It’s been an awfully explosive weekend for Netflix‘s charts, having just welcomed the seventh season of a juggernaut documentary series, a romantic comedy film that seems to have gone against the grain in the best way, and some legacy television royalty that was all but destined to rack up viewership numbers that would make the suits’ eyes water. Indeed, it’s a healthy-looking Top 10 these days.
The same can’t be said for Disney Plus, whose gamble on the second season of one of the ex-residents of Netflix’s shadow realm hasn’t quite paid off as much as the Mouse House may have hoped.
And finally, the next chart giant is slowly beginning to wake up, with the Money Heist prequel series Berlin having gifted fans information on where to circle the calendar.
Money Heist fans will be ringing in the new year in a big way
Netflix’s international content has always been quite the boon for the streamer, but few can lay claim to the amount of clout that Money Heist has built up in its time; critical acclaim, an Emmy Award, and becoming a recent target of the franchise ray is all but indicative of the legs that this universe has.
And Berlin — the prequel series centering on a prime-of-his-life Andrés de Fonollosa (aka Berlin) — is set to carry that torch forward later this year, with Netflix having confirmed a release date of December 29. Merry Christmas, Money Heist faithful.
Seven years, seven seasons, and almost seventh place on the charts
We could understand plugging into Inside the World’s Toughest Prisons for the sake of doing research for a school project, but we also doubt that enough criminology students exist to explain the show’s gargantuan popularity in the seven years it’s been around, leading us to believe that a lot of people simply get their kicks by watching criminals be miserable in the world’s most miserable places.
But hey, you do you, Netflix subscribers; either way, it doesn’t look like the show will be going away any time soon, with season 7 of Inside the World’s Toughest Prisons having clambered up to eighth place on Netflix’s worldwide chart. Indeed, at this point, we have no reason to believe that Raphael Rowe has sung his last song here.
Props to Disney Plus for rescuing a fantasy series from Netflix, even if it’s not doing so hot
It’s no big event when Netflix decides to offer up the short straw to a fantasy series – as it did with the Korean episodic epic Arthdal Chronicles after its 18-episode first season. But, perhaps in an attempt to get back at Netflix for seeing what they couldn’t in Nimona, Disney added a bit of a spark to this development by picking up the rights to the show’s second season for Disney Plus.
Unfortunately, the second chapter of Arthdal Chronicles isn’t exactly posting the returns that Disney Plus was hoping for, with its three-episode premiere only charting in its native South Korea and Taiwan, despite once-healthy projections from newer markets such as Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom. Not the best first foot forward, perhaps, but the air schedule is still young.
In a shocking turn of events, Netflix’s latest addition to the rom-com genre doesn’t entirely suck
Look, the romantic comedy admittedly can’t be bashed too hard; say what you will about the problems with romance as a genre, but safe media has its place and it occupies that place graciously enough.
But it seems Love at First Sight is a bit more than another by-the-books romantic comedy (read: a nice, fat paycheck if you’re at the top of Netflix’s corporate ladder), with Vanessa Caswill’s chaotic meet cute of a movie posting an impressive 81 percent approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes alongside the business-as-usual chart domination; itself an impressive feat given its top position on the charts in 74 different countries, marking Love at First Sight as one of Netflix’s strongest debuts of 2023.
Band of Brothers shows all the new kids how it’s done
When Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg joined forces to create the 2001 war drama miniseries Band of Brothers, the world paid attention, and boy was it ever happy it did; the legendary 10-episode series continues to be honored as one of the greatest small-screen achievements of all time, and it has the trophy case to prove it.
And to the surprise of no one, Band of Brothers hasn’t lost its touch even after 22 years, with the miniseries having posted a sixth-place finish in the United States’ Top 10 Netflix television charts since making the jump from Max this past weekend. Indeed, with new shows fighting to be the next big thing seemingly every other week, sometimes it just bears remembering that there’s no school like the old school.