Just because a show has jumped into the Netflix top 10 doesn’t necessarily mean it’s good. Netflix’s newest teen comedy — Boo, Bitch — may be sitting in the No. 5 slot, but it’s been getting absolutely mauled by the critics.
Boo, Bitch is not your typical high school comedy, and has a supernatural slant to try and make things interesting. The show’s place in the Netflix Top 10 means it joins the likes of Stranger Things 4, which continues to dominate, Umbrella Academy season 3 and Alone. Also there is CW’s The Flash, which raced into the top 10 list over the weekend.
What is Boo, Bitch about?
Boo, Bitch is a supernatural teen comedy following Erika (Lana Condor), who finds herself stuck as a ghost following her first real high-school party. She ended up that way after an encounter with a Moose, which is not that surprising. Those horned monsters are huge, and I wouldn’t want to encounter one at night.
Both Erika and her “still-living" friend Gia (Zoe Margaret Colletti) realize this is an opportunity to be “seen” and stop being so painfully invisible in the final weeks of senior year. Which is made possible by the fact Erika isn’t a ghost in the traditional sense. She still walks, talks, goes to the bathroom and can’t walk through walls.
It’s enough to make you doubt the whole supernatural premise of the show, and you’ll have to tune in to see if Erika is actually dead or if she’s some sort of bizarre solid ghost.
What do the critics think about Boo, Bitch?
Boo, Bitch is currently rocking a 54% score on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 13 critical reviews, and a 64% audience score based on 25 user ratings, The show also has a pretty low 5.4 out of 10 score on IMDB, based on 640 ratings.
Adrian Horton at The Guardian notes that Boo, Bitch starts off strong and has its sharp moments. But unfortunately it “devolves into nonsense” pretty quickly. Horton found that this all started wearing thin by the second half of the season, adding to the show “a deflating plot twist, [which] poorly invokes a cringy charade of TikTok fandom, and turns Erika into a power-hungry monster.”
Caroline Framke from Variety noted that “There’s something missing from “Boo, Bitch” that keeps it from being quite as effective as it could be, despite its game stars’ best efforts to fill in the gaps.” Meanwhile Laura Bradley from The Daily Beast concluded that “All I know is that by the end of Boo, Bitch, a deeply distressing kind of angst had taken hold…”
Of course, a 54% score means there is some positive reception to be had. Karama Horne at TheWrap said that “Beneath its glossy veneer, “Boo, Bitch” is a fun, poignant look at love, life and grief.” Angie Han at The Hollywood Reporter shared concerns about the show’s devolution but noted that Boo, Bitch is “heartfelt enough to be kind of fun, [the] early episodes make a poor case for sticking around long enough to find out.”
Outlook: Should you watch Boo, Bitch?
Boo, Bitch seems to have picked up some very mixed reception, so me telling you whether it’s worth watching or not is a difficult prospect. What I can say is that if you’re not a fan of teen drama, or irreverent high school comedy, this will not be the show for you.
Other than that the best course of action is to watch the first couple of episodes and see whether it hooks you in. By most accounts it seems as though the first half of the season is Boo, Bitch’s strongest. So if that doesn’t appeal to you, then it’s pretty likely that you’ll enjoy the latter half even less.
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