Over the last few years, the popularity of TV shows rose and some argue they’ve become more popular than movies. To some, “binge-watching” TV shows at home became more appealing than going to movie theaters.
The term “binge-watching” became so frequently used in the last couple of years that the Collins English Dictionary even named it their Word of the Year in 2015.
I think it’s safe to say that we are all “guilty” of bingeing at least one TV show.
When it comes to choosing which show to binge, the options are vast. Different streaming services offer a variety of shows. The ones that usually get a lot of attention are the original series.
HarrisX conducted a survey in which they asked over 11,000 U.S. Netflix subscribers to list their favorite shows streaming on the platform. The top five shows chosen by the subscribers are all Netflix originals.
According to the survey, the most popula show is Orange is the New Black followed by Stranger Things, Ozark, Grace and Frankie, and Black Mirror.
Based on this data, we decided to analyze whether the order of the popular shows from the survey matches the popularity of the shows on the Internet.
The analysis
If the online mentions were the criteria, the order would go like this:
- Stranger Things
- Black Mirror
- Orange is the New Black
- Grace and Frankie
- Ozark
Stranger Things has almost 50 thousand online mentions, while the second-best Black Mirror has almost 13 thousand. Orange is the New Black has little over 7 thousand mentions and is followed by Grace and Frankie with 1,186. The last show on the list is Ozark with only 40 online mentions.
When it comes to the number of impressions, the situation is a bit different:
- Stranger Things
- Orange is the New Black
- Black Mirror
- Grace and Frankie
- Ozark
Orange is the New Black
Since the first season aired on Netflix in 2013, Orange is the New Black positioned itself as one of the leading shows when it comes to dealing with myriad social issues through (dark) humor, and the popularity of the show remained consistent throughout the years.
The storyline follows the life of inmates in an all-female prison and the stories about how they ended up there.
The final season was an especially intense one, covering all the current social issues in the U.S. Detention of immigrants and deportations, #MeToo movement, mental illnesses, racism, and the list goes on.
If we’re to judge by the sentiment of the online mentions, the last season was received predominately positive by viewers. It seems that people are showing appreciation for the shows that tackle and highlight everyday problems in a constructive and well-thought-out way.
You can see some of the Twitter reactions below:
Stranger Things
Stranger Things is the winner of our analysis. It is first on the list when it comes to the number of mentions and the number of impressions.
The show is a sci-fi horror set in a fictional town in Indiana where a boy has disappeared and some strange supernatural events started to occur. Even though the protagonists are young adults, the show is popular among all age groups.
The funny thing is that a lot of mentions of the show were related to Joe Keery cutting his hair. Fans were pretty upset when he switched his longer, messy haircut for a bowl cut.
Also, a lot of mentions were connected to the partnership between Netflix and Fortnite. In the summer, Fortnite introduced skins and wraps from the show and taken them off recently. Now fans are begging Fortnite on Twitter to bring those additions back.
Ozark
Ozark is a crime drama about a money-laundering scheme gone wrong and the aftermath of it.
Out of all shows on the list, Ozark has little to none mentions depending on the source. The most number of mentions can be found on the web, while mentions on social media are scarce. The show is mentioned mostly regarding its four Emmy nominations and was predominately discussed in the United States.
The reason for the lack of mentions in comparison to other shows is probably the fact that season 2 of the show was released over a year ago, and the next one will come out later this year.
Grace and Frankie
Netflix recently announced that the seventh season of the Grace and Frankie will be the last one. When the last episode airs, the show will officially be the longest-running show on Netflix.
Grace and Frankie is a comedy starring Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin who play two friends whose husbands declared they’re gay and got married.
As you can see from the chart, the show barely has a negative sentiment and the online comments prove that the show is indeed well-loved by Netflix subscribers.
Black Mirror
It’s interesting that Black Mirror is the fifth on the survey list, but when it comes to online analysis it’s second or third.
The thing is that the show isn’t everyone’s cup of tea and at times it’s hard to watch. Each episode is a story for itself, and the plot is revolving around the modern world and the consequences of new technologies.
Some episodes can be really depressing because, with the situation in the world right now, their storylines seem possible and at times inevitable.
Despite that, according to our map, the show is discussed a lot all over the globe.
The show is often used to describe some strange real-life situations as you can see from the tweets below.
Some fans, on the other hand, think that some parts of the show would be useful in real life.