Series you should watch on Netflix before they go away

Netflix is in a bad place right now. After many years of being top dawg in the streaming game they are losing ground and of course subscribers at a rapid pace. Competitors like HBO, Amazon, and to a lessor degree Paramount are releasing material that in most people's opinions is a lot better than the stuff that Netflix is cranking out and Netflix just doesn't seem to learn from their mistakes.

When the Resident Evil series was announced people were very excited but this quickly turned to anger on the forums because Netflix did what they always do and completely changed who the characters are to make it more inclusive or to meet a diversity quota and while this is a minor point to me, there are a lot of people out there that are dead sick of this. This is reflected in the horrible scores that the series is getting on popular ranking sites like Metacritic, IMDB, and Rotten Tomatoes.

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While I have found some gems in there, I think that most of the Netflix original series are garbage. Also, a lot of the better series are not even owned by Netflix so when push comes to shove as far as the financials are concerned, we are going to see these series eliminated from the library as well. So I think you should have a look at these before they disappear forever.

Better Call Saul

I don't think you need to be a fan of Breaking Bad in order to enjoy this show because while it does directly tie into the famous AMC original, knowledge of what happens in BB is not necessary to enjoy this really epic series starring wonderful actors like Bob Odenkirk, Jonathan Banks, and the always wonderful Giancarlo Esposito.

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Netflix does not own the rights to this show and it will be wrapping up with the final episode soon. They have released this week by week, I think intentionally, in order to keep as much of their userbase. There is already a lot of chatter that many subscribers are only hanging onto their Netflix subs because of this one show and after all the episodes are out there, it is suspected that many are going to cancel their accounts. Once the contract with AMC is up, I believe that this show will disappear from the Netflix library and at that point, I don't know where you'll be able to find it outside of piracy, which of course is always an option.

Rick and Morty

I wrote an entire article about how this show is leaving and how I feel that it will be a huge loss for Netflix when it happens. They never even got season 5 on the streaming service and now it is official, they are not going to. Rick and Morty will be leaving Netflix in the middle of August.

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Not only do I consider this to be one of the best animated-series of all time, I consider it to be one of the greatest show of all time, period. I do not know the details about why Netflix is losing or scrapping this show from their library but it is official, they definitely are losing it.

Netflix tries their best to have show that are similar to it, but they fail in every attempt in a pretty painful way. I am yet to find a Netflix original animated series that even held my interest, let alone had me re-watch the episodes over and over again the way that I do Rick and Morty. It's truly amazing and for me, this could be the nail in the coffin as far as my own subscription is concerned.

Peaky Blinders

I'm less into this show than I am other ones. I personally feel as though they have already crossed the threshold on having made too many episodes and even though the series is based on real people and events, the story starts to be running around in circles.

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All the episodes that are going to be released, all 6 seasons, has already been made. The series is owned by BBC and while they do have a pretty good relationship with Netflix, I feel as though most people that are going to watch this, have already done so. There will be no financial reason for Netflix to keep it around when it comes time to renew or renegotiate the contract. The overall cast is outstanding and especially Cillian Murphy, who I liked before in the Batman movies but he truly shines in this series.

There is no word on when or if this series will disappear, but I suspect it will be on the chopping block at some point in the not-too-distant future.

Ozark

This is a show that started out very strong and then nearly lost its audience in the 2nd season where things just were starting to not work. They managed to pull it back in seasons 3 and 4 and overall I believe that the series is done very well, if you can make it through season 2.

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I generally liked Jason Bateman before this but he had an opportunity to abandon comedy for a little while and show us that he is a truly gifted serious dramatic actor. The rest of the cast is pretty great too with some outliers. The main showcase character being Ruth Langmore who is played amazing well by Julia Garner, who won multiple awards for her role and truly deserves them.

The rather unknown group called MRC owns the rights to this series even though Netflix claims it is an Netflix exclusive. It might not be up to Netflix whether or not they get to keep the show now that it has been completed. It could very well disappear from the library as well. We will have to wait and see.

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Mainly I am writing this because I don't feel that Netflix is doing a very good job of making new content and as the competition in the industry heats up, they are not going to have "first dibs" on wonderful series that are made outside of their own studios. Despite the blowback from the various communities, Netflix's political and social agenda makes its way into almost all of their originals and a lot of people are kind of fed up with this. They don't seem to take the hint though and continue to do things their way - which is their prerogative, even if it leads to their own demise. At the moment, most of the series that I have been truly enjoying are from other streaming services and I don't see this changing unless Netflix has a serious overhaul of management.

So if you have a Netflix subscription, or like me are piggybacking on someone else's, now might be the time to get all these series in before you also cancel your membership.