Netflix’s newest hit series, Queen Charlotte, is both new and a return to the past — given that it’s a prequel and thus an expansion of the world of Bridgerton, the Shondaland Regency-era drama that quickly became one of the streaming giant’s biggest hits of all time. And new data from the company reveals just how much affection still exists for the franchise, with the prequel in its second week remaining far and away the streamer’s #1 show in the world, per Netflix’s global Top 10 ranking — the latest updated version of which we’ll take a closer look at below.
Netflix Top 10 (May 8-May 14)
Starting with Queen Charlotte, here are the top 10 most popular Netflix shows in the world at the moment:
- Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story — 158.6 million hours viewed
- Firefly Lane: Season 2 — 31.9 million hours viewed
- Sweet Tooth: Season 2 — 27.6 million hours viewed
- Missing: Dead or Alive? — 23.9 million hours viewed
- Bridgerton: Season 1 — 23.8 million hours viewed
- The Night Agent: Season 1 — 20.3 million hours viewed
- Queen Cleopatra — 20.1 million hours viewed
- The Diplomat — 18.3 million hours viewed
- Bridgerton: Season 2 — 17.2 million hours viewed
- Sweet Tooth: Season 1 — 11 million hours viewed
Moving right along, we’ll next take a closer look at the top two series this week, both Queen Charlotte and the returning hit Firefly Lane, which came in at #2 worldwide for this latest 7-day snapshot.
#1: Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story
As we alluded to above, in terms of explaining why it makes all the sense in the world for Netflix to have developed a spinoff focused solely on Bridgerton’s fan-favorite queen, consider: Of the two previous seasons of Bridgerton, both of them are on Netflix’s Top 10 list of the biggest TV releases of all time. Bridgerton Season 2, at #4 on that list, garnered 656.2 million hours of viewing time in its first month of streaming availability, while Bridgerton Season 1, at #6, brought in 625.4 million hours.
In the prequel series, young Charlotte and young King George are played by India Amarteifio and Corey Mylchreest, respectively. The story finds Charlotte only beginning to understand her power and the meaning of love, and very quickly, we start to follow her as she sets out on what will become a life-changing marriage.
From Netflix’s official logline for the show:
“Centered on Queen Charlotte’s rise to prominence and power, this Bridgerton-verse prequel tells the story of how the young Queen’s marriage to King George sparked both a great love story and a societal shift, creating the world of the Ton inherited by the characters in Bridgerton.“
That reference to the “Ton,” for those who haven’t yet dived into the world of the franchise’s parties and palaces, is just a fancy way of describing high society — a reference to the upper classes, in other words, that Bridgerton is all about.
The new show is currently a top-ranked Netflix series in 91 countries. Moreover, the reactions from both critics and viewers have been strong: On IMDb, Queen Charlotte is currently sitting on a 7.1/10 rating — while over at Rotten Tomatoes, the response from both critics and viewers is likewise strong (94% and 71%, respectively).
#2: Firefly Lane: Season 2
As for the #2 Netflix series on the global Top 10 this week, it’s Season 2 of Firefly Lane — the drama starring Sarah Chalke and Katherine Heigl and based on the novel of the same name by Kristin Hannah.
If you haven’t started the season yet for whatever reason, here’s a bit about what fans are in store for. Among other things, we learn the answer, finally, to what could have ended the 30-year friendship between the Firefly Lane girls Kate and Tully. Kate also has to deal with the aftermath of Johnny’s trip to Iraq — while Tully is slapped with a lawsuit after walking away from her talk show, forcing her to start her career from the bottom all over again.
From there, Tully sets off to find fundamental answers about her past and her identity, including a search for her father (against the wishes of her mother). Revisiting the 80s, meanwhile, finds Kate and Johnny first falling in love while Tully’s career is on the rise. And in the 70s, the teenage versions of Kate and Tully hold on to their friendship while Tully’s mother goes to jail for dealing drugs, and her daughter heads out to live with her grandmother.
Firefly Lane Season 2 is currently a Top 10 Netflix series in 53 countries, while Season 2 is still holding on to strong Rotten Tomatoes scores (an 83% critics’ score and a 91% audience score, as of this writing).
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