I’m getting more strategic than ever with the TV shows I stream these days, largely because there’s just so much available across all of the major streamers — and there’s not really any surefire way to know beforehand what you’re going to end up loving or not. A lot of times, when I try a new series on Netflix, it’s not really clear to me that I’m going to like or dislike something until I’m, say, halfway through a new series like The Gentlemen.
You’ve got to spend some time to find out what you don’t like, in other words, which inevitably becomes time you feel like you misspent. That’s why I’m choosier than ever these days — and why paying attention to some external factors, like TV shows earning perfect 100% Rotten Tomatoes scores, can sometimes (but, obviously, not always) steer you in the direction of your next streaming obsession.
That said, let’s take a closer look at three new shows that all have perfect Rotten Tomatoes scores at the moment.
Baby Reindeer
First up is this psychological drama based on real events, in which a struggling comedian is targeted by a female stalker.
The seven-episode Baby Reindeer is a powerful piece of art, in the sense that it’s not just about the woman who stalked and tried to ruin Gadd’s life; it’s also an examination of his own deeply buried trauma and darkness. “In the height of it all, I would go to bed at night and still hear her in my ears,” creator and star Richard Gadd explains in Netflix’s promotional material for Baby Reindeer. “Her voice swirling around my head. Her words leaping around my eyelids as I tried to sleep. Sometimes it was like she was there in the room with me. In the bed beside me, even.”
Continues Gadd: “All I ever wanted to do was capture something complicated about the human condition. That we all make mistakes. That no person is ever good or bad. That we are all lost souls looking for love in our own weird way.”
Parasyte: The Grey
Next is a super-scary (but really good!) Netflix Korean drama that people have been losing their minds over online thanks to its addictive story and pacing, as well as the monsters that will absolutely give you nightmares.
Parasyte: The Grey is a fantastic, and a fantastically scary, TV show that doesn’t just offer up gore and scares for the sake of it, though — there’s also plenty of depth and sophistication, as well as a story that I think even people who tend to shy away from horror might be able to get into. The story unfolds in a near-future version of Korea where unsuspecting people have been taken over by horrifying, tentacled parasites. Those parasites control their human hosts, learn to mimic their behavior, and focus on multiplying.
As I said, though, this isn’t mere horror just for the sake of it. There’s an interesting backstory to everything, such as the leader of a team of specialists called The Grey that hunts down and eliminates the parasites, one by one. The leader of that team lost her own husband to the parasites, so obviously she’s hell-bent on fighting back. There’s also a human who comes to enjoy a weird symbiosis with her own parasite, making this as much a story about the preservation of humanity and what that means as it is about the parasites themselves.
Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV
Finally, we come to this chilling docuseries that probes the dark behind-the-scenes world of late 90s and early 2000s children’s TV shows — focusing, particularly, on Dan Schneider’s problematic run as a showrunner and producer on Nickelodeon. Subjects covered in the individual episodes include actor Drake Bell’s abuse by a dialogue coach to sexual innuendo present in children’s programming, as well as the toxic environment of writers’ rooms.
The Guardian probably said it best: How on earth was this stuff ever broadcast on TV? “This series is hard to watch without becoming emotional,” one Rotten Tomatoes viewer review reads. “I liked the entire series and respect everybody’s contributions, but Drake’s courage to come forward and share his story of abuse to the world is why I will never forget the show. I highly recommend this series.”
Also important to note: Quiet on Set is now the most-watched Max title ever, according to Nielsen. Between March 18 and March 25, the series racked up a staggering 1.25 billion minutes of viewing time.
