Netflix’s New 9-Part Crime Series With Perfect Rotten Tomatoes Score Is An Instant Global Streaming Smash

Netflix’s 2026 TV shows so far have found success across a wide range of genres. However, the streaming service’s roster of crime series stands out as one of the most popular corners of Netflix. For instance, both Jon Bernthal’s His & Hers and the adaptation of Harlan Coben’s Run Away found their way to the top of the streamer’s charts early this year.

Besides both of them being dark crime series planned for only one season, the two shows are also adaptations of successful novels. Netflix knows the value in that, with some of the streamer’s most-watched shows, like Bridgerton, being based on best-selling novels. Now, the streaming service’s new global hit follows that same path, as Joe Nesbø’s Detective Hole quickly climbs Netflix’s charts.

According to FlixPatrol, Joe Nesbø’s Detective Hole is currently the 2nd most-watched TV show on Netflix worldwide. The crime thriller series leaves behind Netflix hits like Virgin River and Homicide, as well as the new suspenseful show Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen, which is produced by Stranger Things‘ The Duffer Brothers. Detective Hole arrived on Netflix on March 26.

As it is almost leading Netflix globally just a day after being released on the streamer, there is no doubt that Joe Nesbø’s Detective Hole has instantly become one of the streamer’s biggest 2026 releases. The 9-part crime thriller series only loses in Netflix’s global rankings to the live-action One Piece, which recently returned with its second season.

Detective Hole is based on Jo Nesbø’s Harry Hole novels, with season 1 of the Netflix series focusing on the franchise’s fifth book, The Devil’s Star. Nesbø also serves as the showrunner of the series, ensuring that his vision for the project makes it to the screen. That is a major change in relation to the Michael Fassbender movie The Snowman.

Based on the seventh Harry Hole book, the 2017 psychological thriller was not written by Nesbø, subsequently bombing at the box office with just $43.1 million against a $35 million budget. That Snowman has an abysmal 7% critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes. Now, with the author’s creative input, Netflix’s Joe Nesbø’s Detective Hole debuted to a rare perfect 100% critics’ score.

Tobias Santelmann (The Last Kingdom) gives life to Harry Hole in the Netflix series, with Joel Kinnaman (The Suicide Squad) playing the corrupt Tom Waaler, Hole’s colleague. The story revolves around Hole’s search for a serial killer while having to deal with Waaler’s unpredictable moves. At this time, the Norwegian thriller is the 6th most-watched Netflix series in the United States. Detective Hole season 2 has yet to be announced.