The Netflix charts are always a fascinating place to explore. There’s always at least one entry that makes no sense at all — like, why is The Grinch the second-most-watched movie in the world right now? — but, it’s safe to say, this week’s viewer Olympics are especially peculiar.
One Piece should be the biggest show in the world right now, but it’s still taken a backseat to a German crime thriller called Dear Girl, which has seemingly gone undetected in the realm of public/online discourse. Likewise, we regret to inform you that the platform’s most popular movie of the moment is none other than Fifty Shades Freed, AKA the trilogy-completing movie that came out when everyone was already over the Fifty Shades fever. In better news, we will get to watch Chloe Domont’s critically acclaimed Fair Play sooner than expected.
One Piece enthusiasts are granted a privilege Netflix reserves for few
It’s official — One Piece is returning for a second season! The anime live-action adaptation which follows the adventures of a group of pirates called the Straw Hats has been greenlit for a return only two weeks after the premiere of its first outing. To put it into perspective, that’s quicker than Wednesday, Stranger Things or Sex Education. Creator Eiichiro Oda delivered the news in true One Piece style, using a mustachioed transponder snail to address fans, and teasing Chopper’s big arrival. Considering the adorable doctor of the team is literally 90cm tall in the source material, bringing him to the world of live-action will be interesting, to say the least.
Unusual activity and haste for Netflix standards, which usually opts for leaving fans hanging for ages or distraught after unlogical cancelations. One Piece, however, is as sure a bet as any, what with being the highest-selling comic and one of the most-watched animes in the world. The fandom was already there, so all that was left to do was meet their understandably high standards with a worthy adaptation. Thankfully, Netflix seems to have risen to the task this time, with critics praising the show and subscribers showing up with two weeks of over 140 million hours watched.
A German crime thriller continues to hold the charts hostage
The number one Netflix show in the world right now is an unsuspecting crime thriller hailing from the country that gave the platform one of its biggest hits in 2017’s Dark and an Oscar darling in 2022’s All Quiet on The Westen Front. Now, Germany is soaring high again with Dear Child, or Liebes Kind, which is the most-watched show in a whopping 51 countries and made the top 10 in virtually every place where the platform is available.
This addicting mini-series begins when a woman and a child are found following a car accident and it’s revealed they’ve been held captive for 13 years. It’s based on the acclaimed homonymous 2020 novel by Romy Hausmann and runs for 6 episodes. The adaptation, like the book, keeps spectators hooked with perplexing cliffhangers, twists, and turns, resulting in an indisputable new addition to German Netflix’s already crowded hall of fame.
A five-year-old erotic film has everyone glued to the screen again right before the arrival of a superior successor
Fifty Shades Freed has taken over Netflix the same way the trilogy it stems from took over the world between 2015 and 2018. It looks like the BDSM erotic drama has aged well enough to be revisited by the subscribers after recently being added to the platform, shooting all the way to number one on the movie chart. According to FlixPatrol, it made the top 10 in 58 countries, surpassing the likes of Jack Reacher, The Grinch, and You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah.
The steamy genre is always a surefire hit for Netflix, even when the specimens are as bad as the 365 Days or the Fifty Shades movies. It’s only natural, then, that the streamer is rushing to bring one of the buzziest titles of the year’s festival circuit into the fold. Fair Play, an erotic thriller by Chloe Domont, about a hedge fund firm, starring Phoebe Dynevor and Alden Ehrenreich, conquered critics at Sundance and TIFF, leading Netflix to secure its distribution rights for $20 million. Initially scheduled for an Oct. 13 release, the film is now dropping on the platform a week earlier, on Oct. 6, just in time to end the Fifty Shades dominance and, if critics are to be believed, return the sophistication to the genre.
Published: Sep 15, 2023 10:00 pm