Netflix’s new hit British show ‘Bodyguard’ has 100% on Rotten Tomatoes

Netflix

• “Bodyguard” is the latest hit British TV series Netflix is
  streaming outside of the UK.
• The show stars “Game of Thrones” actor Richard Madden and has
  a 100% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes.
• Netflix regularly works with international production
  companies to nab global distribution rights, and has acquired a
  number of other British shows, including “The End of the F—ing
  World.”
• It’s a strategy that works for Netflix and British television
  networks: the shows are introduced to a wider audience, and they
  can reel in potential subscribers.

Netflix has added to its impressive catalog of British TV series
with “Bodyguard,” a new thriller starring “Game of Thrones” alum
Richard Madden and “Peaky Blinders” actress Sophie Rundle.

The series debuted on the streaming giant on October 24 and has a
100% Rotten Tomatoes critic
score as of Monday. Netflix describes the series this way:
“After helping thwart a terrorist attack, a war veteran is
assigned to protect a politician who was a main proponent of the
very conflict he fought in.”

Indiewire called it “a
gripping and thoroughly entertaining adventure that’s emotionally
deft.” The Hollywood Reporter said
it’s “six-plus hours of pulse-pounding action and brain-bending
twists.”

The show originally premiered on the UK’s BBC network in
late August and grabbed viewers with its twists and turns. It’s
the latest British series to be streamed outside of the UK by
Netflix, which regularly works with international production
companies to acquire global distribution rights, according to
Deadline, which first reported
the “Bodyguard” deal in September.

Other British shows that Netflix has acquired
include cult hit “The Frankenstein
Chronicles,” which stars another former “Game of Thrones”
actor, Sean Bean; “Collateral,” starring Carey Mulligan;
“Wanderlust,” starring Toni Collette; and “The End of the F—ing
World,” which Netflix recently renewed for a second
season.

It’s a strategy that has worked in both Netflix and UK
networks’ favor, as Netflix is able to introduce the shows to a
wider audience. Some series don’t manage to grab audiences in the
UK, but once streamed on Netflix, shows like BBC’s “The Last
Kingdom” found success. Its third season debuts November
19.

“The first season didn’t break through on BBC America, but
it did on Netflix in the US,” executive producer Gareth
Neame told The Guardian in April. “Their
mission seems to be to back storytellers and let them get on with
it.”

And hidden gems are just as integral to Netflix’s business
strategy as its massive hits like “Stranger Things.”

“While it might be inconceivable for an old-style network
to greenlight a series that appeals to 0.5% of its viewers, for
Netflix, if that series is the reason that 0.5% choose to
subscribe, that is enough to justify it,” said Joshua Gans, an
Australian economist, in the Harvard Business
Review last year (via The Guardian).