Lizzie Borden’ Holds Top Spot But Trails Prior Seasons as ‘Unabomber’ Movie Posts Middling Debut

Welcome to your weekly breakdown of the biggest hits and misses on Netflix. This week, we’re taking a closer look at the global Top 10s for the week of September 21st to September 27th, 2026, and there is one clear overarching storyline: the current state of Ryan Murphy’s true-crime juggernaut.

We’ve also got to cover the debuts of A Different World and Unabomber plus a few international titles. A few no shows in the charts this week. Blood Legacy season 2 was nowhere to be found on the English list, but with 20 episodes, perhaps not all that surprising. The Thai series Delusion was notably absent from the Non-English charts, and Kevin Hart’s Cold as Balls missed the English TV list. 

Let’s dig into the other top 10 stories we’re tracking:

Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story now trailing prior entries

With the caveat that prior seasons of Monster were all released on different days (Netflix’s top 10s covers Monday through Sunday), with Wednesday for DAHMER, Thursday for Lyle and Erik Menendez, Friday for Ed Gein, and back to Thursday again for Lizzie Borden, the first full week should give Lizzie Borden a boost, given that there were fewer days to consume the new season in the opening week. However, that’s not been the case here. Viewing hours were up 20%, but ultimately the series is dragging behind all prior entries. 

The direct comparison here is Lyle and Erik Menendez, where Lizzie Borden is only down ~15% in views, so it’s not a disaster drop by any means. The only caveat is that Lizzie Borden’s episode count is slightly down, from 9 to 8, which should help that series given its lower runtime and how views are calculated. 

Interestingly, we published a piece from contributor Frederic Durand yesterday suggesting a strong link between viewership dropping significantly and quality, and given the review scores for season 4 are down quite substantially, that certainly could be at play here. 

Unabomber Has Middling Start

The big movie of September dropped on Friday, and despite an all-star cast, it didn’t put in a huge debut, opening to 16.4M views.

That puts it beneath People We Meet on Vacation but above the likes of Swapped and Little Brother in its opening three days. Swapped, of course, went on to grow significantly in the weeks to follow, but it’s unlikely the same will happen here, especially given the mixed critical response. We would’ve hoped for something a little closer to The Whisper Man at the very least for this one, given the caliber of talent. 

Here’s the movie stacked up against Netflix’s 2026 movie lineup, which dropped on a Friday:

A Different World Debuts Well

Picture Credit: Netflix

Rebooted from the 1987 classic sitcom, which most outside the United States won’t recognize, it’s a respectable but not barnstorming debut for a new comedy series. Given Netflix’s lower bar for renewing comedies and the fact it’s definitely overperforming in the US, we suspect it will get at least another season. Here’s the show stacked up against Netflix’s other English comedy slate that launched on a Thursday over the past three years:

Wonka’s The Golden Ticket

We’ve covered before that Netflix hasn’t had much luck converting its purchase of the Roald Dahl story collection into gold thus far, but could a concept originally done by Mr. Beast translate well? It turns out, pretty much yes. With 4.6M views, that puts it on par with Love is Blind in its 10th season, but better than some of the other Wednesday reality premieres. It got outsized media attention due to its weird use of AI, but it’s a strong debut when compared to other recent and other Netflix reality shows released on a Wednesday, especially when you consider many of the new concepts over the past year haven’t ranked in their first week of availability (like Building the Band, Battle Camp, Next Gen Chef, etc):

Minerva Academy from Netflix Italy

Moving on to some of the international debuts this week, Minerva Academy was hoping to capture some of the Elite audience and did an OK job with 2.4M views in its opening week, which puts it pretty much amongst the other Tuesday debuts from the region in recent years. Good enough for a renewal? Fingers crossed. 

The Final Problem from Netflix Spain

Picture Credit: Netflix

Aided by its tight four-episode runtime, it’s a decent start for The Final Problem with 2.6M views. That puts it pretty much amongst the middling performers for Friday series debuts from the region. 

Other Updates

Not A Stranger is a hit from Netflix Turkey

Here’s an instant hit from Netflix Turkey: Not A Stranger, which rose over 110% in viewing hours in week two, frankly smoking out any comparisons we had (even Thank You, Next season 1, which only went from 3.6M views in week 1 to 5.1M views in week 2). Big hit from Turkey. 

Plastic Beauty in Week 2

The Japanese series Plastic Beauty had a pretty huge jump in viewing hours this week too with a 123% rise. Very impressive compared to the others it’s up against. 

The Gentlemen Season 2 vs 1

Over the past few weeks, we’ve been tracking the trajectory of season 2 vs. season 1, which continues to lag, but what’s more remarkable with The Gentlemen is that season 1 is still sticking around in the top 10s, suggesting that LOTS of new people have come through the door with the arrival of a new season or lots of rewatches. Either way, that does show that despite the drop, it’s definitely getting people in the door. 

Full Top 10s for September 21st to September 27th

English TV

English Film

Non-English TV

Non-English Film

What are your takeaways from the Netflix top 10s this week? Let us know in the comments below.