Netflix’s so-called “docudrama” Queen Cleopatra produced by Jada Pinkett Smith has totally bombed. It is currently holding No. 6 in Netflix’s Top 10 list, but it’s doubtful it will go any higher.
The show according to Forbes has may have broken a record by not only scoring the the lowest audience score in Netflix history, but the lowest audience score possible on Rotten Tomatoes, a 2 per cent – an unprecedented low.
There aren’t many critic reviews in, but those are low as well, with the show sitting at a 13 per cent. But those audience scores? Not even bad shows, and even politically controversial shows prone to review have reached this low in Netflix history.
Possibly not even in TV history, at least with these many reviews in (over a thousand).The last time a show has hit the ruts, was Netflix’s now-cancelled Resident Evil adaptationscored a 22 per cent the lowest on the service. Other Netflix misses, Jupiter’s Legacy with 73 per cent, Space Force with 77 per cent, Haters Back Off with 76 per cent, Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness with 39 per cent.
Fans usually rate things higher than critics, even bad shows, and the point being, a 2 per cent audience seems borderline mathematically impossible, even with the controversy the film has attracted.
The conceptualization of what is supposed to be a historical documentary that Cleopatra was a black “African queen,” as this season was supposed to be the first in a series covering different queens from the continent.
But there no credible historical evidence that Cleopatra was black, as she was of Macedonian Greek descent. There is some discussion that she may have had a Nubian ancestor but insufficient evidence. In the end whatever colour she was Egyptian of Greek Macedonian background.