Why Netflix's Below Broke Records with Stephen King Vibes

Something eerie washed ashore in Newfoundland and Netflix just noticed. Below, a new supernatural miniseries that landed on the platform on October 8, grabbed attention fast — not with subtlety, but with a kind of small-town dread that feels ripped from late-night Stephen King pages.

Set in the windswept bay of Snooks Arm, the story follows fisherman Calvin Penny, played by Josh Hartnett, who finds his quiet life overturned when a mysterious creature rises from the depths. The series comes from Jesse McKeown, who has ties to The Umbrella Academy, and assembles a strong ensemble including Charlie Heaton, Mackenzie Davis, Rohan Campbell, Ruby Stokes, and Caleb Horne. Critics have been reaching for comparisons to both H.P. Lovecraft and Stephen King — and at least so far, audiences seem to agree: Rotten Tomatoes sits at a healthy 84 percent.

Numbers tell the rest of the story. Below pulled in 17 million viewers and amassed 69.3 million hours watched in its first week on Netflix's English-language chart for October 5 to 11. It recorded the biggest debut ever for a Canadian Netflix original series. That milestone feels especially loud considering the fierce competition — shows migrating from other platforms like Percy Jackson and the Olympians from Disney Plus and Mayor of Kingstown from Paramount Plus were also climbing Netflix's charts that same week.

And Netflix's own slate was no walk in the park. The platform still had the John Steinbeck adaptation East of Eden hanging tough in its second week; Ryan Murphy's true-crime Monster, focused on Lizzie Borden, was in its fourth; and the revamped A Different World lingered in week three. Yet Below rose to the top, cutting through the noise with its maritime atmosphere and slow-burn menace.

The Canadian connection matters. Netflix has seen recent homegrown hits — teen comedy Crew Girl doubled its viewership in week two and earned an early renewal — but a record-setting opening for a Canadian original is rare. Even more intriguing: the reported audience tally covers only four of the seven days in the tracking window, since Below premiered mid-week. That suggests the series could easily exceed 30 million viewers in week two and hold onto the top spot.

Will it? The calendar is about to get crowded. Highly anticipated entries such as Hollywood Arts, a Victorious spinoff, and the fourth season of The Diplomat are scheduled for October 15, and they could make it harder for Below to sustain its lead. Still, momentum is momentum. If audiences keep showing up in numbers like this, a second season seems likely.

For viewers chasing chills and character-driven horror, Below offers a compact, intense ride: a seaside town, a desperate father, and something ancient pulling at the edges. Want to see what everyone is talking about? Tune in and decide whether the series earns its Kingly comparisons — or if it carves out its own brand of deep-sea dread.