‘To Catch a Cheater’: the Lifetime crime thriller climbing the Netflix charts
The Lifetime movie pipeline currently available on Netflix has tapped into a massive, multi-generational audience of streaming subscribers who specifically seek that distinct cable mystery style. And the most riveting proof is the rise of To Catch a Cheater on its global and regional charts.
During the week of August 17th to August 23rd, not one, but two Lifetime thrillers made the cut of Netflix’s Top 10 weekly charts. First, it was The Dating App Killer: The Monica White Story in fifth with 3.4million views and To Catch a Cheater in eighth with 3million views in international rankings.
Meanwhile, in the US, The Dating App Killer and To Catch a Cheater are ranked third and fourth, respectively, underscoring the intense contemporary hype surrounding the titles.
Directed by Damián Romay, To Catch a Cheater centres on a high school loyalty prank that turns fatal, leading a grieving mother down a dark rabbit hole of neighbourhood lies, affairs, and betrayal that definitely has something to do with her daughter’s sudden, mysterious death.
The story focuses on Hannah, an 18-year-old preparing for college, whose friends create a “cheater pact,” a supposed loyalty test to see if their boyfriend remains faithful. Although Hannah reluctantly agrees to test Charli’s older boyfriend, she never really returns home from the prank.
The next morning, her dead body is found on the beach and initially ruled a suicide. But something tells her mother there’s more to the story, prompting her to launch her own investigation.
Although many Lifetime movies have cracked Netflix’s Top 10 trends in the past weeks, social media buzz has also heavily fuelled the movie’s popularity. Once a movie hits the coveted weekly charts, it usually creates a feedback loop, causing browsing viewers to reroute around the same title time and again.
In a select few cases, a movie’s chart success comes down to timing and relevance. Despite originally premiering on Lifetime, To Catch a Cheater fits squarely into the guilty-pleasure category of fast-paced, melodramatic thrillers that demand little to no cerebral commitment. Believe it or not, the audience loves tuning into these types of movies specifically for a campy, low-stakes watch where they can guess the plot twists.
Plus, with a tight runtime of around 97 minutes, who wouldn’t opt for the easy, low-commitment watch, especially when they crave the thrills and run short on time?