‘Emily In Paris’ Dethroned From Netflix’s Top 10 List By A New Show

This article was published on 8/18 and republished on 8/20.

Emily in Paris returned for a highly anticipated fourth season on August 15, but just days later, it was dethroned from Netflix’s Top 10 list before the weekend was even over. That’s because of a new True Crime documentary about a very famous case: Laci Peterson.

American Murder: Laci Peterson is the number one show on Netflix right now, with its three episodes detailing the gruesome facts of the case in which she was killed by her husband Scott Peterson. It premiered at number two, and considering that shows about murders you’ve never heard of always do pretty well, it’s no surprise that one of the most infamous cases in American history is doing well here.

As for Emily in Paris, part of its performance here is that, once again, Netflix has split a season of its popular show into two parts. The first five episodes of Season 4 aired on August 15, and the next five will arrive on September 12. Netflix used to pretend this was about production time or polishing episodes; now it’s clearly just because they don’t want people to sign up, binge a new season of a show they like, and then instantly cancel. This ensures they’re paying for at least two months. Of course, this makes for a really annoying viewing experience, walking the line between binge-watching and weekly release in a way that’s worse than either.

Matt Rife’s stand-up special Lucid dropped to #3 and may not be as popular as the last one, it seems. A licensed series called Average Joe is #4. I’ve never heard of it, but it seems like people are really enjoying it. This is the first season.

The final season of The Umbrella Academy quickly fell down the list, panned by most fans to the point where I didn’t even want to watch it, even though I liked the show before. Love is Blind UK is back with new episodes at #6. The former #1 A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder has fallen to #9 and we haven’t heard yet if the show has been renewed or not. But it’s still early.

I would expect Laci Peterson’s documentary to remain at the top for a while due to the nature of its focus, even though it’s only three episodes long. Emily in Paris will undoubtedly reach the top spot again when its second half arrives in September. I really wonder what this does to the statistics of whether people actually complete the seasons or not.

Update (20/8): I figured I’d come back to the list and check it out, and yes, American Murder: Laci Peterson and Emily in Paris have held on to the #1 and #2 spots after a few days. Other additions to the list include AMC’s excellent Dark Winds that didn’t get enough views, and two other AMC series, A Discovery of Witches and the please-don’t-watch-this Fear the Walking Dead in seventh and eighth place, respectively. I’m excited to see Dark Winds do best out of all of them, because it deserves to.

I actually checked out the Emily in Paris competition and watched Laci Peterson’s documentary. As expected, it was pretty brutal, and I can’t think of one of those True Crime perpetrators you hate as much as Scott Peterson in the end. He does a great job talking to absolutely every relevant party in the case, including key witness Amber Frey, who was extremely brave to come forward about her relationship with Peterson when she didn’t know he was married, because that was the turn to both the case and the trial. It was a tough watch, though, and I definitely don’t think I can recommend it to everyone. But O.J. aside, this was easily one of the most memorable crime stories of my youth, and I was curious to revisit it.

Follow me on Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram.

Get my science fiction novels Herokiller Series and The Earthborn Trilogy.