Let’s address the elephant in the room for just a moment, folks; everybody, in the most literal sense of the term, has a Netflix special. Ten years from now, Netflix specials are going to replace Social Security Numbers, and each person will have their Netflix special grafted to their mortal essence upon uttering their first word on this planet.
To that point, Matt Rife‘s latest Netflix special Lucid is simply the prototype for all of this, because the special belongs to his crowd in equal measure as it does to him (for context, Lucid consists purely of crowd work, a comedic strategy whereby the comedian asks the audience personal questions so that they can come up with on-the-fly jokes). Props to Rife for playing to his strengths, regardless of how the event has unfurled with critics (at the time of writing, Rotten Tomatoes is playing host to a 50% audience approval rating, along with a pair of critic reviews that both came in rotten). The truth is it was never going to stand a chance against one of Netflix’s trustiest weapons; the thoroughly shoddy rom-com.
And if that wasn’t enough to rocket The Other Woman — the thoroughly shoddy rom-com in question — above Rife’s crowd work special, then the involvement of the one and only Cameron Diaz certainly sealed the deal.
Per FlixPatrol, The Other Woman has skipped up the Netflix worldwide film rankings to fifth place on this day of Aug. 20, leaving Rife in the dust at eighth place. It’s not hard to see why; a 26% critic approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes starring Shrek’s wife as one of three women who figure out that they’re all dating the same douchebag and team up to take revenge on him? That, ladies and gentlemen, is undiluted Netflix viewership mileage, hot and ready out of the tar pits.
The Other Woman isn’t without its superiors either, though; Mark Wahlberg and Halle Berry continue to sit at the top courtesy of The Union, the Kingsman franchise is shoring up the rest of the podium with The Secret Service and The Golden Circle, and John Cena‘s voice anchors fourth place with help from the rest of Ferdinand‘s animated critters.