Adolescence has become Netflix’s second biggest ever English language TV series.
The critically acclaimed UK drama series knocked off Stranger Things after it reached a total of 141.2m views since its launch in March. The fourth season of the sci-fi drama had totalled 140.7m.
The No 1 slot is still taken by the first season of Wednesday, which had 252.1m views in its first 91 days. The second season is scheduled to premiere in August. The highest non-English language show is the first season of Squid Game, which had 265.2m views in its first three months.
The show had already made history in the UK becoming the first programme on a streaming platform to top the weekly audience charts.
The news comes after the show swept the Gotham TV awards in New York, winning breakthrough limited series and two acting awards for stars Stephen Graham and Owen Cooper.
“We’re overwhelmed for you to embrace us the way you have,” Graham said in his acceptance speech. “This was a small colloquial piece that was made with love, respect, humility and dignity, and we treated the subject with a lot of passion, but a lot of care.”
Adolescence tells the story of a 13-year-old boy who is arrested for the murder of a female classmate. Since its debut, it’s scored a string of positive reviews and been praised for sparking vital conversations about the dangers of the online manosphere in radicalising young boys and men.
The UK prime minister, Keir Starmer, has openly praised the series, saying it has served as “a torch that shines intensely brightly on a combination of issues that many people don’t know how to respond to”.
The series, created with Brad Pitt’s production company Plan B, is also expected to score a number of key Emmy nominations, which will be announced in July.
It’s been reported that a second season is being discussed with no additional details confirmed. “Possibly, let’s see how the figures are,” co-creator and star Graham told Variety when asked about a follow-up. “But yeah, there’s the possibility of developing another story.”
