Update: This canceled show just flew into the Netflix top 10
We’re at the point in the month where Netflix drops a bunch of new content, including The Umbrella Academy Season 3 and a bunch of classic Nickelodeon shows. Among them is You Don’t Know Me, a BBC crime drama that just rushed its way into Netflix’s Top 10 list.
You Don’t Know Me arrived on Netflix on June 17, after premiering in the U.K. last December. It joins the likes of the Iron Chef reboot (No. 5), Peaky Blinders (No. 7), the surprisingly successful God’s Favorite Idiot (No. 3) and the never-ending dominance of Strangers Things 4 (No. 1).
What is You Don’t Know Me?
You Don’t Know Me is a crime drama, based on Imran Mahmood’s 2017 novel of the same name. The show follows Hero (Samuel Adewunmi), a man from South London on trial for the murder of a local drug dealer.
All the evidence points to Hero being guilty, but Hero maintains that the story painted by the evidence isn’t representative of what actually happened. So ignoring the advice of his lawyer, Hero uses his closing remarks to tell the story in full. A story that goes back two years, when he first met his girlfriend Kyra (Sophie Wilde).
We won’t go into further detail, otherwise we’d be getting into spoiler territory. Needless to say Hero faces opposition as he spins his tale, with prosecutors adamantly insisting that he’s lying and misrepresenting the facts.
There are four episodes of You Don’t Know Me, all clocking in under an hour. They originally aired on BBC One between December 5 and December 13 last year, and are available to binge on Netflix right now. U.K. viewers can also watch all four episodes on BBC iPlayer.
What do critics think of You Don’t Know Me?
You Don’t Know Me doesn’t have a score on Rotten Tomatoes, though it has a 6.9/10 rating on IMDB — based on over 2.5K individual ratings.
The Guardian’s Rebecca Nicholson gave the show 3/5 stars. Nicholson likened You Don’t Know Me to an audiobook, rather than a TV series, on account of Hero talking so much throughout. She concludes that the show “doesn’t quite bridge the gap between the stylistic devices that work in a novel and what feels authentic on screen. But it does lay a trail of promise as it starts to wake up.” Provided the viewers (and the Jury) don’t quit due to impatience.
Abby Robinson, from Radio Times, gave the show a more positive spin with 4/5 stars. Robinson calls the show a “compelling, well-executed piece of telly that is deserving of your attention,” and deserving of its original prime-time Sunday evening TV slot. Since the show is both a crime series and a love story, Robinson notes that you get the best of both worlds — and how anyone can find their life turned upside down without warning.
Decider declared you should "stream it" rather than skip it. It notes that if the courtroom section of the story “won’t set your teeth on edge, then you should enjoy the performances plus the story itself.” But it is quite hard to get past the courtroom sequences. I’m sensing a bit of a pattern here.
Outlook: Should You Watch You Don’t Know Me?
If you like courtroom drama, and you like audiobooks, then You Don’t Know Me may be worth checking out. If you’re not fond of talking and narration in your TV series, then it might be one to avoid unless you’re really stuck for something to watch.
Then again You Don’t Know Me is only four episodes long, and there’s no harm in checking out the first episode. That way you can decide whether the ongoing story is compelling enough to continue, or if you should cut your losses and find something else to stream.
There’s plenty of stuff available on Netflix right now, and a lot of it is new. We have The Umbrella Academy’s third season, one of the most underrated Spider-Man movies, IT Chapter One, and the Chris Hemsworth-led Spiderhead — a movie that remains in the top 10 despite poor ratings from critics and audiences alike
Read next: Say hello to our little friend — Scarface is hitting Netflix in September, but have you ever wondered why the top movies on Netflix are often so bad?
