Science Fiction and "True Crime" Stole the Show on Netflix in 2017

Whether it featured murdered nuns, phallic drawings, or dystopian favoritism, Netflix users binged some pretty dark content in 2017.

On Monday, Netflix released “a look back at the shows we watched (and watched again) that defined our year.” Dividing its available shows into four different lists, the streaming service revealed the most-binged and most-savored series of 2017, as well as the shows people “shamelessly watched ahead” of their significant others and watched together as a family.

A show fell into the “devoured” category when users commonly watched “more than two hours per day” of that show’s first season, which typically resulted in fans ripping their way through the first season and then (most likely) begging for another. And while Netflix never releases numbers or statistics about its service, it did let the world in on the most-binged first seasons this year.

Keep in mind that this list doesn’t include shows in their second season, which is why the ultimate binge-worthy show on Netflix, Stranger Things, isn’t included. Netflix Media Relations Manager Erin Dwyer told Inverse that, while Stranger Things wasn’t a contender this year, the series “most certainly would fall on the devour side of the scale,” meaning people ripped their way through the first season like Eleven through some demodogs.

Here are Netflix’s top 10 binged television shows of 2017:

American Vandal

3%

13 Reasons Why

Anne with an E

Riverdale

Ingobernable

Travelers

The Keepers

The OA

The Confession Tapes

As you can see, this list focuses heavily on both science fiction and “whodunit” capers, some of which veer into true crime territory.

Netflix morphed into the king of true crime after the surprise success of 2015’s Making a Murderer. It turns out people really like documentary-style murder mysteries. In fact, true crime got so popular on Netflix that the streaming service created American Vandal, a true crime parody series that features at the top of this list.

American Vandal tells the story of a high school in the aftermath of a horrific and pretty funny event that saw someone spraypaint 27 faculty members’ cars with penis drawings. It’s just as ridiculous as it sounds, but that combination of “true crime” and humor clearly struck a nerve with bingers, since it’s at the top of this list.

Meanwhile, the popularity of shows such as 3% (a dystopian nightmare where only the smartest 3 percent of the human population is allowed to live outside of poverty and desolation), Travelers (a show about time travelers fighting to save humanity), and The OA (an elemental show about a formerly blind woman who returns after a 7-year disappearance with a new name and her sight) prove that science fiction is constantly adapting. In a world where Star Wars breaks box office records 40 years after the first film premiered in theaters, Netflix users are proving the sci-fi genre’s lasting popularity.

Check out Netflix’s full list here.