Death by Lightning
Netflix
Death by Lightning was an unexpected project that performed extremely well on Netflix, given its somewhat random subject matter, the exploration of the assassination of Andrew Garfield, and the fact that it was a somewhat comedic take on the whole thing, jokes interspersed with the drama. It stood at #1 on Netflix’s Top 10 list for a while, but now something has come along to unseat it.
That would be The Beast in Me, which stars two staples of spy-based television, Homeland’s Claire Danes and The Americans’ Matthew Rhys. I assumed by default that this was going to be another spy series, but it’s not. Rather, it’s a murder mystery about a relationship between a formerly best-selling author and a real estate scion who allegedly killed his ex-wife. Not that kind of relationship, but it’s already going some weird places, as I’ve just gotten through the first two episodes. I’m not sure how I feel about it yet, but it has started off with strong scores, an 84% critic score, and a somewhat lower 73% audience score, but I doubt most people got through the whole eight episodes in 24 hours to log a review yet.
Death by Lightning is down to #2, but an interesting entry is #3, Last Samurai Standing, a tale about a battle royale among samurai that currently has a 100% critic and audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, which is not something you see every day. I definitely want to both A) keep an eye on those scores as more reviews come in and B) actually watch the series, as even the concept sounds amazing.
Moving down the list, we have reality series Selling the OC, true crime 50 Seconds: The Fernando Baez Soza Case, game show Squid Game: The Challenge and documentary series Marines. Netflix loves its unscripted series. Also of note are the K-drama Dynamite Kiss, where Netflix airs those episodes over time, part of the rules of acquiring some of these shows, and then As You Stood By, starring Squid Game’s Lee You-mi. That limited series has been released in full and has eight rather long episodes you can binge right now.
My gut tells me that The Beast in Me is going to stay on top for a long while, unless Last Samurai Standing is able to go viral and rocket up to the top. Death by Lightning, at just four episodes, is likely to go sliding back down. But all of this is ahead of the first episodes of Stranger Things season 5, arriving over the Thanksgiving holiday in less than two weeks, which will wipe all this out no matter what.
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Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.