Adolescence brought Netflix more viewers in two weeks than basically anything has

In the viewership figures released by the streamer yesterday, Adolescence brought in 42 million viewers and 161 million hours viewed in its second week, bringing its total viewership to 66.3 million viewers in two weeks. While Netflix’s numbers are always worthy of a little skepticism, it even admits here that the series has dwarfed its other (and, in some cases, presumably much more expensive) series. The buzzy Shonda Rhimes-created project The Residence was a distant second with just 6.4 million viewers within the same time frame. 

Adolescence premiered on Netflix on March 13, and centers on Jamie, a 13-year-old boy accused of the murder of a classmate. The series then delves a bit into the misogynistic content fed to boys by influencers like Andrew Tate and the continuing impact social media can have on these still-forming brains. The series has also earned praise for its style, with all four episodes filmed as a single, unbroken shot, giving the effect of something like a one-act play. “The 1917 approach to trauma intensifies the bone-deep emotion of the piece by not allowing either the performers or viewers the release that comes with a cut,” wrote Brian Tallerico in his review for The A.V. Club. “We sit with these people on the worst days of their lives as if we’re actually in the room with them.”