[imagesource: Netflix]

‘No pressure, but we hope you’ll emulate the stratospheric success of our most popular series of all time.’

This is not the first time a South Korean series has been talked up as the next Squid Game. I suppose comparisons are inevitable and doing so creates headlines with a familiar reference point.

Extraordinary Attorney Woo, which is based on Woo Young-woo, “a newbie at a top law firm and a woman on the autism spectrum”, is off to a pretty solid start.

CNN reports it’s “giving investors hope that the producer may have another Squid Game-like success on its hands”:

It was the most-watched non-English television show on Netflix (NFLX) globally from July 4 to 17, according to the company’s metrics. The show ranked number one in that category in eight countries, and appeared in the top 10 for 22 countries, Netflix said…

In a blog post Wednesday, Netflix touted the show’s success, saying it had gained traction in locations including Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam after being aired in 31 languages…

South Korean content is especially important to the streaming giant after the massive success of “Squid Game” last year, which had become the company’s top show globally…

It’s also been a giant hit for Astory Co., the South Korean studio which produced Extraordinary Attorney Woo, with share prices rising by more than 70% since late June.

There’s no way the series will have the same impact as Squid Game in predominantly English-speaking countries but we’re looking beyond that.

A quick trailer:

Via Netflix’s Top 10 site, you can see just how much it’s dominating in the TV (Non-English) category globally:

By the way, in the global TV (English) rankings for the same period, it’s still Stranger Things all the way:

Netflix’s most recent quarterly report, released earlier this week, was both good and bad news for the streaming giant.

Sure, it lost 970 000 subscribers during the three-month period but that’s a far smaller hit than was forecast, reports Variety:

The streamer had projected a net loss of 2 million streaming subscribers for the second quarter, which spans April 1-June 30, following a surprise decline of 200,000 in Q1 (which included the loss of 700,000 Russian customers after exiting the country over the invasion of Ukraine).

Netflix revealed in its Q2 letter to shareholders it currently has 220.67 million subscribers globally and is expecting to return to gains in Q3, projecting an addition of 1 million subs from July 1-Sept. 30.

The streamer intends to spend around $18 billion on content during the course of 2022.

Let’s have more quality and less Emily in Paris, please.

[sources:cnn&variety]