I like to imagine that The Bear creator Christopher Storer’s approach to what’s now one of the biggest TV series across the entire streaming universe is similar to a point that Sydney made in Braciole, Episode 8 of The Bear‘s first season. It’s a line where she essentially sums up her pretty wholesome attitude toward her job and why she enjoys it so much: “I wanna cook for people and make them happy and give them the best bacon on Earth.” All the chaos and madness of the kitchen, in other words, is worth it for the opportunity to give people something good to eat.
Storer and his team may not work in a kitchen, but it’s not a stretch to imagine there’s just as much chaos and stress in the hit FX/Hulu series’ writers room — compounded by the pressure to produce a great TV season each time, one that’s always worthy of what came before. And maybe the only way to keep one’s sanity in that scenario is to approach the gig a little like Sydney. You want to give something to people that makes them happy. Simple as that.
Based on this week’s streaming TV series rankings from Reelgood, the hit series now in its third season seems like it’s still making viewers happy and then some. The Bear is currently the most-watched show on the streaming search engine’s latest ranking of the 10 biggest shows across the streaming universe, which includes the latest releases from Apple TV+, Max, Hulu, Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+, and much more.
The show also still has an average (and near-perfect) 97% critics’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes. For whatever reason, the third season is sitting at a stupid-low 57% audience score, which feels more like the inevitable backlash that great shows always seem to attract eventually. The fact of the matter remains that The Bear, on its worst day, is still far superior to a vast majority of other major streaming TV series.
Reelgood, meanwhile, says it monitors 20 million viewing decisions each month across every streaming platform in the US. For the 7-day period that ended on July 3, the 10 shows that topped Reelgood’s latest TV chart are as follows:
- The Bear (Hulu)
- Presumed Innocent (Apple TV+)
- The Boys (Prime Video)
- My Lady Jane (Prime Video)
- The Acolyte (Disney+)
- House of the Dragon (HBO/Max)
- Your Honor (Netflix)
- Dark Matter (Apple TV+)
- Supacell (Netflix)
- Mayor of Kingstown (Paramount+)
As for the rest of this week’s lIst of the most-watched shows: Most of the titles above are returning favorites and need no introduction. Two, however, are new series and very much worth your time: Prime Video’s My Lady Jane, and Netflix’s Supacell.
Let’s start with the latter first. It debuted with a perfect 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes, and is sort of like Netflix’s version of The Boys, except set in London and with an all-Black main cast. Also, The Boys has gotten way too over-the-top and just extra with its sex and violence, whereas Supacell — about a group of Black South Londoners who discover they each have superpowers — is just a better show overall.
As for Prime’s new series, it’s basically the streamer’s Bridgerton — minus the latter’s cheap attempts to keep viewers titillated with an abundance of sex.
Just like Netflix’s similarly revisionist and bodice-ripping hit drama, My Lady Jane plays very fast and extremely loose with historical events and takes place in an alt-fantasy Tudor world. This is essentially a reimagined version of the story of Jane Grey, England’s so-called Nine Days Queen from the 16th century. Here, she’s the kind of noblewoman who dreams of publishing her own book about plants, so that the money then allows her to live life on her own terms. She chafes at her mother’s strictures and the suffocating patriarchy; she’s beautiful, headstrong, and quick-witted.
In other words, she’s the perfect heroine. Gird thyself for one of the best Prime Video shows the streamer has released all year.
