Netflix is the most popular streaming service on the planet (unless you count YouTube, which is on its way to replacing all TV), and has a long track record of helping shows find an audience. Shows like Breaking Bad and The Walking Dead are remembered as giant hits today, but they only really started to get popular after they streamed on Netflix, where the enormous subscriber base could find and fall in love with them. What other classics are on Netflix just waiting for you to watch them?
The answer is pretty much always “a ton,” but not for long. Some major shows are leaving the service in the near future, so you’ll want to start binging as soon as possible.
Six Feet Under (leaving Netflix November 1)
Watch Six Feet Under on Netflix (for now) or HBO Max (forever)
Six Feet Under ran from 2001 to 2005 and is one of the shows that helped put HBO on the map as the home of prestige drama. It’s about the Fisher family, who run a funeral home in Los Angeles. The show digs into their personal lives as they deal with dating, sex, infidelity, religion, grief, family dysfunction, and death. Obviously death. Every episode starts with a person dying, and then their body ends up at the Fisher & Sons funeral home. It’s heavy, but also funny and weird and charming. Six Feet Under still holds up today and has one of the best endings of any show before or since, and you only have a few days to binge all five seasons.
Of course, if you can’t quite manage that, you can always subscribe to HBO Max if you’re willing to swallow its unexpected 2025 price hike. Six Feet Under will likely live there in perpetuity. But watching it elsewhere is a rare treat, since it wasn’t that long ago that HBO jealously guarded its original programming and never would have licensed it to the likes of Netflix. If you want that experience, the clock is ticking.
Reba (leaving Netflix November 6)
Watch Reba on Netflix (for now) or Hulu
Reba is about Reba, a single mom who works too hard, who loves her kids and never stops, with gentle hands and the heart of a fighter. If you were humming along to yourself as you read that, you know you’re not ready for this classic sitcom to leave Netflix.
Reba was on the air at the same time as Six Feet Under, but the two shows couldn’t be more different. Reba isn’t edgy or groundbreaking or subversive, but it is high-quality comfort TV you can turn on and enjoy anytime, anywhere…unless you want to watch it on Netflix after November 5, in which case you’ll be out of luck.
Reba ran for six seasons and produced 127 episodes, so you’ll have to get a move on if you want to relive the whole epic cycle.
Archer (leaving Netflix November 13)
Watch Archer on Netflix (for now) or Hulu (forever)
Sterling Archer is simultaneously the world’s most competent, confident, and clueless superspy. Archer charts his adventures around the globe, into space, into the subconscious, and to the outer bounds of good taste. This animated sitcom ran for a staggering 13 seasons on FX, producing a stupefying 145 episodes. That’ll keep you nice and busy until it leaves Netflix on November 13.
Fans of this show will never get select phrases out of their heads: “Phrasing,” “I had something for this,” “That’s how you get ants”…the show definitely wormed its way into online culture after over a decade on the air. If you were there for the ride the first time around, now is the perfect time to relive it. If you weren’t, Archer is an irreverent, inventive, foul-minded show that’s always good for a laugh.
Archer just ended for good in 2023, so it’s the newest show on our list. It’s interesting to watch the show from front to back and watch it react to the big events of the last 10 years and change; it’s like a TV capsule. And if you can’t finish the whole thing on Netflix, Archer will probably always have a home on Hulu, since it originally aired on FX and Disney owns both companies.
Other shows are also leaving Netflix
Those are three of the biggest shows leaving Netflix in the near future, but there’s other stuff taking its leave. The next few weeks will also be your last chance to watch shows like Mythomaniac, Fate/Apocrypha, Atelier, A.P. Bio, and First Wives Club on Netflix. You may not have heard of all or any of those shows, but now that they’re leaving, aren’t you at least a little curious?
We’ve focused on everything leaving Netflix, but the streamer is always getting new stuff as well, another reason to keep it around if you’re considering dumping it.
