Mexican Drama Series The Accident Blowing Up Netflix’s Top Charts

Mexican films and TV shows have been a source of consistent success for Netflix. Last year, Netflix subscribers couldn’t stop binge-watching “Thursday’s Widows,” a six-episode Mexican limited series that saw global success on the streamer. Then, in August of 2024, satirical take on a hostage thriller “Non Negotiable” once again gave Mexico a Netflix win, with the film charting in multiple countries around the world.

Now, Netflix is giving us more in the form of 2024’s “The Accident,” a Mexican drama series that follows families dealing with the loss of three children who perish in a freak bouncy castle accident. Yes, seriously. The 10-episode series is focused on couple Daniela (Ana Claudia Talancón) and Emiliano (Sebastian Martínez), who throw their son, Rodrigo, a birthday party, during which the fateful mishap occurs. The series then follows the various families involved as they accuse each other of negligence and try to determine who’s really at fault for their children’s deaths.

The incident at the core of this drama might sound a tad absurd, but as Tudum points out, jumpers are “apt to lift off the ground with as little as 15 miles-per-hour winds,” and as per the American Meteorological Society, “wind-related bouncy house accidents have caused at least 28 deaths and 479 injuries between 2000 and 2021.” But just because the titular mishap is more plausible than you might think, that doesn’t necessarily mean “The Accident” is any good — and if the show’s Rotten Tomatoes score is anything to go by, it isn’t. That said, Netflix audiences have caused “The Accident” to truly take flight. The show is now borne aloft on the winds of binge, becoming yet another worldwide Netflix hit for Mexico.

Streaming viewership tracker FlixPatrol shows “The Accident” is enjoying global success. The series landed on Netflix on August 21, 2024, and has had an impressive run on the service ever since. At the time of writing, the show is number one on the most-watched TV charts in Mexico and Ecuador, where it’s been sitting for at least a week. What’s more, it’s hovering around the number one and two spots in Colombia, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Peru, and El Salvador.

But “The Accident” is also doing well in the United States, where the series has been holding strong following a two-week run in the charts. It now sits at number five on the U.S. most-watched TV chart and even managed to hit number two on August 31, 2024.

Meanwhile, the show is still charting in 67 countries more than two weeks after its debut. “The Accident” is currently at number five in Belgium after having hit number two in the European country a week prior. It also previously managed to take the top spot in the Bahamas, Italy, Romania, and more, proving to be yet another Mexican Netflix series with global appeal.

If “The Accident” is to maintain its ongoing success Stateside, it will have to contend with the might of Jeff Goldblum, whose new series “Kaos” is currently climbing the Netflix charts. What’s more, Nicole Kidman and Liev Schrieber are now ruling the U.S. Netflix TV chart with their own drama series “The Perfect Couple,” which similarly revolves around a death and widespread suspicion. So it seems unlikely that “The Accident” will make another run up the charts at this point, and is likely coming in for landing after an impressive run.

But before you join Netflix subscribers in their ongoing binge-watch of this series, take a moment to consider the show’s Rotten Tomatoes score, which currently sits at 29%. Granted, that rating is based on just seven reviews, none of which are from “top critics,” and RT isn’t exactly the most reliable source on the quality of film and TV — according to the site, there are only two perfect sci-fi movies in film history. But accusations of the show being “eye-rollingly melodramatic” and claims that it “veers too far into soap opera territory” do seem to line up with the impression one gets from the trailer.