If you can’t remember a show that Netflix debuted earlier this year, it’s probably because the streamer is constantly dropping new series.
The reality is that the vast majority of Netflix’s shows are failures that don’t even get a second season. They’re here and gone so quickly that you might get whiplash.
Watch With Us has put together our picks for the four forgotten Netflix shows that deserve another chance to be seen by a 2026 audience.
Unlike some other streaming services, Netflix is still keeping some of its canceled programming around. And you may find a new favorite show below.
‘Altered Carbon’ (2018 – 2020)
Joel Kinnaman in Altered Carbon. Netflix/courtesy Everett Collection
Netflix poured money into its sci-fi cyberpunk series Altered Carbon, which is one of the big reasons why the show’s special effects feel feature-film-worthy. The series was based on Richard K. Morgan‘s novels, which depict a future where humanity finds a way to record memories and imprint them in new bodies or “sleeves” after death to achieve a form of immortality. But only the wealthy get the full benefits of that discovery.
Takeshi Kovacs (Will Yun Lee) rebelled against this order in his first life, and hundreds of years later he was reawakened in a new body (Joel Kinnaman) to solve the murder of one of the wealthiest men in the world, Laurens Bancroft (James Purefoy). In season 2, Takeshi was portrayed by Anthony Mackie in yet another new body, and his only enduring companion was an AI modeled after Edgar Allan Poe (Chris Conner). This was one of the best sci-fi projects that Netflix has ever done, and it deserves to have a long digital afterlife.
Altered Carbon is streaming on Netflix.
‘GLOW’ (2017 – 2019)
Alison Brie and Betty Gilpin in Glow. Ali Goldstein / ©Netflix / courtesy Everett Collection
There was a Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling series in the ’80s that was even more cartoonish than the WWE of that era, if you can believe it. Netflix’s GLOW only shares a few elements of the original, and it was presented as more of a drama/comedy than its predecessor.
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The story follows Ruth Wilder (Alison Brie), an out-of-work actress who is cast to play Zoya the Destroya in the GLOW wrestling federation. However, she soon comes to regret that choice after learning that her former friend and current rival, Debbie Eagan (Betty Gilpin), has also been cast as one of the promotion’s leading heroic characters, Liberty Belle. GLOW received good reviews and a renewal from Netflix for a fourth and final season. Unfortunately, Netflix reneged on that renewal while citing the COVID-19 pandemic as an excuse.
GLOW is streaming on Netflix.
‘Marco Polo’ (2014 – 2017)
2014 seems like a lifetime ago in the streaming era, but Marco Polo was one of the first big-budget original series that Netflix made its name with. The series is very loosely based on the exploits of the real Marco Polo, a merchant and explorer whose account of his travels through Asia was extraordinary in the 13th century because outsiders were largely forbidden from entering.
Lorenzo Richelmy plays Marco in the series, as he finds himself stuck as a permanent “guest” of Kublai Khan (Benedict Wong), the ruler of the Mongol Empire. This isn’t Marco’s world or even his fight when Khan faces challenges to his power and his rule. Regardless, Marco will have to take sides because his own fate is linked with the winner of the conflict.
Marco Polo is streaming on Netflix.
‘Bloodline’ (2015 – 2017)
Kyle Chandler and Sissy Spacek in Bloodline. Saeed Adyani/©Netflix/courtesy Everett Collection
The creative team behind FX’s legal thriller Damages — Todd A. Kessler, Glenn Kessler and Daniel Zelman — made the leap to Netflix with the psychological thriller Bloodline. Kyle Chandler led the cast as John Rayburn, a police detective who is close with his siblings, Meg (Linda Cardellini) and Kevin (Norbert Leo Butz), as well as their parents, Robert (Sam Shepard) and Sally Rayburn (Sissy Spacek).
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The Rayburns’ family unity is threatened by the return of John’s older brother, Danny Rayburn (Ben Mendelsohn). Danny is also the black sheep of the family, and he represents a lot of the secrets that the Rayburns have attempted to keep buried for decades. There’s a lot of pain in this family, and most of their emotional wounds were inflicted on each other.
Bloodline is streaming on Netflix.
