‘The Watcher’ Dethroned In Netflix’s Top 10 List By A New Show

The Ryan Murphy run is over. After weeks of Dahmer being on top of Netflix’s Top 10 list, then it being unseated by another Ryan Murphy series, The Watcher, that stretch has finally come to an end. This week, The Watcher has been dethroned by Love is Blind, one of Netflix’s few reality series with enough viewership to routinely unseat its dramas.

I am frankly amazed that The Watcher stayed on top as long as it did. Critical reviews were poor, with the show sitting at a 50% on Rotten Tomatoes, and in this case, audience reviews were even worse with a 36%, many of whom were no doubt turned off by the series’ unsatisfying ending. This is quite a bit different than how Dahmer went, as that had a better-but-not-great 60% critic score but an 84% audience score, a massive difference from what we’re seeing here with The Watcher. I’d agree with the consensus that controversial subject matter aside, Dahmer was simply a better production.

Usually shows tend to stay atop the list from word of mouth, which is why I’m surprised to see The Watcher have lasted this long with such poor audience ratings. I guess the concept alone was too intriguing to pass up, or maybe its cast with Naomi Watts and Bobby Cannavale. The trailer for it was good too, if you let it autoplay when hovering over the tile. Like Dahmer, there’s no real debate about a second season, as both are limited series based on real-life events, and the main thing they’ve served to accomplish is making Ryan Murphy worth his hefty Netflix overall deal.

As for the show that replaced it, that would be season 3 of Love is Blind, Netflix’s ultimate “blind dating” reality show in which players are meant to propose to one another before ever seeing the other person, communicating only through adjacent pods. The show releases batches of episodes weekly, and now here in week two we have seven episodes total. Shows like these with staggered rollouts are more likely to perform better on the top ten list overall, but Netflix almost never lets shows do this, and it’s usually for reality series like this, so people don’t binge all the way to the ending. We’ve only seen this happen on rare occasions with scripted series like Arcane or sometimes foreign shows.

There are two more weeks of Love is Blind left, with three more episodes coming November 2, and then the final on November 9. Or reunion. I forget which one the last episode usually is. Something dramatic, in any case. I have indeed watched the last two seasons of this, hence Netflix’s 98% recommendation for me, but I haven’t had time to get into season 3 here yet. Maybe I’ll binge it all once it’s done.

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