The likes of Stranger Things, The Sea Beast, and The Gray Man may have boosted Netflix's fortunes in recent weeks, but the streamer's latest thriller series, Keep Breathing, has suffered something of a critical blow.
The six-episode limited series follows Liv played by Melissa Barrera, a young lawyer who finds herself caught up in a struggle for survival when her private plane crashes deep in the Canadian wilderness.
Keep Breathing hit Netflix on July 28, and while the show hasn't had too much time to, well, breathe with general audiences, critics have been less than enthusiastic about its family-friendly premise (see Yellowjackets, The Wilds) and the monotonous narration.
For an overview of the series' critical performance so far, Keep Breathing currently has a low 38% rating on review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes (opens in a new tab) and an equally disappointing 5.2 rating on IMDb. (opens in a new tab) ).
"While its predecessors were inventive in its approach, Keep Breathing keeps on going, tediously unrealistic and painfully predictable," wrote The Independent (opens in a new tab), while The Guardian (opens in a new tab) rated the "survival drama" series. so boring it will put you to sleep.
CNN (opens in a new tab) was equally unforgiving in its assessment: "The episodes are comparatively and thankfully short, most around thirty minutes long, yet the show can't completely escape the common sense of an extended concept film". about twice that length.
Many reviewers (including those for Decider (Opens in a new tab) and Variety (Opens in a new tab)) at least praised Melissa Barrera's performance as the show's lead, though most always considered Keep Breathing to be a version shabby from a rehearsal. -proven formula.
IGN (opens in a new tab), for example, issued the following verdict: "Keep Breathing is well filmed, well acted, and well-intentioned. But as far as the story itself goes, there's no reason to watch this lackluster version." of survival". genre when there are so many other shows that have done it better.
Analysis: to hell with criticism?
Despite the series' less than stellar reception, recent trends suggest Keep Breathing will still manage to break into the upper echelons of Netflix's weekly top 10 for an extended period of time (it's already the biggest show on Netflix UK). .
In 2022, countless critical movies and TV shows have risen to the top of streamers' charts, and Keep Breathing's easily digestible structure (each episode is only 30-40 minutes long) will inevitably work in its favor.
Also, Netflix subscribers have shown that they don't care what the critics say. Take 365 Days: This Day, for example, which briefly became the most popular movie on the streamer despite a dismal 0% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Or Interceptor, which defied its "terrible, horrible, no good, very bad movie" label to also reach number one in its first week of release.
On the television front, Anatomy of a Scandal rose to the top of the platform's most viewed charts despite its largely negative critical reception, while the "very hard to watch" First Kill also defied its detractors.
The fact is that viewership numbers are, for better or worse, the most important measure of Netflix's success in its current precarious state, and company executives will be more than happy to weather the storm. the numbers. head on.