‘Resident Evil’ Dethroned In Netflix’s Top 10 List By A Resurging Champion

Well, I haven’t seen this happen very often in Netflix’s top 10 list. Usually when a show loses its number one spot, it will never climb back up again until a new season (or part of a season) launches. But after just a few days at #1, Resident Evil has be dethroned by the show that it unseated in the first place, Stranger Things, which is back on top.

Resident Evil has been performing well since its debut last week, landing on top of the charts both in the US and about 50 other countries, which seemed somewhat miraculous given that both critic scores and especially audience scores for the series have been painfully low. But that might be what we’re seeing here, that negative word of mouth has traveled quickly, so it’s slipping already, when a different show might have been able to keep the top spot for longer.

Resident Evil’s showrunner has plans for multiple seasons encompassing all manner of different characters from the games, though whether or not he will get that chance is unclear. A few days in the top spot is not really enough to guarantee a second season at Netflix in this current era, and I think Resident Evil is at an additional risk because A) Netflix is tired of people doubting the quality of its originals, and both critics and audiences seem to agree the show is pretty bad and B) it’s likely pretty expensive, given the extensive FX work needed to bring things like giant mutant monsters to life on screen. So the viewership, even if pretty decent, may not be enough to offset those headwinds. I’d say season 2 is far from a sure thing right now, given this situation.

As for Stranger Things, what else is there to say at this point? It’s simply unstoppable. Reports say that Netflix is on the hunt for its own Star Wars or Harry Potter level IP, but Stranger Things has to be the closest its gotten, one of the few Netflix series with true, lasting cultural impact, as we’ve seen over the last month and a half here with the spread-out season 4. While the show is ending after season 5, we know that a spin-off is coming, so the Stranger Things “universe” will live on in some form or another. Right now, the main Stranger Things question is whether it will catch Squid Game in the next week or so to be the most-viewed series in its first month, but even if it doesn’t happen, I’d argue Stranger Things is still easily Netflix’s most important property since its inception.

We’ll see what happens with Resident Evil in the coming weeks, I imagine. Keep an eye on the charts, and how quickly it may or may not drop now.

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Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.