Adolescence
Netflix
You would not imagine that a four-episode miniseries amidst a hundred other crime shows on Netflix would break out to this degree, but that’s exactly what we’re seeing with Adolescence, which is about to become one of the most-viewed series on the platform, ever, and has set a record for Netflix already.
It’s now been confirmed that Adolescence has racked up 66.3 million views in two weeks, which is the most ever for a limited series on the platform. A show like Queen’s Gambit went on to have exceptionally high viewership in the long term, but Adolescence has beat its pace in the first two weeks here.
Adolescence was close to eight times as viewed as the second place show on Netflix in the last report, The Residence, at 6.4 million views, and seems like it will be planted at the top of the top 10 list indefinitely (WWE Monday Night RAW excluded). It also seems like a sure thing to start climbing Netflix’s all-time top 10 show list. #10 is currently Bridgerton season 2 with 93,800,000 views, and that was in its first three months. From there, getting to 100 million would put it in sixth place, and 112 would get it past The Queen’s Gambit itself.
If it hits the top 10 list, it would be the best-reviewed show on the entire list, with its 99% Rotten Tomatoes score beating out The Queen’s Gambit’s 96%. Other shows are popular, but nowhere near that high. Adolescence has only a single negative review from a critic, Inkoo Kang at the New Yorker, which no doubt is at least somewhat frustrating to make it 1 point off from that perfect score.
Adolescence
Netflix
Why is Adolescence so big? I mean, it’s stunning. Both in terms of acting, but more pressingly, it’s a monumental technical achievement with each of its hour-long episodes being a single, unbroken shot that doesn’t use any cheap tricks to make that happen, they really put in all that work. This involves immense filming challenges paired with actors that need to perform an entire script in a single take. The most memorable iteration of that is a single shot episode with Owen Cooper’s Jamie Miller onscreen for the duration, a first-time actor who absolutely killed this role (no pun intended).
Adolescence is a stunning achievement and has the scores and viewership to reflect that. I’m looking forward to seeing just how high it can get on the overall top 10 list in the coming weeks here.
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