Way back in 2011 (impossibly long ago in TV years, given how the streaming era has shaken things up), there premiered on the lesser cable network FX a weird little show called American Horror Story. A sharp left turn for the creators of Glee (Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan), its ads foregrounded mystery and a skinny guy in leather fetish wear. It hardly seemed like a huge hit in the making, so of course that 12-episode first season went on to win awards and launch a franchise that’s still going strong a decade later.
American Horror Story’s monster success (no pun intended) is the kind of rare event that keeps television executives on their toes—the fact that we can all still be surprised by the success of a show means that they haven’t figured out the secret formula just yet. In American Horror Story’s case, that included lots of blood, kinky sex, and Dylan McDermott cry-masturbating, but those are hardly universal themes, which means Hollywood has had to keep throwing stuff at the wall to see what (unexpectedly) sticks. With that in mind, here are 13 inexplicable TV hits from recent decades.
Wednesday (2022 – )
People really liked Wednesday. The series, from Smallville masterminds Alfred Gough & Miles Millar (with a bit of help from executive producer Tim Burton, who directed several episodes) was been a massive, record-breaking hit for Netflix. No joke: Stranger Things 4 once held the crown for first-week hours viewed with an astonishing 335 million. Wednesday came in 341.2. Who saw that coming? Given Burton’s involvement, there was never any reason to believe that the show wouldn’t be at least a modest success, but I’d never have guessed that it would do all-time great streaming business. (We can probably credit TikTok for a lot of it.)
Where to stream: Netflix (sign up here)
Stranger Things (2016 –, five seasons planned)
Who the hell are the Duffer Brothers? Before Netflix threw money at them for Stranger Things, the twins had a well-regarded, but little seen indy horror movie under their belts, as well as having written several episodes of Wayward Pines, a two-season Fox series that you might have heard of but probably didn’t watch. The cast was made up almost entirely of unknowns or supporting players, with only Winona Ryder to supply anything resembling star power. Had Stranger Things been a failure, this might have seemed like yet another case of relatively inexperienced white guys getting an unreasonable amount of leeway in the entertainment industry...but it’s hard to argue with the results. Each season of the show has topped Netflix’s viewership charts; the cast have become stars, Dungeons & Dragons became cool again, and David Harbour became the sex symbol we didn’t know we so desperately needed.
Where to stream: Netflix (sign up here)
American Horror Story (2011 – , 12 seasons so far)
As noted, even after the first season of American Horror Story became a water cooler success in 2011 (thanks largely to that gimp suit), no one would have guessed the show would still be going strong a dozen years later. It has remained a success largely through its ability to reinvent itself from season to season—and along the way, to attract a truly wild roster of stars, among them the likes of Lady Gaga, Macauly Culkin, Joan Rivers, and—coming soon in American Horror Story: Delicate!—Kim Kardashian. Wild.
Where to stream: Hulu (sign up here), Prime Video (sign up here)
Glee (2009 — 2015)
Glee was such an omnipresent cultural phenomenon in the early twenty-teens, it’s hard to remember how unlikely its success was. Musicals on television had always been a hard sell (Cop Rock is still infamous for a reason), and a series about show choir seemed to have a target audience of about 100 people (all of whom I was friends with in high school). Yet the instincts of series co-creators Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan proved correct: at heart it’s a show about feeling like an outcast and finally finding your tribe, which is something everyone can relate to. Or so it would seem: Though its later seasons were marked by conflict and unspeakable tragedy, for a time, Glee was the most popular show on the planet in terms of brand awareness and revenue generated, launching dozens of hit singles in the form of the casts countless cover songs and selling out a massive touring live show (or so claimed Murphy in a recent podcast interview, which is really worth a listen if you ever called yourself a Gleek.)
Where to stream: Hulu (sign up here), Disney+ (sign up here)
Dahmer—Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story (2022)
Still speaking of Ryan Murphy, the prolific creator’s justifiably controversial docudrama was briefly Netflix’s second highest-viewed show in English ever. following its premiere in 2022. Given Murphy’s track record, it’s not entirely surprising that the show was a success, but I’m not sure that anyone could have predicted that the awkwardly titled serial killer story would be such a towering hit for Netflix. Though it makes an effort to tease out the social inequalities that Dahmer was able to exploit to continue finding victims even as neighbors and community members voiced suspicions about his behavior, Ryan’s heightened style and fascination with the killer can’t help but feel exploitative. Yet somehow those debates seem to have helped, rather than hindered the show.
Where to stream: Netflix (sign up here)
Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon (2011 – )
More than a decade later, it sounds ridiculous to suggest the success of Game of Thrones might have been a surprise—the show became not just a money-maker for HBO, but a pop culture phenomenon; even the poorly received finale was on everyone’s minds, both before and after. HBO was clearly banking on Lord of the Rings-style crossover appeal, so there was a bit of precedent, but the series on which it was based remains a dense brick of door-stopper fantasy, each book running close to (or a bit over) a thousand pages. Author George R.R. Martin was justifiably well known among fantasy fans, but these weren’t the kind of books that people were discussing around the office water cooler.
And yet! The show started strong, if not spectacularly, and grew into a viewership powerhouse over the course of its first season, and only increased in popularity from there. Even after that (generally) maligned finale, the spin-off House of the Dragon blew away the premiere of its predecessor in terms of numbers, doing business that puts it in line with that earlier shows peak—probably not a huge surprise, but the discourse around Game of Thrones had been all about its disappointing ending, so the spin-off wasn’t exactly a sure thing. It even outperformed Prime Video’s super pricey Lord of the Rings series, at least in terms of buzz.
Where to stream: Max (sign up here)
The Taylor Sheridan-Verse (Yellowstone, Tulsa King, Mayor of Kingstown, et al)
I hadn’t even heard of Tulsa King before learning that the series, from Yellowstone co-creator Taylor Sheridan and Boardwalk Empire’s Terrence Winter, debuted as the number one new show of 2022, beating out even House of the Dragon. Considering the source, I probably shouldn’t have been too surprised—but then, no one really saw the outsized popularity of the Taylor Sheridan-verse coming.
The creator’s shows are some of the biggest hits on TV right now—chief among them Yellowstone, but also its spinoffs 1883 and 1923, and the Jeremy Renner-starring Mayor of Kingstown—but also the least talked about by the entertainment journalists and professional recappers whose blogs, tweets, and online commentary can make a show feel like a phenomenon. Sheridan’s series come by their success the old fashioned way: by attracting millions of eyeballs. In 2023, that’s as surprising as anything.
Where to stream: Paramount+ With Showtime (sign up here)
Yellowjackets (2021 – )
This time-jumping survival drama is sort of the opposite of Yellowstone: It’s a show way more people are talking about (at least, people who write for places like our sister site, Mashable) than actually watching. But if this show, which is about both a group of teenage girls becoming stranded in the wilderness and doing terrible things to survive and about what happens to them decades later, isn’t a ratings blockbuster on the level of the other series with “yellow” in its name, it seemed to come out of nowhere to capture the online zeitgeist—particularly during the recently wrapped second season.
Where to stream: Paramount+ With Showtime (sign up here)
The White Lotus (2021 – )
Writer/director/actor (and Amazing Race/Survivor all-star, oddly enough) Mike White has been responsible for a bunch of great TV, but mostly shows that have been more critically acclaimed than widely viewed (HBO’s Enlightened being a perfect example). That’s changed with The White Lotus, a dark satire that’s been a surprising breakout hit for HBO and HBO Max. On the one hand, American viewers love capitalism and we like to imagine ourselves as among the wealthy and elite—a strike against the deeply cynical show. But! On the other hand, we still enjoy seeing rich people taken down a peg. Whatever the reason, what might have been another cult-favorite from White has been been a buzzy hit that’s already been renewed for a third season.
Where to stream: Max (sign up here)
Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (2018 – 2020)
A stylish and often very darkly funny teen soap opera, this Sabrina took a very different spin on the character than did the ‘90s sitcom (and certainly the wholesome classic comics). While not quite a monster hit at Netflix, the show did very well among viewers and critics—the streamer releases more viewership data now than it did a couple of years ago, but data indicates that the show was one of Netflix’s most popular binge watches, and paired very well with Riverdale, the kinda/sorta companion series imported from the CW. Though the series was cancelled after four short seasons (or two longer ones, depending on how you’re counting), it seems to be the case that pandemic-related delays and struggles had more to do with the abrupt ending than anything related to ratings.
Where to stream: Netflix (sign up here)
Squid Game (2021 – )
Why wouldn’t a South Korean survival drama/social satire do well with international audiences? Americans are known, of course, for their love of subtitled foreign television shows with strong anti-capitalist themes. Cough cough.
The global popularity of K-Drama (and K-Pop) has been building for a decade or so, but still somewhat niche in North America—a genre that appealed more to teens and college kids than to their parents. Squid Game blew those barriers to shreds, drawing broad audiences and opening the door for a number of other imports (from Korea and elsewhere) that have broadened Netflix’s scope dramatically.
Where to stream: Netflix (sign up here)
Vikings (2013 – 2020)
Like many “streaming” shows, Vikings’ origins are a bit more complicated—an original production of Canada’s History channel, the series was streamable in the United States before being picked up by Prime Video for its final season, while Netflix is the original network for the spin-off, Valhalla. So, a channel that most Americans have likely never heard of crafted a show about semi-legendary Viking leader Ragnar Lothbrok at the start of the age of raiding that began at Lindisfarne raid in 793. Certainly there’s action/dramatic potential in Viking narratives, but there was never any reason to believe that a budget-conscious historical drama would be an international hit—and yet, almost ten years later, the six season series has given way to a successor show entering its second season early next year.
Where to stream: Prime Video (sign up here), Hulu (sign up here), Peacock (sign up here)
Cobra Kai (2018 – )
As a kid, I was obsessed with the Karate Kid movies. When I heard news of a revival TV series (premiering on “YouTube Red” of all things), I was interested...but without particularly high hopes. Returning leads William Zabka and Ralph Macchio weren’t quite marquee names, and the whole thing sounded like a nostalgia cash-in that would certainly never go beyond a single season. And yet here we are, five seasons (and counting?) later, with the show continuing to be a consistently strong player following its move to Netflix in season three. Shifting the focus from Daniel LaRusso to sometimes-villain Johnny Lawrence, the show has smartly blended nostalgia with teen soap opera and a self-aware sense of humor about the ridiculousness of these ongoing karate wars. It’s a show that 2020s teens can watch while visiting erstwhile ‘80s kids at the home.
Where to stream: Netflix (sign up here)
This post was originally published in December 2022 and updated in July 2023 to add American Horror Story, Yellowjackets, and Yellowstone.