Norwegian disaster series La Palma has exploded onto Netflix’s Top 10 TV show charts and has become the most-watched series this week. That means it’s been more popular than new black comedy No Good Deed, which came in at a close second.
In La Palma, a Norwegian family on vacation in the Canary Islands face danger when a young researcher spots worrying signs of an incoming volcanic eruption that could cause the largest tsunami the world has ever seen.
Although La Palma is currently the number one show on the best streaming service, it doesn’t make it onto our best Netflix shows list. Indeed, it’s actually pretty terrible, with its low 35% Rotten Tomatoes score proving as much. One reviewer even wrote: “This series is dreadful, unrealistic to the point of farce. You don’t care about the characters and there’s no reason to as they are indestructible.” Ouch! So, if La Palma similarly failed to impress you, here are three better disaster thrillers with over 80% on Rotten Tomatoes to watch instead.
Katla
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- RT score: 100%
- Age rating: TV-MA
- Length: ~45 minute episodes
- Creators: Baltasar Kormákur and Sigurjón Kjartansson
Katla is an Icelandic series set in the small town of Vik, a community in the shadow of the sub-glacial volcano Katla. One year after the catastrophic eruption of said volcano, the residents’ lives are disturbed as mysteries begin to emerge from the ice. Katla is both a drama about the fallout of a natural disaster and a sci-fi about what comes their way after. With a suspenseful plot and unexpected twists, that’s why Katla is one of six under-the-radar Netflix thrillers with 100% on Rotten that you have to try.
Into the Night
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- RT score: 88%
- Age rating: TV-MA
- Length: ~36 minute episodes
- Creator: Jason George
Into the Night tells the tale of a plane full of passengers aboard a hijacked overnight flight from Brussels rush to escape the sun as the deadly rays cause a global disaster on Earth. Based on the Polish science fiction novel The Old Axolotl by Jacek Dukaj, Into the Night is Netflix’s first Belgian original series and is an engrossing edge-of-your-seat thriller.
High Water
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- RT score: 84%
- Age rating: TV-MA
- Length: ~43 minute episodes
- Creators: Jan Holoubek and Bartłomiej Ignaciuk
High Water is inspired by the real-life events of the Millennium Flood that shattered the Polish city of Wrocław, the Czech Republic, and Germany in July 1997. In Netflix’s adaptation, female hydrologist Jaśmina Tremer (Agnieszka Żulewska) and local government officials face life-and-death decisions to help save the city at any cost. Although this isn’t something I’d usually watch, I must say that High Water is a well-written and realistic piece of television that keeps you hooked.
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