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Mildred Ratched may be a terrible nurse, but she’s great for television. Today Netflix announced that in its first 28 days Ratched has been watched by 48 million Netflix subscribers. That impressive number makes the series the most watched new Netflix original series of the year.
The news was announced on Twitter in what very well be one of the most confusing ways possible. Just know that “appointments” probably means viewers:
That’s an impressive number to be sure. But it comes with an asterisk. Netflix used to claim that a viewer had “watched” a project if they had finished at least 70 percent of a movie or a single episode. That metric seems to have changed earlier this year. According to Vulture’s Josef Adalian, Netflix’s definition of “watched” was changed to mean how man people have seen at least two minutes of a movie or at least one episode. Though the original metric was far from perfect, it was certainly more reliable than that two-minute marker.
Regardless, 48 million viewers checking out a series in less than a month is nothing to ignore. It’s also an astronomical number that makes sense because Ratched reads like a laundry list of things Netflix fans love. The horror drama comes from beloved and well-known super producer Ryan Murphy. It’s based on a beloved property, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. It stars fan-favorite Sarah Paulson as well as Cynthia Nixon and Sharon Stone. And it’s as gorgeous as it is absolutely bonkers. No wonder the drama has been dominating Netflix’s Top 10 in the United States list.
Adding to Ratched’s renowned success is its timing. Thanks to COVID-19 delays, Murphy’s other currently-running horror series, American Horror Story, isn’t premiering a new season this year. As far as AHS replacements go Ratched is a pretty great one. Also, any show that stars Sarah Paulson acting like a sociopath is automatically a slam dunk. That’s just a law of life. Congratulations Nurse Ratched. We can’t wait to see what horrors you have for us in Season 2.
