Netflix’s most overrated and underrated TV shows revealed, according to viewers

• Money Heist is the most overrated Netflix original TV show, with 4.81% of its IMDb reviews using the word “overrated”.
• Squid Game places second at 4.60%, while Sacred Games completes the top three at 3.96%.
• Everything Sucks! is named the most underrated show, with 4.46% of reviews describing it as “underrated”.
• The study looked at 185,114 IMDb user reviews across 250 of the platform’s most-rated original TV series.

ome Netflix shows become global talking points almost overnight, while others struggle to attract the same attention despite winning over the people who actually watch them.

And with viewers often having very different opinions from critics, awards panels and even each other, the shows generating the most hype are not always the ones audiences believe deserve it.

With this in mind, online puzzle platform Sudoku Bliss looked at 185,114 IMDb user reviews across 250 of the most-rated TV series included in IMDb’s All Netflix Originals list to reveal which shows viewers are most likely to call overrated and underrated.

Every published IMDb user review was searched for mentions of the words “overrated” and “underrated”, including hyphenated and two-word spellings. Shows were then ranked according to the percentage of their reviews containing each term.

The most overrated Netflix original TV shows

Rank	TV show	IMDb rating	Reviews analyzed	Reviews mentioning “overrated”	Percentage
1	Money Heist	8.2	3,884	187	4.81%
2	Squid Game	7.9	3,482	160	4.60%
3	Sacred Games	8.5	858	34	3.96%
4	Blue Eye Samurai	8.7	450	14	3.11%
5	Orange Is the New Black	8.0	582	16	2.75%
6	Paranormal	8.0	1,617	43	2.66%
7	Stranger Things	8.6	5,793	148	2.55%
8	Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt	7.5	232	5	2.16%
9	Black Mirror	8.7	1,211	26	2.15%
10	Ethos	8.4	187	4	2.14%

Money Heist takes the title as Netflix’s most overrated original series, with 187 of the 3,884 IMDb reviews looked at containing the word “overrated”. That works out at 4.81% of all reviews, the highest share among the 250 shows included in the study.

The Spanish series still holds a strong 8.2 IMDb rating, showing that being labelled overrated does not necessarily mean viewers dislike a show. Instead, the results point towards a smaller but particularly vocal group of viewers who feel the attention surrounding the series exceeds its quality.

Squid Game is narrowly behind in second place. Of the 3,482 reviews looked at, 160 describe the show as overrated, equivalent to 4.60%. It also has the highest number of IMDb ratings among the top three, with more than 767,000 ratings overall.

Sacred Games ranks third at 3.96%, with 34 of its 858 reviews using the term. Interestingly, it also has an IMDb rating of 8.5, reinforcing the fact that high audience scores and claims that a program is overrated can exist side by side.

The same pattern can be seen further down the ranking. Blue Eye Samurai places fourth despite carrying an 8.7 IMDb rating, with 3.11% of reviews mentioning “overrated”. Orange Is the New Black completes the top five at 2.75%.

Paranormal ranks sixth at 2.66%, followed by one of Netflix’s biggest audience favorites, Stranger Things. The sci-fi series has more than 1.7 million IMDb ratings and an overall score of 8.6, yet 148 of the 5,793 written reviews looked at call it overrated, giving it a rate of 2.55%.

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt comes eighth at 2.16%, while Black Mirror ranks ninth at 2.15%. Turkish drama Ethos rounds out the top ten, with 2.14% of its reviews mentioning the term.

The most underrated Netflix original TV shows

The study also looked at the other side of viewer opinion, revealing the programs audiences believe deserve more recognition.

Rank	TV show	IMDb rating	Reviews analyzed	Reviews mentioning “underrated”	Percentage
1	Everything Sucks!	7.4	157	7	4.46%
2	The Last Kingdom	8.5	1,703	71	4.17%
3	Marco Polo	7.9	407	15	3.69%
4	The 8 Show	7.2	178	6	3.37%
5	Cassandra	6.7	178	5	2.81%
6	3%	7.2	252	7	2.78%
7	American Vandal	8.1	157	4	2.55%
8	El Chapo	7.8	119	3	2.52%
9	Arrested Development	8.6	533	13	2.44%
10	Friends from College	6.9	307	7	2.28%

At the opposite end of the spectrum, Everything Sucks! is the Netflix show viewers are most likely to call underrated. Seven of the 157 IMDb reviews looked at use the word, giving the series an underrated rate of 4.46%.

While the raw number of mentions is relatively small, the ranking accounts for the total number of written reviews each show received, meaning the term appears more frequently among reviews for Everything Sucks! than for any of the other 249 series studied.

The Last Kingdom takes second place with 4.17%, and its result stands out because of the much larger sample of reviews. The historical series received 71 “underrated” reviews out of 1,703 looked at, by far the highest number of matching reviews among the top ten. It also carries an 8.5 IMDb rating.

Marco Polo ranks third, with 15 of 407 reviews calling the program underrated, equivalent to 3.69%. It is followed by The 8 Show at 3.37% and Cassandra at 2.81%.

Brazilian series 3% places sixth, with 2.78% of reviews describing it as underrated. American Vandal follows at 2.55%, while El Chapo takes eighth place at 2.52%.

One of the more surprising names near the top is Arrested Development, which ranks ninth despite having an IMDb score of 8.6 and more than 344,000 ratings. Thirteen of the 533 written reviews looked at describe the show as underrated, giving it a rate of 2.44%.

Friends from College completes the top ten at 2.28%, with seven of its 307 reviews containing the word “underrated”.

A spokesperson for Sudoku Bliss said: “Calling a show overrated does not necessarily mean people think it is bad. Some of the programs at the top of the ranking have excellent IMDb scores, but they have also attracted huge amounts of attention, which naturally creates bigger expectations.

“Money Heist, Squid Game and Stranger Things have all generated a lot of discussion among viewers, so it is interesting to see that they also have some of the highest proportions of people questioning whether the hype is justified.

“The underrated ranking tells a slightly different story. Some of these shows have strong ratings but still have viewers arguing that they deserved more attention. The Last Kingdom is a particularly interesting example because it has both a high IMDb rating and a relatively large number of reviews explicitly describing it as underrated.

“Ultimately, what people consider overrated or underrated is very subjective, but looking directly at the language viewers use in their reviews gives us another way of seeing which shows have perhaps received too much attention, and which ones audiences feel have been overlooked.”