Viewers are hooked on Netflix’s new thriller series with mind-blowing twists.
The platform has struck gold again with its newest addition to the murder mystery genre, a seductive thriller that has viewers hooked just days after its premiere.
The streaming giant’s latest offering has quickly climbed the platform’s Top 10 charts, marking another successful entry in Netflix’s growing collection of addictive drama series.
Industry observers have positioned this new thriller as an ideal successor to several popular series that have concluded their runs.
The series marks the perfect replacement for shows like Big Little Lies, The Perfect Couple, or Desperate Housewives, per CBR.
The series’ journey to Netflix represents an interesting case study in modern television distribution.
Originally developed for Starz with an eight-episode order in October 2023, the series found its way to Netflix through changing corporate structures.
Following the spin-off of Starz Inc. into an independent company separate from Lionsgate Studios, Lionsgate Television acquired rights back from Starz.
In June 2025, Netflix licensed U.S. rights to the series for a year, leading to its July 21 premiere on the platform, Deadline explains.
The series has received generally positive reviews from critics, and debuted with an encouraging score of 70% from critics on Rotten Tomatoes, which has since improved to 80% as more reviews came in.
The Hollywood Reporter‘s review noted that ‘in terms of pure over-the-top fun, I suspect it’ll be hard to beat Margo and Sophie and friends screwing and backstabbing their way through Maple Brook, all the way to some vicious bloody end.’
The review acknowledged that while ‘no one is likely to mistake it for the deepest show of the summer, and certainly not for the nicest,’ it succeeds as entertainment that ‘takes a lot of smarts to make something this pleasurably stupid.’
Paste Magazine similarly embraced the series’ summer escapism appeal, describing it as: “The televisual equivalent of a beach read, a soapy thriller that feels made for summertime viewing.”
The review praised how the show fills a gap in current television, noting that: “In a real world that often feels grimmer and more bleak than ever, audiences are likely desperate for the sort of no-strings-attached escapism this kind of programming provides.”
The series has demonstrated impressive performance on Netflix’s platform since its debut. The series premiered on Netflix on July 21, 2025, and quickly gained traction among viewers.
Per FlixPatrol, the series has been moving up the charts since it premiered, settling on No. 2 in the Top 10 TV charts.
The series centers on Sophie O’Neil, played by Brittany Snow, a woman who makes the dramatic transition from Cambridge, Massachusetts to the fictional town of Maple Brook in deep East Texas.
What begins as a simple relocation story quickly transforms into something far more sinister.
Sophie falls into the seductive orbit of an affluent socialite, where a circle of housewives harbors dangerous secrets that ultimately lead to her becoming a prime suspect in the death of a teenage girl.
Sophie trades New England for East Texas and falls into a wealthy socialite’s magnetic orbit — where a clique of housewives hide deadly secrets.
Malin Åkerman portrays Margo Banks, the charismatic leader of an elite socialite group known as the Hunting Wives.
The supporting cast includes several notable television veterans: Dermot Mulroney as Jed Banks, Margo’s wealthy husband who serves as both an oil tycoon and Texas gubernatorial candidate; Chrissy Metz as Starr, a working-class single mother whose daughter becomes entangled in the central mystery; and Katie Lowes as Jill, the reverend’s wife and Hunting Wives member whose teenage son Brad becomes a key figure in the unfolding drama.
The series also features George Ferrier as Brad, Jill’s teenage son who is having an affair with Margo, and Jaime Ray Newman as Callie, described as the ‘number two’ of the Hunting Wives and the town sheriff’s wife.
The series is an adaptation of May Cobb’s book series of the same name, with Gotham’s Rebecca Cutter serving as creator.
The series’s strong performance has naturally led to concrete discussions about future seasons, Forbes reports.
Rebecca Cutter, the showrunner, recently provided detailed insights about potential Season 2 plans in an interview with Variety.
“I think we’d do a little bit of a time jump — not a year, but a time,” Cutter explained, outlining her vision for continuing the story.
Cutter has identified the core elements that would drive a second season: “By the end of shooting, I realized that the two engines of the show are the whodunit and the Margo/Sophie relationship, and tracking how those spines intersect with each other.”
When asked about introducing new storylines, Cutter indicated openness to fresh mysteries while keeping the current cast intact.
“I think it would be smart” to introduce a new murder mystery. But it’s early stages. “I don’t know whodunit yet or who got done!”
The show’s official description captures its seductive premise: “The Hunting Wives follows a woman as she and her family move from Boston to Texas.
“There, she grows close to a socialite – maybe too close – and becomes consumed by obsession, seduction, and murder.”
The series represents another success story in Netflix’s strategy of adapting popular novels for television.
By combining a proven source material with an experienced creative team and established cast, the platform has created a series that delivers both critical acclaim and viewer engagement.
Although not all of them reached the same worldwide recognition, many found silent success on the platform and continued for many seasons.
Some of them include Virgin River, Ginny and Georgia, Sweet Magnolias, and Ransom Canyon. From the looks of it, The Hunting Wives could continue the same trend.
Watch the trailer for The Hunting Wives below:
The Hunting Wives is available to stream on Netflix now.
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