Even with rising prices and more ads, Netflix is still one of the best deals in streaming, in large part because it just has so much content. There’s always something fun to watch, and you’re unlikely to ever run out of ways to keep yourself entertained.
That said, Netflix regularly rotates in and out licensed content. That’s good because it means Netflix is always bringing in new stuff, but it also means that not everything is available forever. In fact, there are some excellent movie and TV series about to leave the service in the next month and change, so if you want to watch any of them, now is the time.
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Van Helsing
Leaving April 16
This pulpy horror action is set in a post-apocalyptic future where a volcanic eruption has blanketed the sky with ash, a perfect opportunity for vampires to come out of hiding and terrorize the world. Our only hope is Vanessa Van Helsing (Kelly Overton), descendent of the famed vampire hunter Abraham Van Helsing.
Van Helsing isn’t exactly high art, but it’s gruesome and spooky and generally good dumb fun. It ran for five seasons on Syfy, so there’s a lot of good dumb fun to be had.
- Release Date
-
2016 – 2021-00-00
- Network
-
SyFy
- Showrunner
-
Neil LaBute
- Directors
-
Neil LaBute
- Writers
-
Neil LaBute
Black Sails
Leaving April 17
Black Sails is one of the best historical dramas ever made, a four-season opus set during the eighteenth century on the real-life pirate colony of Nassau in the Bahamas. It follows pirates both real and fictional, spinning a gripping tale about outlaws trying to carve out a space for themselves in a world that wants to bring them to heel. There’s no telling when Black Sails could be this widely available again, so watch it while you can.
- Release Date
-
2014 – 2017
- Network
-
Starz
- Showrunner
-
Jonathan E. Steinberg
- Directors
-
Alik Sakharov, Steve Boyum, Lukas Ettlin, Stefan Schwartz, Clark Johnson, Marc Munden, Neil Marshall, Sam Miller, T.J. Scott, Michael Nankin, Rob Bailey, Roel Reiné, Uta Briesewitz
- Writers
-
Dan Shotz, Lisa Schultz Boyd, Heather Bellson, Doris Egan, Michael Angeli, Michael S. Chernuchin, Peter Ocko, Josh Rothenberger
James Bond movies
Leaving April 21
Fully 25 James Bond movies, spanning the whole decades-long career of the English super-spy, are leaving Netflix this month, including:
- Casino Royale
- Diamonds Are Forever
- Die Another Day
- Dr. No
- For Your Eyes Only
- From Russia with Love
- GoldenEye
- Goldfinger
- License to Kill
- The Living Daylights
- Live and Let Die
- The Man with the Golden Gun
- Moonraker
- No Time to Die
- Octopussy
- On Her Majesty’s Secret Service
- Quantum of Solace
- Skyfall
- Spectre
- The Spy Who Loved Me
- Tomorrow Never Dies
- Thunderball
- A View to a Kill
- The World Is Not Enough
- You Only Live Twice
That is a lot of high-octane espionage action that won’t be available to watch that much longer.
Jaws movies
Leaving May 1
Jaws, about a killer shark attacking people in a sleepy beach-side town, redefined the suspense movie when it came out back in 1975, and gave a boost to a then little-known director named Steven Spielberg. It spawned three sequels, and although none of them match the first movie, they’re all fun.
The first three Jaws movies are available to watch on Netflix right now, but they won’t be very long. The fourth Jaws movie, Jaws: The Revenge, was never on the service to begin with, but you’re better off not watching it anyway.
Mission: Impossible movies
Leaving May 1
Also leaving as the month turns are a quintet of Mission: Impossible movies, including:
- Mission: Impossible (1996)
- Mission: Impossible 2 (2000)
- Mission: Impossible 3 (2006)
- Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol (2011)
- Mission: Impossible Rogue Nation (2015)
Granted, this is not all of the Mission: Impossible movies; Netflix never had the final three, which came out in 2018, 2023, and 2025. Still, that’s a lot of high-intensity spy drama going out the door, and so soon after all those James Bond movies left.
Blue Mountain State
Leaving May 2
Alan Ritchson is best known today for playing hulking hero Jack Reacher on the Prime Video show Reacher, but in the early 2010s he made his mark as the thick-headed party animal Thad Castle in Blue Mountain State, a raucous comedy about a fictional university football team. There’re three seasons of foul-mouthed, over-the-top comedy here, and it’s all going away soon.
Oddly, the sequel movie Blue Mountain State: The Rise of Thadland leaves a day before the series, on May 1.
Documentary Now!
Leaving May 9
This hilarious spoof of documentary filmmaking ran for four seasons on IFC. Almost every episode parodies a different documentary film, from Grey Gardens to The Thin Blue Line to Netflix’s own Wild Wild Country. The amount of comedy talent involved is nuts. Saturday Night Live alums Bill Hader and Fred Armisen star in most of the episodes, with folks like Seth Meyers and John Mulaney writing scripts and guest stars like Cate Blanchett and Michael Keaton showing up seemingly just for fun. And the whole thing is narrated by Helen Mirren. This is a wild, singular series that deserves to be thoroughly watched and enjoyed before it’s too late.
- Release Date
-
2015 – 2022-00-00
- Network
-
IFC
- Writers
-
John Mulaney, Duffy Boudreau
-
Alexander Skarsgard
Rainer Wolz
-
-
Bill Hader
Various Characters
-
Your Honor
Leaving May 31
After making audiences laugh on Malcolm in the Middle and enthralling them on Breaking Bad, Bryan Cranston took on the role of a respected judge who gets wrapped up in the world of organized crime in Your Honor, a Showtime that ran for two thrilling seasons. This is one of Cranston’s less well-known roles, and you only have a limited time to become familiar with it before it vanishes from Netflix.
What remains
Even after all of these shows and movie series are gone, there’re still plenty of entertaining things to watch on Netflix, whether you’re in the mood for a great detective series, a sci-fi masterpiece, a tear-jerking sports movie, or whatever else. Still, mind that you watch what you want before too much time has passed, because you never know when it could go away.
