The Survivors #2 on Netflix NZ

Australian drama The Survivors, which stars Kiwis Robyn Malcolm and Miriama Smith, has debuted in fourth place on Netflix’s Global Top 10 English TV Shows list.

It’s also landed in the top 10 of 76 countries, including Top 5 in the UK, Germany and France. “Since its release last Friday, the series has gained 5.3 million views,” Netflix reports.

In NZ, it’s the streamer’s #2-rated show of the week.

Filmed across Tasmania and in Melbourne’s Dockland Studios, The Survivors stars newcomers Charlie Vickers and Yerin Ha as a young couple who are visited by ghosts of their past when they return to their childhood hometown.

Billed as “a thrilling whodunit – with an intensely emotional core”, the six-part series is based on Jane Harper’s novel and was produced by Tony Ayres Productions (Fires, Clickbait, Stateless).

“I often describe the show as a Trojan horse,” Ayres says. “It’s a family melodrama disguised as a murder mystery.

“Because the things that are really at its heart are things like a son wanting his mother’s love and the mother who just cannot afford to give it because her whole world might fall apart.”

Early reviews have acclaimed the series, ranging from “a murder mystery so intense you’ll watch through your fingers” (The Guardian) to “taken as a pure whodunnit, it ticks all the boxes; it’d be a first-rate drama if only [the characters] seemed likeable” (ScreenHub).