronged feast courtesy of Netflix
The Cobra Kai fandom may end up hungering for the conclusion of their favorite show a bit longer than they would like, but Netflix has fortunately kicked off the month by dropping the four next best things into their watchlists; namely, some Karate Kid films.
Indeed, fans of the famed Netflix show can now feast their eyes on where it all began; from 1984’s The Karate Kid to the 1989 threequel, Cobra Kai‘s ancestors are officially in the house.
The unrelated 2010 film is there, too, but we doubt it will have quite the same mileage with the Cobra Kai faithful as the others.
An unsettling revenge thriller breaks Netflix’s number one rule of high viewership
Catch the Fair One, Josef Kubota Wladyka’s revenge thriller film, in which a former boxer and Native American woman delve into the sickening world of sex trafficking in search of the latter’s younger sister, pulls absolutely no punches and has no intention of making you feel comfortable. Naturally, it also has no interest in playing by anyone’s rules; not even Netflix’s.
Indeed, while it’s effectively an unwritten rule at this point that Netflix’s top viewership contenders can’t have anything resembling a claim to critical praise, Catch the Fair One dares to break convention with its 94 percent approval rating while tangoing in the Top 10 in 21 different countries. So, if you have the stomach for Catch the Fair One, it will be well worth your time to help it climb.
Sex sells, adrenaline sells, so a quasi-solid erotic thriller definitely sells
Not to be confused with the Paramount Plus series Fatal Attraction, erotic thriller series Fatal Seduction proves that Netflix knows its audience to a fault; whether that fault lies with the streamer or its subscribers is entirely up to interpretation.
As for the facts, however, everyone knows that the Netflix faithfuls are suckers for murder mysteries and precarious, passionate encounters, and the fruits of such a combination, as boasted by Fatal Seduction, have brought it to the Top 10 in 80 different countries. Indeed, there’s a saying when it comes to Netflix; even if it’s kinda broke, don’t fix it.
One of the streamer’s weakest films is also its heaviest hitter at the moment
David with critics, Goliath with viewership numbers; such is the natural state of being for Happy Madison films that aren’t Hustle, and The Out-Laws is the latest to be christened with such a distinction.
Starring Adam DeVine as a bank manager whose workplace is robbed by his fiancée’s parents less than a week before his wedding, The Out-Laws is unfortunately one of Netflix’s poorest endeavors ever, boasting a sickly pair of 19 and 44 percent approval ratings on Rotten Tomatoes, but that doesn’t really matter when you’ve since shot to the top spot of the viewership rankings in 61 countries in the three days since you’ve released. Even when Happy Madison loses, it wins.
The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl is one of Netflix’s top films right now; that’s it, that’s the subheading
In many ways, you have to respect Robert Rodriguez for going above and beyond to get a story written by his then-small children made into a feature film. Unfortunately, that heartwarming sentiment is about all that The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl has to offer, but being an objectively bad film hasn’t stopped Netflix viewership heavyweights before.
Although, breaking into the streamer’s Top 10 isn’t even its most impressive feat; somehow, someway, Sharkboy and Lavagirl managed to nab franchise distinction after We Can Be Heroes, a legacy sequel that’s exclusive to Netflix no less, dropped on the platform just three years ago. Indeed, even history’s finest scribes wouldn’t be able to match the remarkable, if asinine, developments that the real world cooks up on its own.
Published: Jul 10, 2023 07:00 pm