A Pregnant Woman Lost At Sea Brings A Thrilling New Watch To Netflix's Top 10
Netflix viewing figures might be a mostly meaningless mess, but they're getting a little more transparent. They also provide a fascinating picture of global viewing habits that give us a real-time look at how audiences are responding to the deluge of media being funneled directly into their collective visual cortex.
In an age where streaming has truly upended the movie industry, leaving studios scrambling to catch up with the modern paradigm, getting a look under the hood is always interesting. For instance, nobody liked "The Snowman" when it was released back in 2017, but apparently, we all lapped it up when it hit Netflix this year. What does that say about what we expect from our home entertainment? Has streaming lowered all our standards? Perhaps we were always this way ...
The point is, there's clearly something to be learned in an age where we all have access to viewing metrics in real time. Just what that is remains elusive for now, but in the meantime let's marvel at the latest international hit to climb the Netflix charts: "Nowhere."
This Spanish survival thriller is directed by Albert Pintó and stars Anna Castillo as Mía, a pregnant woman fleeing her totalitarian homeland in search of a new life for her, her husband Nico (Tamar Novas), and her unborn child. Unfortunately, she's separated from Nico and finds herself alone in a shipping container, which is soon thrown from its ship into the ocean. Adrift and alone, Mía has to survive as the container rapidly fills with water. Oh, and she also goes into labor which makes things a tad trickier. All of which apparently makes for global streaming success.
Nowhere is going places
Netflix is yet to release its official data for the week that "Nowhere" arrived on its service. But at the time of writing, the film is in the number three spot on the U.S. Netflix homepage, slipping from number two where it sat a day prior. Thankfully, our friends over at streaming data aggregator FlixPatrol have also given us a good idea of how the movie is playing around the world.
Unsurprisingly, "Nowhere" has been number one in Spain since September 30 — the day after it dropped on Netflix — and as of October 3, shows no signs of giving up that top spot. But what's most impressive about how "Nowhere" has performed on the streamer is that it's also sitting pretty in the Netflix charts globally.
This tense survival story managed to debut in the number one spot in a whopping 51 countries, which is a pretty impressive feat. Even more impressive is that, across the board, it's managed to maintain that top spot in those countries, even adding a few more number-one positions in the four days since. Which means "Nowhere" is currently number one in 59 countries around the world. And it's not just Spanish-speaking audiences that have responded. Among those 59 countries are Vietnam, the United Arab Emirates, and Réunion.
For a non-English film, this is great, and comes in the wake of Indian crime thriller "Jaane Jaan" topping the Netflix charts around the world. It's also another reminder that while these streaming services have undoubtedly broken all our brains with binge-able, viewing metric-informed "content," they've also surely helped to diversify our viewing habits — exposing global audiences to films that might otherwise go unwatched outside of their native countries.
'Sensationalism at sea?'
The last Spanish movie that hit the Netflix top 10 was a pretty abysmal entry that once again seems to suggest we'll tolerate anything new that drops on the streamer. But "Nowhere" seems to be a step up from "Killer Book Club." The movie currently has a 50% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes, but Brian Tallerico, writing for RogerEbert.com, noted that "There are some disappointing choices in the film's directing, but Castillo's performance should make a lot of those easy to overlook for anyone who stumbles upon this one in their streaming algorithm."
Unfortunately, the New York Times was less impressed, dubbing "Nowhere" "sensationalism at sea." In his review, Teo Bugbee wrote that the film settles into "generic survivalist sensationalism" rather than probing any pressing contemporary issues. That was echoed by Tallerico, who wrote that "it's probably best to leave analysis of all the vague commentary on the refugee crisis aside and just appreciate 'Nowhere' as a reminder of the power of a mother's will to live."
So if, like most of us, you've been lulled into a streaming-induced stupor that leaves you unable to do anything but binge-watch your way into oblivion, don't worry. "Nowhere" won't confront you with too much in the way of socio-political commentary to snap us out of it. Meanwhile, there's also the Benicio del Toro crime drama "Reptile," which is simultaneously burning up the Netflix charts if you fancy something slightly less harrowing but with an equally mediocre critic score.