The Psychological Thriller Muted Is Terrible, But It's Sitting Pretty In Netflix's Top 10
Ah, the Netflix Top 10. It's a place that can sometimes deliver hidden gems — like the Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead mind-bender "Synchronic," currently at #5 on the English films list — and star-powered stories. The streaming giant's weekly viewership chart (which, it should be said, is based on their own murky data) has plenty of star power this week, from the Jennifer Lopez flick "The Mother" (#1!) to the Tom Hanks adaptation "A Man Called Otto" (#4).
For every title that feels like a hit, though, there's always an inexplicable chart-topper. This week, it seems to be "Muted," which as of publication time is in second place on the non-English-language TV shows list. According to Netflix, viewers watched 35.1 million hours of the Spanish psychological thriller show last week, which is a shame, because it's, well, really bad. Like pretty much every movie and series that's ever been put to screen, a lot of people surely worked hard on "Muted." Yet, with a 33% Rotten Tomatoes critics score and a tepid 44% audience score, viewers seem to agree that the show is one of Netflix's worst recent offerings — and I can back them up on that.
The series has a promising enough premise. It follows a man named Sergio (Arón Piper), who's fresh out of incarceration after apparently killing both his parents as a teen. Sergio, we're told in episode one, was released under the agreement (unbeknownst to him) that he would be studied through hidden cameras by a team headed up by psychiatrist Ana (Almudena Amor). Ana is ostensibly supposed to alert authorities if the man — whose initial muteness gives the show its title — shows signs of continued danger, but that plan goes out the window fast, along with any semblance of logic.
A plot-hole-riddled thriller is capturing audiences' attention
It's the plot holes in "Muted" that have earned it scorn from critics and audiences alike. The Guardian gave the show one star of five, saying it's "so bad you'll want to howl at your screen" and noting that "rarely has such a serious-minded miniseries made so little sense." It's true: though "Muted" is only a six-episode limited series, it somehow finds time to wander in several incoherent and opposing directions, finally settling on a conclusion that's neither satisfying nor particularly sensical. Decider criticized the pilot's ambiguity, noting that it's a show that seems set to "keep its audience at arm's length," while Ready Steady Cut argued the characters are no more than "pieces on a chessboard, to be moved around at the whims of a confounding plot that spares little thought for any logic or consistency."
If we couldn't already guess that Netflix's Top 10 isn't a surefire metric to measure what's actually good on Netflix, "Muted" is proof positive. If you're looking for thrillers on Netflix that won't leave you more confounded than entertained, check out the equally enigmatic (but ultimately much more satisfying) series "The Sinner," the exquisite true crime slow burn "Mindhunter," or the web-based mystery "Missing" – which is also currently sitting pretty in the coveted Top 10.