(Credit: Netflix)

What did you expect the list to look like after Stranger Things 5 was released? A cute mix of genres? We’re sure you are not that naive. Absolutely not. The second volume one dropped, Netflix turned into Hawkins High’s morning assembly. Every corner of the Top 10 is screaming STRANGER THINGS, and everyone else is just trying to breathe.

Right at the top sits Stranger Things 5, obviously, because people didn’t just watch it; they devoured it like it was oxygen. These episodes dropped, and the world clocked out of real life. Work meetings were ignored, alarms were snoozed, assignments were postponed, and Netflix had to strengthen its servers, for real. Nobody has been normal since.

And because the universe loves comedy, the second show on the list is Kevin Hart: Acting My Age, which is hands down the emotional support blanket of the week. You finish a stressful Demogorgon chase scene, your heart rate is at 200, and then Kevin Hart shows up to relax you. People have been bouncing between Hawkins’ terror and Kevin’s jokes like this is some kind of emotional cardio.

Then boom, Stranger Things season one is back. Again. Because every time a new season drops, the entire planet suddenly gets the urge to revisit 2016, re-watch the vanishing of Will, re-experience the lights on Joyce’s wall, and remind themselves how cute and small everyone used to be before psychological trauma aged them five lifetimes. It won’t be wrong to call it nostalgia homework.

But cutting through the Hawkins fog is The Beast in Me, showing up literally like a beast in a jungle. People clicked this limited series thinking it would be a chill watch, and instead, they ended up glued to the couch. Technically, it isn’t their fault because the series is that addictive. It’s lucky it even survived being next to Stranger Things in the rankings.

Then the chart goes right back to its favourite personality trait: Stranger Things. Seasons four, two, and three all jumped back onto the list like siblings who refused to stay home. It looks like Netflix’s Top 10 forgot it has other shows. Obviously, fans rewatched every season, connecting clues and pausing like detectives. It’s not their fault, as it has been three years since the last season came.

Just when you think the pattern breaks, Missing: Dead or Alive? season two occupies the seventh spot. True-crime fans don’t play around. They see a missing-person case and instantly transform into investigators.

Then, we have the re-released season one of Absentia crawling back into the Top 10. Someone clearly recommended it on social media because the way it resurfaced is really suspicious. Suddenly, everyone is revisiting Emily Byrne’s disappearance. Honestly, respect.

And finishing off this very messed-up list is Mark Rober’s CrunchLabs. Everyone pretends they are watching it “with the kids”, but adults are fully invested.

So yeah, November’s Top 10 is not a list; it is a takeover. A takeover by Hawkins, and prepare for it because it might stay for a while.

The most popular series on Netflix this week:

• Stranger Things: Season 5
• Kevin Hart: Acting My Age
• Stranger Things: Season 1
• The Beast in Me: Limited Series
• Stranger Things: Season 4
• Stranger Things: Season 2
• Missing: Dead or Alive?: Season 2
• Stranger Things: Season 3
• Absentia: Season 1
• Mark Rober’s CrunchLabs: Season 1