Exploring the thousands of titles on Netflix can be both exciting and overwhelming. Content of all types abounds, from dramas and comedies to reality shows and documentaries. There’s even a list to help narrow your decision by letting you see the most popular Netflix shows. Every week, Netflix releases the list of the 10 most-watched TV shows over a recent seven-day period.
Harlan Coben’s Fool Me Once remains in the top spot, while The Brothers Sun, a new series starring Michelle Yeoh, climbs the chart to the second position. The biggest debut in the top 10 this week comes from Pete Davidson and his new special, Turbo Fonzarelli, which sits in fourth. Below, we have listed the top 10 shows in the U.S. from January 8 to January 14, along with general information about each show, including genre, rating, cast, and synopsis.
Note: There will be a description of plot points from each of the series, so consider this a spoiler warning if you haven’t watched them yet. We’ve also rounded up the best shows on Netflix, the best movies on Hulu, the best movies on Amazon Prime, and the best movies on Disney+. For Netflix fans, also check out the 10 most popular movies on Netflix right now.
10. Boy Swallows Universe (2024)
Trent Dalton’s beloved novel comes to life in Netflix’s adaption of Boy Swallow Universe. Growing up in Brisbane, Teenager Eli Bell (Felix Cameron and Zac Burgess) has been dealt a rough hand. Eli’s stepfather, Lyle (Travis Fimmel), is a heroin dealer, while Eli’s mother, Frankie (Phoebe Tonkin), struggles with addiction. Eli’s older brother, Gus (Lee Tiger Halley), is a mute. Keeping an eye on Eli is his babysitter Slim Halliday (Bryan Brown), who recently served 25 years in prison.
Eli’s problems at home spill over into his school life, as he frequently gets into trouble. When he suspects Lyle has returned to dealing heroin, Eli enters the local drug scene to save his mother from relapsing. Eli does all of this as he struggles to answer one question: what does it mean to be a good man?
9. Katt Williams: World War III (2022)
Katt Williams made headlines earlier this month when he took shots at several celebrities, including Steve Harvey, Kevin Hart, and Cedric the Entertainer, in an explosive interview with Shannon Sharpe on the Club Shay Shay podcast. This fearlessness and honesty have gained Williams many new fans, who have sought out his previous specials.
Williams’ second special for Netflix, Katt Williams: World War III, is in the top 10 due to his viral podcast moment. Directed by Williams, World War III brings the comedian’s trademark style to Las Vegas as he riffs on chicken wings, religion, and the drug war. Williams also pokes fun at President Biden’s age and the difference between liars and the truth.
8. The Trust: A Game of Greed season 1 (2024)
Belief is the real currency in The Trust: A Game of Greed, Netflix’s new reality game show. 11 contestants can split $250,000 evenly amongst themselves, meaning everyone is a winner at the start. No one is eliminated over eight episodes. However, contestants can vote each other out of The Trust, which increases their share of the $250,000. However, voting someone out of The Trust can decrease your popularity within the group.
One vote can remove a player from the competition. However, a tie or no vote will keep everyone in the competition. Daily challenges will look to expose players’ motives on the show. The Trust puts human greed to the ultimate test. Can you rely on a stranger to secure your financial future?
7. Jeffrey Epstein: Filthy Rich (2020)
Despite being dead for nearly five years, Jeffrey Epstein is still in the media because of conspiracies surrounding his death and the flight log list that reveals which celebrities and public figures spent time on his private island. Epstein was a monster who abused underage girls and women while running an international sex trafficking ring. Jeffrey Epstein: Filthy Rich allows the survivors a platform to speak their truths.
Lisa Bryant’s four-part docuseries features interviews with several women who survived Epstein’s abuse and lived to tell their story. The series explains how Epstein started his molestation ring and created a system of enablers who protected the criminal from the law. These brave women finally get a chance to speak out in hopes of stopping the next sexual predator.
6. Loudermilk season 1 (2017)
One of the benefits of Netflix is its ability to give shows that went off the air a chance to find a new audience. Just look at what happened with Suits. Another show finding new viewers is Loudermilk, a dramedy by Peter Farrelly and Bobby Mort that follows a substance abuse counselor named Sam Loudermilk (Ron Livingston). Loudermilk is a former rock music critic and recovering alcoholic who now advises for a living.
However, Loudermilk is brutally honest with his advice, which tends to piss many people off. As he tries to figure his life out, Loudermilk bonds with his best friend, Ben Burns (Will Sasso), and his new roommate, Claire Wilkes (Anja Savcic). Backed by a clever script, Loudermilk is a witty comedy featuring a hilarious dark yet hilarious performance by Livingston.
5. You Are What You Eat: A Twin Experiment (2024)
You Are What You Eat: A Twin Experiment is show you need to see to believe. A Stanford research group set out to study the effects of a healthy diet through an experiment involving pairs of identical twin pairs. One of the twins followed a vegan diet – plant-based without meat, dairy, or animal products – while the other twin followed an omnivore diet – meat, plants, and animal products.
The study lasted eight weeks, and by the end of the fourth episode, the audience will see the stunning results. Besides the experiment, the docuseries explores the origins of the Standard American Diet, dives into the rise of processed food, and investigates the agricultural farming sector.
4. Pete Davidson: Turbo Fonzarelli (2024)
Bupkis’ Pete Davidson moves the needle. Love him or hate him, Davidson knows how to capture the attention of the Internet. Davidson’s latest comedy special for Netflix, Pete Davidson: Turbo Fonzarelli, has already gone viral for his story about being high on ketamine at Aretha Franklin’s funeral. Though embarrassed, Davidson joked that Franklin would “never know.”
Davidson is not afraid to talk about his personal life, including the fact that his firefighter father died on 9/11. However, Davidson uses humor to cope, joking about how his mother has failed to have sex since his father’s death. Other topics in the special include his love for Leonardo DiCaprio and the curious case of his stalker.
3. Dave Chappelle: The Dreamer (2023)
When Dave Chappelle drops a special, it becomes a cultural moment, for better or for worse. The iconic comedian returns to Netflix with Dave Chappelle: The Dreamer, his first full-length stand-up special since 2021’s The Closer. Filmed at the Lincoln Theatre in his hometown of Washington, D.C., The Dreamer has already courted controversy for Chappelle’s jokes about trans people and the disabled community.
Chapelle’s previous jokes about the transgender and LGBTQ+ in The Closer led to a walkout and protest by 100 Netflix employees. Other topics Chapelle addresses in The Dreamer are the Will Smith-Chris Rock Oscars slap and an onstage attack at one of his shows.
2. The Brothers Sun season 1 (2024)
One year after her historic Oscar win for Everything Everywhere All at Once, Michelle Yeoh finds herself kicking butt once again in a new crime comedy series, The Brothers Sun. After the assassination of a powerful Taiwanese gangster, Charles Sun (Justin Chien), the son of the dead crime lord, travels to Los Angeles to protect his family: Eileen “Mama” Sun (Yeoh) and Bruce Sun (Sam Song Li).
Bruce had no knowledge that he even had a brother and soon learned his mother moved him to California to protect his safety. Taiwianese criminal forces are now after Charles with his father out of the picture. Charles, Mama Sun, and a reluctant Bruce must embrace their criminal history and fight back to save the family before their enemies strike again.
1. Fool Me Once (2024)
Author Harlan Coben is taking over Netflix with adaptations of his mystery novels and thrillers, including British TV shows The Stranger and Stay Close. Coben’s latest offering is Fool Me Once, a murder mystery involving a dead husband named Joe Burkett (Richard Armitage), who was shot to death. Two weeks later, Maya Stern (Michelle Keegan), Joe’s wife, sees him playing with their daughter on the nanny cam.
Was Joe murdered, or is there a big conspiracy at play? Meanwhile, Abby (Danya Griver) and Daniel (Daniel Burt), Maya’s niece and nephew, investigate the murder of their mother, Clair (Natalie Anderson), which could be connected to Joe’s shocking supposed death.
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