A drama about teenagers and sex, a docuseries about murder in a small town, and a live-action adaptation of a wildly successful Japanese anime. What do they all have in common? They’re among the biggest Netflix shows in the world right now, based on the latest data from the streamer’s regularly updated global Top 10 chart, dominated this week by the fourth and final season of Sex Education Season 4 (a Top 10 show in dozens of countries at the moment).
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As for the rest of the hottest Netflix shows in the world this week, One Piece is still holding strong, while a second season of the very dark true-crime docuseries Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal makes its Netflix global Top 10 debut this week in the #2 spot on the chart.
Netflix Top 10 (September 18-September 24)
Here’s a closer look at the current winners. Starting with Sex Education, these are the top 10 (English-language) Netflix series and shows in the world right now:
- Sex Education: Season 4 — 12 million views
- Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal: Season 2 — 7.6 million views
- One Piece — 6.2 million views
- Virgin River: Season 5 — 4.9 million views
- Inside the World’s Toughest Prisons: Season 7 — 4 million views
- Surviving Summer: Season 2 — 3.4 million views
- Love is Blind: Season 5 — 3 million views
- Kountry Wayne: A Woman’s Prayer — 2.6 million views
- The Pacific — 2.4 million views
- Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal: Season 1 — 2.4 million views
Next, let’s take a closer look at the top two series dominating the streaming platform this week — both Sex Education and the Murdaugh Murders docuseries, the latter of which is currently on the Netflix Top 10 in 34 countries.
#1: Sex Education Season 4
First up, the #1 Netflix series in the world this week was voted one of the most anticipated seasons of TV for the month of September by Rotten Tomatoes users. The arrival this month of the fourth and final season of Sex Education also brings to a close a fan-favorite Netflix series that took a humorous and unique approach to telling stories about first crushes, growing up, coming-of-age romances, and so much more.
“We wanted to make a show that would answer some of the questions we all used to have about love, sex, friendship, and our bodies,” Laurie Nunn, the creator, lead writer, and executive producer of Sex Education, wrote in an open letter to fans ahead of the final season. “Something that would have helped our inner teenagers feel a little less alone.
‘It’s been overwhelming seeing how the show has connected with people around the world, and we hope it’s made some of you feel a little less alone, too.”
The residents of Moordale certainly go out on a high over the course of the show’s final eight episodes, which greet viewers with love and laughter, tears, friendship, and the joy associated with both new and old relationships. Heads up, though, if you’re a Sex Education devotee: Even though the final season is a Top 10 Netflix series in 91 countries, it’s also resulted in one of the biggest spreads I’ve seen this year between viewers and critics. Just look at these Rotten Tomatoes scores:
It’s understandable, I suppose, when an extremely beloved show has to somehow bring everything to a close, that the fans who’ve loved it the most are the ones who, in all probability, will also end up being the ones feeling most let down or cheated by the end.
#2: Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal Season 2
As for this next series on this week’s Netflix Top 10 list, it’s a new season of the true-crime series Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal, which debuted earlier this year.
Image source: NetflixSeason 1 of the series details how, since 2014, a tight-knit South Carolina community “has been living in the wake of a series of violent, deadly crimes — all of which seem to involve one family … Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal shows how the prominent Murdaugh family purportedly used and abused their wealth and privilege to the extreme, and which family member is allegedly behind it all.”
A quick summary of events at the center of this story: Back in the summer of 2015, 19-year-old Stephen Smith was found dead in the middle of a rural South Carolina highway. Police labeled it a hit-and-run. Almost a decade later, though, a new investigation decided otherwise.
Over the course of six years, the Murdaugh family dynasty in South Carolina’s Lowcountry starts to unravel, when a series of events connects them to the deaths of five people — Mallory Beach (a friend of well-connected lawyer Alex Murdaugh’s youngest son), Stephen Smith (a friend of Alex’s oldest son), Gloria Satterfield (Alex’s housekeeper), Paul Murdaugh (Alex’s youngest son), and Maggie Murdaugh (Alex’s wife).
“Three years after the concluding events in Season 1, family patriarch and Hampton, South Carolina, attorney Alex Murdaugh stood trial for the double murder of his wife, Maggie, 52, and son Paul, 22, who were shot and killed on the family’s hunting property on June 7, 2021,” Netflix explains.
“In Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal Season 2, the events leading to the trial and the jury’s eventual decision are explored in depth, bringing new light to the case and revealing shocking information about what might have happened the night of Maggie and Paul’s murders.”
