Two Netflix series that had launched atop Netflix’s weekly Top 10 for English series with their first seasons, The Four Seasons and A Good Girl’s Guide To Murder, returned with their second installments last week. Neither could repeat their debut performances, ranking as No. 3 (The Four Seasons, 4.4M views) and No. 9 (A Good Girl’s Guide To Murder, 1.8M) in their first week back (5/25/26 – 5/31/26).

The Four Seasons was down 63% from its Season 1 opening week; A Good Girl’s Guide To Murder was down more than 76% (Season 2 launched on a Wednesday, Season 1 on Thursday, so the 76% decline does not account for the extra day of S2 viewing which would make the drop even steeper.)

This is not an isolated event. As Deadline noted, a number of sophomore (and older) Netflix series have retuned below their previous seasons recently. Limiting the trend to second-year shows, examples include Running Point (down 43%), Beef (down 58%), A Man On the Inside (more than 66%, the comedy did not make Netflix’s Top 10 in Season 2 so the exact scope of the decline is unclear.) The Netflix show that has been most successful in avoiding the sophomore slump over the past few months is Nobody Wants This, down a modest 17% in its Season 2 opening week vs. Season 1.

All series listed above are well received by critics, something Netflix clearly takes into account as it renewed A Man On the Inside for Season 3 despite Season 2 never cracking the Top 10.

Running Point also has been renewed, and it shares something with The Four Seasons and A Good Girl’s Guide — all improved on their strong Season 1 Rotten Tomatoes scores with their second seasons. That should be encouraging for the renewal prospects of The Four Seasons and A Good Girl’s Guide To Murder which both spent the first two weeks of their maiden seasons as No. 1 on Netflix’s Top 10.

RELATED: ‘A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder’ Soundtrack: All the Songs You’ll Hear Across Both Seasons

A Good Girl’s Guide To Murder and Beef may have been hurt by the long gaps between seasons: almost two years and three years, respectively.

One sophomore series that has been getting so-so reviews, Tom Segura’s Bad Thoughts, made a quiet return last week. Dropping its second season on Sunday, May 24, it did not make the Top 10 for its first full week of release with fewer than 1.8M views vs. the 3.8M views Season 1 logged for its first six days out to rank as No. 5. That was off by more than 53%.