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Still from the Korean Netflix series “The Silent Sea” (provided by Netflix)

The Korean Netflix original series “The Silent Sea” climbed to fourth place on Netflix’s global rankings just two days after its release, creating another sensation following “Squid Game” and “Hellbound.”

According to FlixPatrol, a global online video content ranking site, “The Silent Sea” ranked at No. 4 in the global Netflix TV show category as of Sunday.

The top three slots in the category were occupied by sequels to existing shows. First place was taken by the second season of “Emily in Paris” while the second season of “The Witcher” ranked second and the fifth season of “Money Heist” ranked third.

“The Silent Sea” was released on Friday and made it to No. 7 in the rankings by Saturday. As of Monday, it has jumped up three spots. By country, it ranked No. 1 in Korea, Japan, and Thailand, and third in the United States — which boasts Netflix’s largest audience.

Still from the Korean Netflix series “The Silent Sea” (provided by Netflix)

Starring Gong Yoo and Bae Doo-na, “The Silent Sea” is a sci-fi thriller set in the near future that tells the story of a space crew that travels to the moon on a special mission after the earth is devastated by a water shortage.

The series is based on a short film of the same name directed by Choi Hang-yong. The film was well-received at the 2014 Mise-en-scène Short Film Festival and has now been made into an 8-episode series.

Choi was in charge of directing the series while writer Park Eun-kyo, who wrote the screenplays for both “Mother” (2009) and “Crush and Blush” (2008), took part in the creation of the screenplay.

The show has received mixed reviews. It uses high-level computer graphics to depict space and the lunar surface, and the elaborate implementation of the space base on a set that measured around 8,900 square meters was particularly well-received.

Although the storyline can feel familiar for the genre, some say the way the show dealt with the subject of water was creative.

The show scored 7.1 out of 10 points on the US movie rating site IMDb, lower than "Squid Game" (8 points) but higher than "Hellbound" (6.7 points). The US magazine Variety commented that the “visual sweep of ‘The Silent Sea’ is impressive [. . .] but the show’s eight episodes can grow turgid and slow.”

By Suh Jung-min, staff reporter

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