Netflix has released hit after hit, but even its top-performing titles aren’t safe from critics and viewers. After dethroning The Sandman as the No. 1 title on the platform and cementing its place at the top of the streaming charts, Netflix’s new Michelle Monaghan-starring mystery limited series Echoes isn’t earning much fanfare from critics and subscribers, who are ripping the show apart.
Premiering on Netflix on Friday, Aug. 19, Echoes is a mystery thriller that centers around identical twins Leni and Gina, who share a dangerous secret. Since they were children, the sisters have swapped lives, culminating in a double life as adults where they “share two homes, two husbands, and a child – but everything in their perfectly choreographed world is thrown into disarray when one of the sisters goes missing.” Along with Monoghan, the English-language series stars Matt Bomer, Daniel Sunjata, Ali Stroker, Karen Robinson, Rosanny Zayas, Michael O’Neill, Celia Weston, Gable Swanlund, and Jonathan Tucker.
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Although Echoes has earned plenty of success within its first days of streaming, it has failed to earn any fanfare, with both critics and viewers seeming to agree that Echoes may not be worth a stream. The film is currently certified rotten on both fronts on Rotten Tomatoes, where the audience has given Echoes just a 43% rating with reviews like, “Abysmal to say the least” and “very painful to watch.” Unfortunately, Echoes hasn’t fared any better with critics, who have given the show a 28% score and a consensus reading, “double the Michelle Monaghan should be a winning proposition, but Echoes is a resounding misfire whose promise grows fainter with each silly twist.”
Writing for The Guardian, Adrian Horton warned that Echoes “commits one of the true sins of peak TV, which is to be boring.” Meanwhile, Decider dubbed Echoes “without question one of the most messy and confusing shows we’ve seen in awhile.” Brian Lowry’s review for CNN wasn’t better, reading, “for all its contortionist-worthy twists and turns, Echoes begins looking like an enticing plunge and doesn’t quite pull itself out of the shallow end of that gene pool.”
Despite those poor critic and fan reviews, Echoes‘ success cannot be denied. Just a day after its debut, Echoes jumped onto the streaming chart in the U.S., soon dethroning The Sandman as the No. 1 title globally. According to Netflix’s global streaming data, within the first full week of its debut, the series, executive produced by 13 Reasons Why‘s Brian Yorkey, logged 68.5M hours viewed, as compared to The Sandman‘s 53.8 million hours in the same period. Those numbers made Echoes the most-viewed title on Netflix during the Aug. 22-28 viewing window. Echoes is created by Australian TV creator Vanessa Gazy and is available for streaming on Netflix.
