Usually, when a movie or show hits it big in Netflix's Top 10, it's because it was just added to the streamer. However a rare exception has shown up in the Netflix UK library with forgotten 2018 movie that's climbing the rankings.
The movie in question is 2018's A Simple Favor, which was released in the UK as the correctly-spelled A Simple Favour. It streamed on Netflix UK through 2020 before being removed, and was re-added in March 2025 — a long enough time ago that it no longer has the 'Recently Added' tag on the home page. And despite going up against newer additions to the platform, it's high on the top 10 most-watched movies list, sitting at #4 at the time of writing.
Not in the UK? A Simple Favor can be streamed on Netflix in the US too, though I can't speak to its Top 10 ranking there. The movie is based on a book which you can find on Amazon here.
A Simple Favor stars Anna Kendrick as Stephanie, a single mother who has trouble connecting to other parents at her son's school until she meets the hotshot Emily (Blake Lively). However Emily disappears after asking Stephanie for a simple favor: to look after her son after school. Cue a mystery as the fate of Emily becomes more tangled, while Stephanie gets very close to Emily's husband Sean (Henry Golding) and investigates the case on her own.
The movie was a box office hit and stands at 86% on Rotten Tomatoes but, anecodally at least, it's been forgotten a little bit in the years since. 2018 was, if you've forgotten, the height of the pre-lockdown blockbuster before streaming services fully took over. It came out hot on the heels of Mission: Impossible Fallout, The Meg and Crazy Rich Asians, all hard acts to follow!
However fans were likely glad to know that A Simple Favor is getting a sequel... very soon, in fact, which I'd wager is helping the renewed interest in the original.
Another Simple Favor, as it's called, is set to reunite Stephanie and Emily on a new caper set in Italy, as the former is called in to help the latter when a murder takes place during her wedding.
Netflix won't help you watch this sequel though as it's coming straight to Prime Video on Thursday, May 1 (the original is also currently on Prime Video, though it leaves just prior to the sequel's release). No theatrical release is expected for the movie, and you can find out more about it as Prime Video already has a landing page which you can find here.
As someone who's contributed to A Simple Favor's Netflix ranking, I'd recommend it as — it's not as 'silly' or melodramatic as the streamer's Original fare and resolves its plot in a surprisingly satisfying way.
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