A live-action adaptation of a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel backed by the biggest streaming service in the business that features a pair of eminently successful and heavily-renowned talents steering the ship from behind the camera sounds like a slam dunk on paper, but Netflix’s All the Light We Cannot See is anything but.
The platform generally holds off on review embargoes for its highest-profile originals until the second they premiere, but opting to open the doors on reactions to the episodic epic inspired by Anthony Doerr’s acclaimed novel of the same name months before its release has proven to be a catastrophic decision on Netflix’s part after the four-part wartime miniseries took an absolute pasting from all corners.
At the time of writing, All the Light We Cannot see holds an embarrassing 23 percent approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, not quite what anybody was wanting, hoping, or expecting from a blockbuster exclusive helmed by Free Guy and Deadpool 3‘s Shawn Levy, with Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight on scripting duties.
Obviously, being unanimously panned has never stopped any Netflix film or television title from making an immediate splash on the viewership charts, but that’s about the only front on which the ill-judged adaptation has managed to succeed.
Per FlixPatrol, All the Light We Cannot See had debuted as the number one most-watched TV show on the worldwide charts, having reached the very top in 54 countries and cracked the Top 10 in upwards of 30 more, but it would have been a much better outcome were it not so crushingly disappointing.
