I’ll be honest, I didn’t see this coming. Yes, I know The Boys season 4 is over, and Batman: Caped Crusader is brand new, but The Boys is huge and Amazon Prime Video’s biggest shows tend to stick at #1 for ages. But now, there is clearly enough interest in the wildly well-received Caped Crusader for it to surge into that #1 spot instead.
The 1940s noir version of Batman from Bruce Timm, JJ Abrams and Matt Reeves has debuted to stellar critic scores, a 98% on Rotten Tomatoes. Audience scores are lower mainly for “woke” reasons, so those can be safely ignored. Having seen the whole series in the last 48 hours I can agree that yes, it’s incredible.
Still, I am surprised it has instantly attracted this much of an audience to surge to #1. Again, it’s hard to understand just how much staying power Netflix’s biggest shows have. After months, Fallout is still #3 most-watched on the service (now with a fun “17 Emmy nominations” badge in the thumbnail).
Batman: Caped Crusader has already been renewed for season 2 before season 1 even aired, so no need to worry about its performance either way. It ends with a pretty major tease, so safe to say that everyone is going to want to see that realized in a second season. As for how long it goes, that’s unclear. The original Batman: The Animated Series ran for four seasons and 60 episodes, albeit that was a different era. But based on how this show is going, I’d easily watch 50 more episodes of it.
The rest of the list has a mix of old and new entries. My Lady Jane is hanging on at #4 and has performed well for being a relatively low profile addition to the Originals list. The somehow-this-exists Sausage Party: Foodtopia is at #5. A second series of Troppo, which I haven’t heard of, is at #6. And everyone is gearing up for the return of Rings of Power later this month as that show is at #8 on the last due to rewatches or those trying to get into it for the first time.
I’m just very happy to see Batman: Caped Crusader perform this well, as it’s a hit of nostalgia that feels excellent, even if I’m deeply missing Kevin Conroy’s voice. It’s a fresh take on Batman in an age where that’s pretty hard to do, but glad to see Bruce Timm pull it off.
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Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.
