New Netflix hit racks up 10,800,000 views to top global most-watched chart

No, it’s not a remake of Breaking Bad with an emphasis on hairdryer product placement (Picture: Netflix/Everett/Shutterstock)

Another week, another reshuffle on Netflix, where the most-watched shows in the global top 10 rarely sit still for very long.

There’s a fair bit of genre chaos to proceedings this time round. A returning anime heavyweight is doing serious numbers, while a live K-pop comeback has barged into the reckoning. Plus true crime continues to hover like it always does. As does some classy new non-true crime.

If you’re after something new to sink your televisual teeth into, or just want to see what everyone else is chewing instead of going out into the spring sunshine (look, it’s your life — we’re not judging), this little lot should keep you going for a while…

10. The Predator of Seville – 2,800,000 views last week

The full story of Manuel Blanco Vela is a disturbing one indeed (Picture: Netflix)

The tone of this case began to shift when brave Gabrielle Vega spoke out. Other women soon followed, with accounts that pointed to Manuel Blanco Vela, a tour organiser behind Discover Excursions.

He had built trust leading student trips across Spain and beyond. According to multiple testimonies, that trust was used to isolate and assault young women.

The series pieces together those claims and examines what is now known about the case and his current whereabouts. Grim, but essential viewing.

9. Raw: March 23 – 2,900,000 views

We don’t care what some folk say about wrestling – look at that. That’s gotta hurt (Picture: Craig Melvin/WWE via Getty Images)

As ever, squared circle-based carnage wasn’t in short supply during the latest instalment of WWE Raw. Seth Rollins was at the centre of it, pushing things far enough to end the night in handcuffs after a chaotic backstage incident.

The Bloodline then took over late on. Roman Reigns and The Usos closed the show by laying out CM Punk, stamping their authority on everyone and everything just weeks away from WrestleMania.

7-. BTS: The Comeback Live | Arirang- 3,600,000 views

They don’t hunt demons, but BTS are K-pop royalty nonetheless (Picture: REUTERS)

Fresh from their return from military service, BTS are back in the spotlight. And Netflix is cashing in on that fact.

This latest documentary drops viewers into Los Angeles, where the group regroup and start mapping out what comes next for the global superstars.

At the centre of it is their sixth studio album, ARIRANG, with filming capturing the process as it unfolds and giving fans a closer look at this new era than they’re usually granted.

This one-off is just an hour long, but there’s also a feature-length behind the scenes movie on Netflix to catch too. That’s right — a BTS of BTS.

7-. Homicide: New York: Season 2 – 3,600,000 views

Stabbing victim Joey Comunale and his mother Lisa (Picture: Netflix)

Season two of Homicide: New York examines a range of real cases across The Big Apple, with one strand focusing on the murder of Joey Comunale. The show traces his final hours in Manhattan and the investigation that followed.

It details how James Rackover was convicted of killing Comunale in 2016, with prosecutors stating he was stabbed in an apartment before being buried in New Jersey. Across the series, interviews and evidence build a wider picture of the case and how it was solved.

6. Virgin River: Season 7 – 4,100,000 views

Top tip: The best selfies are usually taken with your phone in your hand, not left in your pocket (Picture: Netflix)

Season seven of Virgin River picks up with Mel and Jack trying, once again, to enjoy a bit of calm without the town immediately lobbing something messy into their path. They’re looking ahead to what comes next as a couple, though this being Virgin River, peace and quiet never tends to stick around for all that long.

Alexandra Breckenridge and Martin Henderson are back leading things, with the likes of Tim Matheson, Colin Lawrence and Annette O’Toole once again involved.

5. Beauty in Black: Season 2 – 4,200,000 views

Crystle Stewart and Taylor Polidore Williams star in the return of Tyler Perry’s popular drama series (Picture: Netflix)

Power struggles and messy loyalties take centre stage once again as the fallout from last series starts to kick in, with tensions building around the beauty empire and the people trying to control it.

Fans will know that secrets don’t stay buried for long in this world, as alliances shift and empires threaten to crumble.

This follow-up series of Tyler Perry’s hit show continues the story, while ramping up tensions and hatred. In typical Perry fashion, the man writes, produces and directs most of the series himself — meaning the whole thing carries his distinctive fingerprints from start to finish.

4. Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen – 4,500,000 views

The Night Manager’s Camila Morrone is very good in Something Very Bad is Going to Happen (Picture: Netflix)

What do you do when you’ve just made the incredibly successful Stranger Things for Netflix? Well, if you’re Matt and Ross Duffer, you help make even stranger things for the streaming giant.

The Duffers have pitched in to assist Haley Z. Boston in creating this unsettling and tonally quite odd eight-part horror series starring rising Argentine star Camila Morrone.

In it, a young couple’s wedding plans go rather spectacularly wrong. It’s weird, it’s frightening, it’s very likely to put you off getting married.

3. Detective Hole – 4,900,000 views

It’s worth pointing out that the surname Hole is much less amusing in Norway (Picture: Netflix)

Anyone familiar with the books of Jo Nesbø’s Detective Hole will be keen to see what this TV adaptation is like. Anyone familiar with the only film made to date of Jo Nesbø’s Detective Hole will be too scarred by how terrible it was to be able to try the telly take.

Thankfully, this Norwegian version is miles better than the surprisingly amateurish and incomprehensible Michael Fassbender-starring film The Snowman from 2017 (92% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes vs. a measly 7%).

Tobias Santlemann takes the lead. Hollywood star Joel Kinnaman plays Hole’s nemesis, the corrupt Tom Waaler.

2. ONE PIECE: Season 2 – 5,900,000 views

Pirates just aren’t as intimidating as they used to be, are they? (Picture: Netflix)

Season two of One Piece continues the Straw Hat Pirates’ journey towards The Grand Line, expanding the story’s scale and locations.

The fantasy adventure series is developed by Matt Owens and Steven Maeda, and remains closely linked to the original manga by Eiichiro Oda, who serves as a creative consultant.

The main cast returns, led by Iñaki Godoy as Luffy, alongside Emily Rudd, Mackenyu, Jacob Romero Gibson, Taz Skylar and Mikaela Hoover.

Their characters continue the search for the One Piece treasure while encountering new allies and enemies.

The first run was a massive success for Netflix and prompted plenty of positive reviews, with particular praise dished out for its casting, tone and faithful approach to Eiichiro Oda’s original story. This sophomore series seems just as popular with both audiences and critics alike.

1. Radioactive Emergency – 7,000,000 views

You know it’s an emergency when people come at you with a clipboard (Picture: Netflix/Everett/Shutterstock)

Top of the Netflix TV pile right now we have a Brazilian drama that’s based on the very real and very controversial Goiânia incident from 1987, where radioactive caesium-137 was accidentally released into a local community.

Created by Gustavo Lipsztein (The Endless Night) and directed by Narcos’ Fernando Coimbra, the series follows the response as doctors, scientists and officials race to contain the contamination, with thousands screened and treated as the scale of the crisis becomes clear.

After a somewhat slow start, attracting 3,800,000 views in its first week on the platform, a surge in popularity has seen it surpass 10 million views and all the competition. It’s been entertaining millions, but also informing them as well.

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