NO. How can they do this to me? I had no idea shows expired from Instant Viewing.

Kairos | March 01, 15:57 CET

Going to Amazon Prime or Hulu?

Simon | March 01, 16:19 CET

I don't know what the story is with these shows, but I have seen titles come and go and then return again. The Guild is one example; that fell off for a few days, maybe a week and is now available again.

Jelly | March 01, 16:31 CET

Titles do come and go on Netflix. April 1st seems to be a date when a lot of shows are dropping off. But for the record I have seen shows and movies come back after they've expired.

Simon, HuluPlus already has all of Buffy and Angel and Firefly (and maybe Dollhouse?). And some of those are on Hulu with the new episode a week, five available thing.

[ edited by ceo on 2011-03-01 16:36 ]

ceo | March 01, 16:36 CET

Aargh, you're telling me I'm going to have to actually get up to put in the appropriate DVD again instead of just staying in bed & pushing one button on my Wii remote? Why is my life so hard??

yellowcrayon | March 01, 16:39 CET

And my friends laughed at me for not selling my dvds when my brother got Netflix! Thanks for proving me right, Netflix!

leonhart_17 | March 01, 16:43 CET

The 1st and 15th are usually drop or pickup days on Netflix. It's something to do with contracts and licensing; I don't know the exact details, but as people have mentioned, things DO come back. I usually check my instant queue to see if there's anything I need to watch right away (on the website; you can't see that information on, say, the Wii interface). Also you can see what items have fallen off your queue, and if they have a return date, it'll be posted there. So, yeah, Netflix not yet a dvd replacement, but pretty awesome regardless!

Oh, and I wouldn't complain about a "play all" button for tv series.

narse | March 01, 17:00 CET

There seems to be widespread mourning about this on Twitter. Viewing habits sure have changed since the show was on the air.

Simon | March 01, 17:50 CET

Thank goodness my friend just finished the whole series last night!

streetartist | March 01, 18:17 CET

I think yellowcrayon said it best. ;)

Miko | March 01, 18:30 CET

SAD. I have a friend watching Doctor Who instant, and they've taken away a couple of the specials already, but he was supposed to watch all of Firefly after DW and now I'm not sure he'll be able to get done in time for APRIL. Actually, I know he won't with how slow he's getting through them. Nrg. I have the DVDs but he lives quite far away...

VeryVeryCrowded | March 01, 19:48 CET

Sitting in my Graphics class right now, I literally let out a big "Noooooooooooo". How else am I going to get everyone I know into Buffy without ruining my DVDs? Bah.

popgoestheshelby | March 01, 19:53 CET

Blargh. I do still have Hulu Plus, which is nice. But I vastly prefer Netflix and the expiring titles really is the aspect of it that I like the least (apart from the fact that "Netflix is currently unavailable" about 1/5 of the time I try to use it). But I guess it's unavoidable.

Knuckleball | March 01, 20:28 CET

I wouldn't think it would be that hard to watch all of Firefly in a month. There isn't that much. ;-)

Personally I think these series are well worth owning on dvd, especially at the prices you can often find them for ($20 or less - I've found two seasons of Buffy or Angel bundled together in Target for really cheap too). Netflix is good for watching something once, but if you really want to be able to watch it over and over it's worth owning it.

AnotherFireflyfan | March 01, 20:29 CET

I own most of Whedon's work, so it's not that much of an issue personally. But I've been trying to introduce friends of mine to Doctor Who, so that part sucks royally. Are the classic Who episodes going too?

deepgirl187 | March 01, 20:36 CET

No!!! I just found all these great shows less then 6 months ago. Seen 99% of Buffy, but only about 60% of Angel. I just started Dr. Who the other day. I haven't even gotten to Dollhouse. Thankfully I saw all of Firefly. Torchwood's not on the list. I hope they come back. I can't afford to buy all of these DVDs at once. Firefly would be my first purchase priority. Off to add to my Amazon wishlist for my birhtday.

Why would shows "expire"? Is it licensing agreements?

[ edited by hann23 on 2011-03-01 20:52 ]

hann23 | March 01, 20:48 CET

hann23, yes. They are license agreements just like syndication deals. There is a limited time on all of them. Netflix is probably just rotating or has yet to make new deals for these shows.

IrrationaliTV | March 01, 21:50 CET

Well lucky for us the Complete Buffy is only 69.99 at Amazon.

Jelly | March 01, 22:25 CET

Netflix has previously announced its business plan over the next few years is to transition from being primarily a DVDs-in-the-mail service to one where the majority of its customers are streaming via their account. ISTR this is related to the costs of mailing DVDs vs streaming. Their catalog of streaming titles has increased overall, despite the shrinkage of expiring titles.

I expect they will soon or eventually renegotiate these fan favorites. That they allowed this contract to expire may simply be a precursor perhaps to renegotiating a larger deal.

fanbuoyant | March 02, 00:05 CET

Wow, Jelly, thanks! (Checks link to verify it's indeed the boxed set:) I've been waiting so long for that to deal to come around, again.

fanbuoyant | March 02, 00:09 CET

Indeed, thanks Jelly. Just ordered mine. (Again. Gotta take another chance with Amazon's butterfingers.)

Kairos | March 02, 00:40 CET

Really? My netflix instant que doesn't show them as about to expire. Maybe they have fixed it already?

Whisper | March 02, 05:48 CET

It's not showing on Netflix itself yet. There's metadata somewhere that the linked site picks up, I think (presuming it's actually pulling data from somewhere and not just calculating based on standard time frames).

[ edited by The One True b!X on 2011-03-02 06:15 ]

The One True b!X | March 02, 06:14 CET

Which is why it is better to own the dvds, in addition to the special features like Joss-commentaries and making of specials.

E-Rawk | March 02, 06:18 CET

I'm willing to put in the blu-ray discs every time. The only way to Firefly. Dollhouse looks prettier that way too.

RBB | March 02, 08:17 CET

Guess this means I need to shell out for Buffy DVDs. Have everything else covered - although I'm not sure where my Dollhouse S1 ran off to, haven't seen in in a couple months.

It's just really unfortunate because Netflix was a convenient way to get friends into the shows as well. I hope they become available again later on!

CZGoldEdition | March 02, 09:37 CET

I own all of Whedon's stuff on DVD or Blu-Ray, so it's not a concern for me, but yeah, unfortunate news. Hopefully they will be coming back soon.

SpendTheNightAlone | March 02, 15:01 CET

I've learned to not panic when things drop off Netflix. They mostly come back. Sometimes on the big expiration dates 1/1; 4/1, etc. a bunch of titles are listed for expiration but not all of them actually expire.

It is annoying though -- it's hard to plan around. :(

Maggie | March 02, 20:01 CET

This just sucks, man! Not even cool! There goes almost everything in my instant queue!! Angel, Buffy, Firefly, Dollhouse, Bones, Fright Night... Also, 90% of the TV shows are FOX: 24, Bones, Firefly, Dollhouse, My Name is Earl, Arrested Development, X Files, Buffy, Angel, King of the Hill, Prison Break... Not sure if any more (TV or Film) are produced by Fox or not. Coincidence? I think NOT! Just FOX ruining something else for us. Some of the shows listed I don't watch nor care to but still sucks.
I've gotten quite comfortable with not having to get my butt up to change disks. So easy to back & forth with Whedony Goodness from the comfort of your bed or couch. Anyone agree? I think the only thing left in my instant queue will be TSCC, Torchwood, DR. Horrible, Serenity & LOST.
Well, I hope they come back! I wonder if this was a Netflix choice or a gorram FOX choice?
I'm writing an angry letter!

SlayerOfTheVampire's | March 06, 03:57 CET