New ‘silly’ Netflix thriller Clickbait is a bit awful, but everyone is obsessed with it

Netflix has just released a new thriller series, called Clickbait. The eight-episode show has a Black Mirror feel about it, and follows a man who goes missing and then a shocking video of him is posted online. The video claims he abuses women, and says he will die if it goes viral.

The series is being completely rinsed by critics, but it’s one of those shows you can’t help but indulge in. Once you’ve watched one episode, you’ll simply have to find out how it ends, no matter how bad you think it is.

Here’s everything you need to know about the new Netflix series Clickbait, and the *mixed* reviews it’s had since it was released.

Clickbait on Netflix is all about the mysterious disappearance of Nick Brewer and the video of him which emerges online

The show follows the disappearance of Nick Brewer (Adrian Grenier). Nick is a loving father, husband, and brother, who one day suddenly and mysteriously doesn’t show up for work and nobody can get hold of him. A video appears on the internet of a badly beaten Nick holding a card that says “I abuse women. At five million views, I die”. But one thing isn’t known: Is this a threat or confession? Or both?

His sister Pia (played by Zoe Kazan) and wife Sophie (played by Betty Gabriel) rush to find and save him and they end up uncovering a side of Nick they didn’t know existed. In each of the eight-episodes we see the story from a different character’s point of view. The thriller explores the ways in which our most dangerous and uncontrolled impulses are fuelled in the age of social media, revealing the ever-widening fractures we find between our virtual and real-life personas. This is where the series begins to feel a bit Black Mirror-esque, at times pulling on your moral compass.

Reviews of Clickbait call it ‘disastrous’ and quite literally tell people not to watch it

There’s no point in lying here, the critics hate this show. The Guardian calls it “silly” and “not worth clicking on”, adding that it is “more irksome than interesting” and “consistently narcissistic”. The review concludes that “the numerous plot twists are increasingly ludicrous” and that the show is true to its title. Yikes.

Paste Magazine calls it “disastrous” and “nonsense”, whilst Collider literally tells people: “Do not watch this deeply unpleasant thriller”.

However, the general public are loving it. It has an impressive 89 per cent audience score on Rotten Tomatoes and tweets about it share how much everyone is hooked on finding out the truth with Nick. People are calling it a “must watch” with an “excellent plot”.

Watch the trailer for Clickbait on Netflix here:

Clickbait is available on Netflix now. For all the latest Netflix news, drops and memes like The Holy Church of Netflix on Facebook. 

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