Netflix Revives a 72-Year-Old Classic, and Rotten Tomatoes Can’t Decide
Netflix keeps raiding the literary canon, from last year’s fresh spin on Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein to the Oscar-winning All Quiet on the Western Front — and it isn’t done yet.
Netflix is on a real classics kick, and the latest one to hit the U.S. service is the BBC's new Lord of the Flies. It premiered overseas earlier this year; now it's finally on Netflix here, which means way more people are weighing in. And yeah, the reactions are split — but in a twist, critics are the ones cheering while a chunk of the audience is grumbling.
Netflix keeps digging up the canon
- Last year: a fresh take on Mary Shelley's Frankenstein
- Four years ago: the Oscar- anointed All Quiet on the Western Front, adapted from Erich Maria Remarque's 98-year-old novel
- Last week: Netflix confirmed its new Chronicles of Narnia push, starting with the first-in-chronology book, 1955's The Magician's Nephew
Lord of the Flies hits Netflix U.S.
This one's a BBC-produced series based on William Golding's novel. It bowed internationally earlier in the year and has now landed on Netflix in the States. That rollout shift usually means a second wave of attention — and scrutiny.
Critics are into it
As of right now, with 38 critic reviews logged, the show is sitting at a 95% on Rotten Tomatoes and carries the Certified Fresh badge. There are several perfect-score raves in the mix: a 10/10 from FandomWire and 5/5 grades from The Daily Telegraph, The Daily Mail, and iNews UK.
"This Lord of the Flies is wholly its own thing, as audacious and yet devoted to its source material as any TV adaptation in recent memory," The Hollywood Reporter writes.
Other outlets are just as bullish. The Daily Beast calls it a powerhouse that actually does right by the book, and RogerEbert.com says the show sweats the small, rich details instead of only chasing big moments.
Audiences? Mixed, and not quiet about it
On Rotten Tomatoes' audience side, the Popcornmeter is a lukewarm 57%. Some of the negative comments are the usual modern-adaptation gripes, including a handful fixated on the presence of non-white actors rather than the show itself. Sample takes: "Race-swapped, slop, propaganda" and "Terrible woke trash... This pathetic monstrosity should never have been allowed." There's also the more generic "Really bad adaptation, can't understand the positive reviews. This was awful."
To be fair, a portion of the pushback is more specific. One half-star review complains about pacing, score, and showy camerawork: "I love the original book, but this is so slow-moving, with horrendous music. The camera angles seem designed to show what a clever person the director is, without adding to viewer enjoyment. Hated it."
The bigger trend
We've seen this split a lot lately: critics raving while certain corners of the audience revolt (or vice versa). The recent Michael Jackson movie, even The Super Mario Galaxy Movie — same story. The only surprising part this time is that the flashpoint is Lord of the Flies, a book everyone was forced to read in school. If you want to see what the fuss is about, it's on Netflix now — and the critical consensus suggests it's not your dusty English-class retread.