If you’re a sci-fi fan who doesn’t mind a smorgasbord of big ideas that covers everything from black holes to the multiverse, quantum mechanics, and Schrodinger’s cat, Apple’s new(ish) drama Dark Matter might be the show for you.
For several weeks now, this adaptation of Blake Crouch’s 2016 novel of the same name has dominated not only Apple TV+ but all of streaming (according to data from Reelgood). We’re five episodes in to the nine-episode first season as of this writing, and the show is hanging on to a respectable 80% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes. I’d argue the score should be a little higher than that, but I’m also biased in that I read the novel and found it to be quite the page-turner.
The show is certainly a fine adaptation — but even if you didn’t read the source material, there’s no reason you shouldn’t be able to appreciate this drama staring Joel Edgerton and Jennifer Connelly. Yes, it’s a mind-bending techno thriller, but it also follows that old saying about every story either being: A man goes on a journey, or a stranger comes to town (in the case of Dark Matter, there’s a little of both). What’s more, there’s also a love story at the center of it, in case all the quantum mechanics sails right over your head.
For those and other reasons, the show is one of the biggest streaming hits at the moment. Not only is the show still the #1 series on Apple TV+ right now, but it’s also the top-streamed series, period, once again this week, according to the streaming search engine Reelgood, which tracks the most popular TV shows from all of the major streamers — including Netflix, Max, Apple TV+, Hulu, Paramount+, Prime Video, Peacock and more.
Reelgood says it monitors 20 million viewing decisions each month across every streaming platform in the US. For the 7-day period that ended on May 29, the 10 shows that topped Reelgood’s latest TV chart are as follows:
- Dark Matter (Apple TV+)
- Tires (Netflix)
- Fallout (Prime Video)
- Evil (Paramount+)
- Young Sheldon (Netflix)
- Outer Range (Prime Video)
- Bodkin (Netflix)
- Hacks (Max)
- The Veil (Hulu)
- Bridgerton (Netflix)
As for the rest of the TV shows besides the fantastic Dark Matter that are among the most popular this week, we’ve already covered many of the standouts here — from Prime Video’s hit video game adaptation Fallout to Apple’s Sugar, a noir-ish detective drama with a truly wild twist. Same for The Veil, the FX on Hulu spy drama from Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight, Netflix’s Bridgerton, and the critically acclaimed Hacks on HBO’s streamer.
Making its debut on the list this week is Tires, a raunchy new blue-collar comedy from Netflix starring Shane Gillis as the cousin and employee of a nervous and unqualified heir to an auto repair chain. The show adheres to a format that hasn’t always worked for Netflix, but Tires is a fine albeit polarizing workplace comedy that’s finding success on the streaming giant for once. It’s polarizing in the sense that viewers seem to love it, while critics pretty much can’t stand it.
Tires for the moment has a very solid 90% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, compared to a 43% critics’ score from pearl-clutching professional reviewers. Make of that what you will.
