Netflix Cult Canceled Sci-Fi Surges Back as Instant Hit Two Years After Ending

A show about people falling through a sinkhole into prehistoric Los Angeles has, appropriately enough, found a way to travel in time to a second life. ‘La Brea’, the NBC sci-fi drama that concluded its run in 2024, arrived on Netflix on May 1 and immediately crashed into the platform’s top charts, proving that its devoted fanbase was only ever waiting for a bigger audience to catch up.

The series claimed the number three spot on Netflix’s top 10 TV show list in the United States within a single day of its debut, trailing only two Netflix originals that had launched on the platform just before its arrival. All three seasons became available simultaneously on May 1, after the show had previously been exclusive to Peacock for several years as part of its distribution deal with Universal Television.

The show was created by David Appelbaum and stars Natalie Zea, Eoin Macken, Zyra Gorecki, and Jack Martin as the Harris family, whose lives are shattered when a catastrophic sinkhole opens up near the La Brea Tar Pits and swallows half of them into a prehistoric world roughly 10,000 years in the past. The other half, stranded in the present, have to find a way to reach them while piecing together the impossible truth of what happened.

The series ran for three seasons before NBC opted to end it with an abbreviated six-episode third season, a decision that came as a direct result of production disruptions caused by the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes of 2023, which led the network to release actors and wrap the story on a tighter timeline than originally planned. Fans of the show had long argued that it deserved a more expansive conclusion.

The cult following that formed around ‘La Brea’ during its NBC run was always vocal about the show being underestimated. Critics largely dismissed it for its uneven pacing, shaky CGI, and plotting that prioritized outlandish escalation over coherent storytelling. But that same willingness to go completely off the rails was precisely what made it compelling viewing for a dedicated subset of fans who embraced the chaos on its own terms.

The series had already demonstrated an ability to perform in international Netflix markets, having arrived in select territories in late 2024 and performing modestly despite a limited rollout. The U.S. debut appears to have given it considerably more momentum, suggesting the show’s appeal translates well to a binge-friendly streaming format where viewers can consume all 30 episodes without the uncertainty of weekly wait times and potential cancellations hanging over their heads.

Creator Appelbaum has spoken about the effort that went into crafting an ending that gave the show’s various storylines and characters a sense of proper emotional closure, saying the team spent considerable time in the writers’ room trying to bring all the narrative threads together in a way that felt complete. For viewers arriving via Netflix with the full series already waiting for them, that closure is now available from the very first episode.

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