diff --git a/rethinkdb/net.py b/rethinkdb/net.py
index 5b14109..6d95fbb 100644
--- a/rethinkdb/net.py
+++ b/rethinkdb/net.py
@@ -118,7 +118,7 @@ def serialize(self, reql_encoder=ReQLEncoder()):
 class Response(object):
     def __init__(self, token, json_str, reql_decoder=ReQLDecoder()):
         try:
-            json_str = json_str.decode("utf-8")
+            json_str = json_str.decode("utf-8","ignore")
         except AttributeError:
             pass  # Python3 str objects are already utf-8
         self.token = token