Netflix has been notoriously stingy with its data. Even directors and showrunners have had a hard time gauging if what they’d put out into the world was reaching its intended audience. With the advent of the Netflix Top 10, though, we can now get at least one little peek behind the curtain. The list of Netflix’s daily Top 10 Most Popular indicates an omnivorous appetite among the Netflix faithful, from reality shows to prestige TV, animated kids shows to docu-series of every stripe. Here are the entries for March 4, 2024, of the five most popular TV shows and five most popular movies on Netflix.
TV Series
1. The 3 Body Problem
Year: 2024
Stars: Jess Hong, Liam Cunningham, Eliza González, Jovan Adepo, Jonathan Pope, Benedict Wong
Genre: Sci-fi
Rating: TV-MA
3 Body Problem, which adapts Liu Cixin’s Hugo Award-winning novel of the same name, pushes past typical sci-fi tropes and conventions. Over its eight-episode run, it introduces a non-stop procession of reality-bending imagery and well-delivered twists that capture the wonder and horror of what may be waiting for us in the stars. It’s an absolute page-turner that confidently switches modes and genres, acting as a strong comeback for Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and D. B. Weiss. Although only time will tell if the conflicts set up in this season will pay off, I couldn’t be more eager to see where things go. At first, we’re presented with a sequence of seemingly unrelated circumstances. In the past, astrophysicist Ye Wenjie (Rosalind Chao and Zine Tseng) ends up on the wrong side of the Chinese Communist Party’s Cultural Revolution. In the present, a growing list of acclaimed scientists meet grisly ends, leaving intelligence officer Da Shi (Benedict Wong) and the rest of the world stumped. However, these disparate events begin to converge as Jin Cheng (Jess Hong), a promising theoretical physicist, and her Oxford buddies stumble upon truths that indicate something dangerous may be lurking in the cosmos. From the jump, this series takes massive high-concept swings, the vast majority of which cleanly connect. We watch as the laws of physics seemingly break down, glowing digits plague researchers, improbably realistic virtual reality games surface, and the universe blinks, situations that are only the tip of the iceberg in an intergalactic mystery that will leave you wide-eyed. Visually, these far-out concepts land thanks to an appropriately grand sense of scale and ample build, as composer Ramin Djawadi’s score and the team of directors ensure that each of these big moments come across as appropriately stunning. Altogether, the series is the type of sci-fi yarn that will leave you looking at the night sky with a mixture of curiosity and consternation. —Elijah Gonzalez
2. Homicide New York
Year: 2024
Genre: Crime docuseries
Rating: TV-MA
True crime: NYPD edition.
3. The Gentlemen
Years: 2024
Creator: Guy Ritchie
Stars: Theo James, Kaya Scodelario, Giancarlo Esposito, Daniel Ings, Vinne Jones, Joely Richardson
Genre: Crime dramedy
Rating: TV-MA
In all Guy Ritchie joints—or at least, in all the ones I’ve seen—there’s a certain amused veneration for career criminals. In his vision of the world, they’re all eccentrics, they’re all funny, and even if they happen to be incredibly terrifying and violent human beings, it’s undercut with a wink. This is a world where life and death is fought over with furious intensity, but where it’s also not that important. In fact, suffering is kind of funny, at its heart, and the terror is excusable if it’s done with a certain amount of panache. If this version of stylized hell sounds ethically horrific, it might be, but in Ritchie’s hands it also happens to be pretty fun. In the new Netflix series The Gentlemen, a spinoff of the movie of the same name, Ritchie enlists Theo James (that good-looking, no-good husband on The White Lotus) to play Eddie Halstead, an army officer who is called home at the death of his father, a rich duke who leaves the entire estate—and all its problems—to Eddie, passing over his older brother Freddy, a persistent mess of a human played by the increasingly hilarious Daniel Ings. Turns out, the old man was making ends meet by letting a weed conglomerate grown plants in his basement, and it’s not long before Eddie meets Susie Glass (Kaya Scodelario), daughter of infamous criminal Bobby Glass (Ray Winstone), who does her best to entangle the new duke further into the criminal underworld while he insists (not very convincingly) that he wants out. To say the plot isn’t realistic would be to miss the point entirely. It’s not, but who cares? This is Guy Ritchie we’re talking about, and what actually matters is the extent to which the engine purrs. And this one purrs, my friends. The criminals are the usual collection of dead-eyed, witty weirdos, and my favorite was the Scouse drug dealer Gospel John, played by the electric Pearce Quigley. Ritchie’s greatest talent may be that he creates gaudy bubble gum action shows, but that in the moment, he makes it seem to matter. In quick strokes, he creates whole characters, and there may not be a better casting agent in the world; everyone he chooses embodies these psychopaths instantly and perfectly. In the moment of viewing, it overrides my instinct to want to criticize the puffery of it all, the flimsy foundation of pure adrenaline, the absence of the artistic impulse to say anything actually meaningful. I just opened a bottle of wine, hit play, and before I knew it, five immensely entertaining episodes had passed. —Shane Ryan
4. Buying Beverly Hills
Years: 2022-24
Genre: Reality
Rating: TV-MA
Lifestyles of the (real-estate agents to the) rich and famous.
5. Physical 100
Years: 2023-24
Creator: Jang Ho-gi
Genre: Competition
Rating: TV-14
This Korean reality competition show pits 100 people in top physical condition—including MMA fighters, bodybuilders, wrestlers and gymnasts—against each other in various contests of strength, agility and cunning until that last one standing wins 300 million won.
Movies
1. Mending the Line
Year: 2022
Director:
Stars: Brian Cox, Sinqua Walls, Perry Mattfeld
Genre: Drama
Rating: R
Brian Cox and Sinqua Walls play unlikely friends as an old fisherman teaches a young marine with PTSD how to fly fish.
2. On the Line
Year: 2022
Director: Romuald Boulanger
Stars: Mel Gibson, Kevin Dillon, Enrique Arce, William Moseley
Genre: Thriller
Rating: R
Mel Gibson is Elvis, a radio host who fields a call from a deranged listener who threatens his family.
3. Irish Wish
Year: 2024
Director: Janeen Damian
Stars: Lindsay Lohan, Ed Speleers, Alexander Vlahos, Ayesha Curry, Elizabeth Tan, Jacinta Mulcahy, Jane Seymour
Genre: Romantic comedy
Rating: TV-PG
Just in time for St. Patrick’s Day, comes Irish Wish. Lindsay Lohan stars as Maddie Kelly, a New York book editor with a habit of putting other people before herself. She’s in love with Paul Kennedy (Alexander Vlahos), the rakish best-selling author with a charming brogue. The only problem is that Maddie has never told him how she feels. At the launch party for his newest book Two Irish Hearts, Paul meets Maddie’s best friend Emma (Elizabeth Tan). A few months later, Maddie suddenly finds herself traveling to Ireland for Emma and Paul’s wedding. When Maddie makes a wish to the mischievous Saint Brigid (Dawn Bradfield), she finds herself in a Freaky Friday situation. Suddenly she’s living in an alternate universe where she’s the one marrying Paul and James Thomas (Ed Speleers), the cute guy she met at the airport, is their wedding photographer. Filmed in Ireland, Irish Wish, which makes terrific use out of the country’s locations, lulls you into not asking too many questions. If you don’t know who Maddie ends up with in the end, you definitely don’t watch enough Hallmark Channel movies. Irish Wish is full of connect-the-dot plot points: A sudden thunderstorm! A blocked road! An unplanned night in a hotel! A wedding that doesn’t go according to plan! A nightmarish mother-of-the-groom (played to perfection by Jacinta Mulcahy). But even though the ending is clear, the revelations Maddie comes to along the way are deeper than your typical fare. Irish Wish centers on a love triangle, but Paul isn’t a bad guy—just maybe not the right guy for Maddie. She recognizes she needs to find “someone you love, not just someone you wish for,” and to start fulfilling her own dreams. Irish Wish reaffirms that Lohan still has command over her acting talents. The spark that was there at the beginning of her career remains, and my own wish for Lohan is coming true. —Amy Amatangelo
4. Shirley
Year: 2024
Director: John Ridley
Stars: Regina King, Lance Reddick, Lucas Hedges, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Christina Jackson, Michael Cherrie, André Holland, Terrence Howard
Genre: Drama
Rating: PG-13
Since 2016, we’ve all been more or less in agreement that we’re living in the worst timeline. Netflix’s Shirley (not to be confused with Josephine Decker’s film of the same name) may leave you thinking that a far better alternate universe would be the one where congresswoman Shirley Chisholm actually got elected to the White House. Not much about writer/director John Ridley’s biopic of the trailblazing politician stands out—it’s more interested in deifying Chisholm than interrogating her counterintuitive campaign choices—but based on what it gives us, she would’ve been pretty great. Chisholm, a former schoolteacher, became the first Black woman elected to Congress in 1968. She served seven consecutive terms from 1969 to 1983. But Ridley’s film primarily focuses on Chisholm’s 1972 presidential campaign, which made her the first Black candidate for a major party nomination. Despite the establishment’s refusal to take her seriously, Chisholm (Regina King) runs a very serious campaign, where she’s forthright about the issues she cares about, suffers no fools and is passionate about engaging young voters (the 1972 election was the first that allowed 18-year-olds to vote). Ridley presents Chisholm as unimpeachable, and though it often feels like the other characters are constantly trying to refute that claim, the writer/director prefers to drown them out rather than give them credence, ultimately to Shirley’s detriment. Performance-wise, King’s Chisholm is a delightfully blunt character who’s fun to watch, even if the film around her isn’t. She’s unafraid, for example, to fire her frustrated campaign manager Stanley Townsend (Brian Stokes Mitchell) by telling him “Ya done!” in a “mother is mothering” tone. She inspires young activists like future congresswoman Barbara Lee (Christina Jackson) with her optimism and honesty. A short interview at the end of Shirley with the real-life Lee affirms what we see of their relationship on screen. Ridley wants us to feel the passion Shirley Chisholm felt, to feel encouraged to act and speak the way she does, and seemingly to require the same of our own elected representatives. However, as a character study, it repeatedly points out contradictions in Chisholm that it refuses to interrogate for fear it will come off as critical. The result is a hagiography with some obvious holes, something that a better film might try to balance. —Abby Olcese
5. Damsel
Year: 2024
Director: Juan Carlos Fresnadillo
Stars: Millie Bobby Brown, Ray Winstone, Nick Robinson, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Anegla Bassett, Robin Wright
Rating: PG-13
Netflix’s Damsel lands in a well-realized fantasy niche and earns all the huzzahs for gifting us with a rare female dragon characterization that possesses the actress’ smoky tones. Supporting her on the human side is the always great Millie Bobby Brown, who brings equal passion in portraying characters who are meant to reframe their traditional storybook roles. Together, they plant their flag in this genre with an eye towards making an exciting action-adventure tale that rewards justice and compassion instead of vengeance. And they mostly hit their mark in this clever revisionist fairy tale. As a fantasy, Damsel convincingly transports us into the lair of a dragon that is often stunning and always intriguing. Aghdashloo and Brown create memorable rivals that evolve into something so unexpected that it leaves you pondering what could come next. And even if this is the end of Elodie’s adventures, Brown has given young girls a next-gen fairy tale heroine capable of saving not only herself, but her worst enemy too. —Tara Bennett