While the general public got shushed by Lorde, Netflix changed its payment plan. It also brought us Anatomy of a Scandal, a hugely successful Sienna Miller/Rupert Friend courtroom drama pivoting on the murky nuances of sexual consent. Though the core of the series deals with a very serious issue, Im still trying to work out why its been so captivating. Why is this particular cluster of one-hour episodes topping the Netflix charts?

Perhaps its Sienna Miller herself? Her hair is a melted halo. (Thats a good thing.) Her skin is flawless in a naturally dewyrather than powdery or filter-yway.And the initial scandal eerily echoes Siennas own post-bohemian It-girl rough patch. (Her former partner was revealed to be having an affair with their nanny.) Siennas lived through the myriad feels that come from public-domain humiliation, and we can feel that as she plays a woman trying to keep her shit together in front of the braying paparazzi.

Perhaps its simply the money that makes the show pop? Im the first to admit that my favorite genre is extremely rich people in extremely rich houses being somewhat dastardly. Rich women with a lot of feelings are crack to me, as they navigate being both liberated and held captive by their money. The things these women sacrifice! The biting of their tongues! The forest-y decals in their kitchens! Extreme wealth is always captivating, if only by way of having live-in staff and more Max Mara coats than you could wear in a lifetime.

Perhaps its all the power? Rupert Friend is compartmentally hotall the pieces are there for heatbut the temperature runs in the minuses. Theres simply nothing less sexy than a Tory MP, especially one whos so particular about which women he treats with respect, and which ones he disdains. His sense of his own familial legacy is frankly revolting; the idea that family cannot fail, even at the expense of truth, perversely prevails. Its hard to look away from his Machiavellian power plays. And needless to say, Friends achingly Tory haircutsomehow too square and too soft, chiseled from a sad putty of inexhaustible entitlementstamps out any last embers of desire.

Or perhaps its the shows overt Britishness I cant get enough of? The stately House of Commons canteen. The stiff upper lip-ness. Anatomy is both a frothy and forensic look at dishonor, silly in is rather out-there anti-reality TV effectsSienna falls through the courtroom like Alice down the rabbit hole; Friend is involved in a rather nasty hit-and-run with an invisible clown car. Theres certainly something slightly excruciating about the rape of a parliamentary intern juxtaposed with camera theatrics. But the show tackles the hard stuff, too; its an autopsy of the lives scandal touches as it ripples from the event. (It also takes us back to scandals of yore, and delivers the most farfetched plot twist in modern TV.)

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Anatomy of a Scandal Is the Quintessential British Show. Allow Me to Explain - Vogue