(Credits: Paramount Pictures)

Netflix is tugging at our heartstrings this week, but not in a sweet, sentimental way. It’s the kind of heartbreak where you scroll through your queue and realise half the titles you’ve been “meaning to watch” are suddenly marked “leaving soon”.

Feels a bit unfair, right? A little rude even. And yet, here we are, watching favourites pack up and vanish. Every week, the platform makes us happy by bringing some old classics and some of its original content. But the pain of content leaving Netflix hits differently.

The biggest sting of the list? The Mission: Impossible films. All five gone in one sweep. Many of us grew up watching Cruise dangling on wires in the nineties and scaling skyscrapers in Rogue Nation. It’s like Netflix decided to delete adrenaline itself. Even if you weren’t bingeing them right now, just knowing they were there was comfort. Now? You’ll have to find another way to get your fix of Tom Cruise running at inhuman speed.

Comedy takes a brutal hit, too. American Pie, Big Daddy, Blades of Glory, Zoolander, and Old School: all gone in one day. Can you imagine? The entire sleepover canon is walking out. These were the movies you didn’t just watch; you quoted them until your friends begged you to stop. And losing Neighbors on top of that? Feels like Netflix is wiping out a whole era of laugh-out-loud ridiculousness.

And then the classics. The Departed, The Deer Hunter, The Blues Brothers, The Theory of Everything. These are films that defined generations of movie nights, and now they are evaporating like they never lived in your “watch later” list. Even cult gems like Coneheads and A Night at the Roxbury are bidding farewell, leaving behind nothing but inside jokes that only a select few will still get.

October should be a time for horror marathons, but Netflix clearly didn’t get the memo. Out go Insidious: Chapter 2, Krampus, Van Helsing, and even A24’s Talk to Me. Horror season without them feels a little hollow. Like decorating the house for Halloween but forgetting the candy. Which is technically fine, but something vital is missing.

There are some quiet departures that cut deep, too. Judy, Miss Juneteenth, Mary and the Witch’s Flower, and The Mole Agent. Not blockbusters, but the kind of discoveries that hurt.

Series aren’t safe either. White Collar, the ultimate slick-and-charming binge, is leaving. That one hurts because it was a comfort blanket for bad days. Chappelle’s Show is also gone, taking with it sketches that have been part of the cultural bloodstream for years. Even lesser-known entries like Oktoberfest: Beer & Blood and early Netflix Originals like Battle are being taken away, proving that no title is too sacred or too obscure to escape the purge.

So, what do we do? We mourn a little. We squeeze in one last rewatch if we can. And we remember that with Netflix, arrivals and departures are part of the deal. Still, it’s okay to feel a little betrayed.

So if you’ve been putting off a rewatch, now is the time. Because come next week, these titles will be gone, and all we’ll have left are the memories… and the hope they’ll wander back someday.

Every movie and series leaving Netflix this week

Movies

September 29th

• Battle (2018) – Netflix Original
• Frank (2014)

September 30th

• What We Leave Behind (2022)

October 1st

• A Good Old Fashioned Orgy (2011)
• A Million Ways to Die in the West (2014)
• A Night at the Roxbury (1998)
• Alpha (2018)
• American Graffiti (1973)
• American Pie (1999)
• American Pie 2 (2001)
• Big Daddy (1999)
• Blades of Glory (2007)
• Bonnie & Clyde (2013)
• Born on the Fourth of July (1989)
• Coneheads (1993)
• Dazed and Confused (1993)
• Dragnet (1987)
• Dune (1984)
• Focus (2015)
• Friday Night Lights (2004)
• Good Burger (1997)
• Green Zone (2010)
• Grown Ups (2010)
• Hop (2011)
• Insidious: Chapter 2 (2013)
• Judy (2019)
• Kandahar (2023)
• Krampus (2015)
• Last Seen Alive (2022)
• Mary and The Witch’s Flower (2017)
• Miss Juneteenth (2020)
• Mission: Impossible (1996)
• Mission: Impossible II (2000)
• Mission: Impossible III (2006)
• Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (2011)
• Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation (2015)
• Modest Heroes: Ponoc Short Films Theatre (2018)
• Neighbors (2014)
• Now You See Me (2013)
• Now You See Me 2 (2016)
• Old School (2003)
• Rudy (1993)
• Rush (1998)
• Rush Hour 2 (2001)
• Rush Hour 3 (2007)
• Slap Shot (1977)
• Spoiled Brats (2021) – Netflix Original
• Superstar: Dare to Dream (1999)
• S.W.A.T.: Under Siege (2017)
• Talk to Me (2022)
• Talk to Me (2023)
• The Age of Innocence (1993)
• The American (2010)
• The Blues Brothers (1980)
• The Deer Hunter (1978)
• The Departed (2006)
• The Equalizer 2 (2018)
• The Great Outdoors (1988)
• The Great Waldo Pepper (1975)
• The Interview (2014)
• The Prince of Egypt (1998)
• The Tale of Despereaux (2008)
• The Theory of Everything (2014)
• U-571 (2000)
• Van Helsing (2004)
• Wayne’s World (1992)
• Wayne’s World 2 (1993)
• Wrath of the Titans (2012)
• Wyatt Earp (1994)
• Zoolander (2001)

October 2nd

• Òlòtūré (2019) – Netflix Original

October 3rd

• Beth Stelling: If You Didn’t Want Me Then (2023) – Netflix Original
• Filth (2013)
• The Bricklayer (2023)
• The Mole Agent (2020)

October 5th

• Noblemen (2019)

Series

September 30th

• Chappelle’s Show (2003–2004, Seasons 1–2)

October 1st

• Rubble & Crew (2023, Season 1) – removal notice no longer showing
• White Collar (2009–2014, Seasons 1–6)

October 2nd

• Oktoberfest: Beer & Blood (2020, Limited Series) – Netflix Original