Netflix is known for many things, be they alarmingly bingeable true crime documentaries or generic action thrillers that are just as alarming but in a very different, death-of-the-culture kind of way. There was also Kevin Hart’s “Lift,” which hit number one on Netflix back in 2023 — for which we’re still awaiting a formal apology. But if there’s one other thing the king of the streamers is known for, it would have to be crime thriller series (that and dodgy dating shows).
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Netflix has given us some truly memorable crime series, including the new chart-busting murder mystery show “The Residence.” But it’s also known for exposing Western audiences to more diverse offerings of the genre. Specifically, there has been no shortage of European crime thrillers that have managed to capture worldwide attention on the platform. Germany seems to have cornered this particular Netflix market. There was the crime thriller series “Schlafende Hunde” (“Sleeping Dog”), which managed to crack the Netflix Top 10 in 2023. Then we had another offering from Deutschland with “Dear Child” that same year. Perhaps the most memorable, however, was “Dark,” a sort of German version of “Stranger Things” that became a global hit on Netflix.
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But it’s not just Germany that can dominate the world’s biggest streamer with crime thrillers, though. Sweden has had a fair few Netflix crime hits of its own, with “A Nearly Normal Family” (“En helt vanlig familj”) being one recent example. Now, the country is challenging its European neighbors once again with a crime thriller miniseries that has Netflix viewers hooked.
The Glass Dome has taken Netflix audiences captive
Netflix has a whole page just for Nordic Noir, and one of its newest additions, “The Glass Dome,” currently has Netflixers the world over transfixed. The series focuses on Lejla (Léonie Vincent), a criminologist who returns to her small Swedish hometown to help investigate the disappearance of her friend’s young daughter. This particular case, however, has eerie similarities to her own traumatic experience of being abducted as a child, forcing Lejla to confront her own past in order to save the young girl.
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According to FlixPatrol, a site that tracks streaming viewership data across the various platforms, “The Glass Dome” has become a global success, giving Sweden another notch in its Netflix crime thriller hit belt. The series debuted on April 15, 2025, and immediately charted in 81 countries the following day. Perhaps unsurprisingly, “The Glass Dome” is now number one in Denmark, Finland, Norway, and its native Sweden, though it’s also had an impressive debut in the United States, where it had become the number three most-watched show on the streamer as of April 16, 2025. What’s more, at the time of writing, the show is number two in 26 countries, suggesting it will take the top spot in several other markets over the rest of the week.
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“The Glass Dome” doesn’t necessarily needs to hit number one anywhere else. This is already a great debut for the show and has, according to FlixPatrol, placed it at number three on the worldwide most-watched series charts.
Is The Glass Dome worth watching?
With all the crime thriller series in the vast sea of streaming “content,” it’s sort of exhausting to try to separate the good from the bad — especially when theatrical flops with awful Rotten Tomatoes scores are muddying the waters. For example, a Shailene Woodley crime thriller flop dominated Netflix’s top charts at the top of 2025, but with a 52% Rotten Tomatoes score, is it really worth the time?
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“The Glass Dome,” however, looks to be a decent offering from Netflix. The series doesn’t have a Rotten Tomatoes score yet, but all four reviews on the site are positive and there are a handful of reviews floating around out there that also speak to its quality. It also helps that this isn’t some remake or adaptation but is, in fact, an original story from Swedish screenwriter and author Camilla Läckberg, who is also known for having written the “Fjällbacka” crime novels. As such, if the series can take number one in the U.S., or even perhaps on the global charts, it will be a welcome development.
For that to happen, “The Glass Dome” will need to dethrone the new season of “Black Mirror,” which is currently number one in the U.S. Considering /Film’s Chris Evangelista concluded that the series has clearly run out of ideas in his review, that shouldn’t be too hard. On the global chart, we’ll witness a true European showdown as Spanish thriller series “The Gardener” currently reigns supreme, with “Black Mirror” lagging behind in the second position. Regardless of whether you watch any of them, then, it will be interesting to see whether “The Glass Dome” can come out on top in this Spain vs. Britain vs. Sweden three-way brawl.
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