Netflix use zero star reviews to promote new reality series Buying London - ‘Most hateable series’ 

Virgin Radio

23 May 2024, 08:39

Netflix has turned the tables on the critics by using a recent zero-star review for their new reality series Buying London to their advantage. 

Buying London is the spiritual sibling to the streamer’s mega real estate series Selling Sunset, which itself has found a loyal fanbase after seven glitzy seasons. Set in London (naturally) Buying London focuses on a group of property agents who specialise in the luxury markets of Mayfair to Holland Park. 

Plenty of the real estate pros who have joined the show have already made names for themselves as property influencers, with the glamorous housing experts having access to plenty of big-name buyers. 

Even most binge-watchable reality shows have their harsh critics, and The Guardian had a field day with their write-up all about Buying London being the “most hateable series.”

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“I hate that it bases all of its dramatic tension on pitting women against each other”, Rebecca Nicholson wrote for the publication. 

“I hate that it makes Richard Curtis’s film Notting Hill look like a gritty documentary about the mean streets of London. I hate its England-for-dummies shtick that is clearly pitched at an international market.

She continued: “I hate its reverence for billionaires and bad taste, its celebrity name-dropping without actual celebrities, even the lurching drone footage that seems to have been shot by the Red Arrows.”

Never one to let an opportunity got to waste, Netflix immediately jumped on the hate wagon, uploading a new promo poster with the zero star review proudly on display. 

"'Probably the most hateable TV show ever made.' Stirring up drama, on and off screen. Buying London is now streaming!” the caption reads. 

The Guardian were not alone in their unfavourable review of Buying London, with The Telegraph’s Anita Singh also giving the new series as lowly two-star review. 

She described the show as an "artificial, vulgar, post-truth TV”, adding: “They’ve just learned - through prolonged exposure to 'scripted reality' shows - to actually speak like this. They know what is required of them. The whole thing plays out like one long Instagram reel."

The Times were just as down on Buying London, with Carol Midgley writing: “Prepare to be faintly appalled yet oddly transfixed. During a cost of living and housing crisis, is it crass and tin-eared to rub people’s noses in this grotesque, mind-boggling level of wealth? Of course it is! Horribly so.

"But people will watch it, because this is a penthouse peep show, and noses will be pressed fully to the window."

Buying London is available to stream on Netflix now.