The sci-fi thriller, NBC’s La Brea, was cancelled too soon. However, now it has made an unexpected comeback on Netflix, quickly becoming one of the most-watched titles on the platform. The show has a mix of mystery, time travel, and emotional stakes, and is proving that sometimes it just takes a second chance for a cancelled series to become a massive hit. 

It slipped through the cracks once, but now it is impossible to ignore. 

La Brea, a three-season favorite premiered on NBC in 2021 and was cancelled after its final season in 2024. The series became a streaming giant that was watched by millions within days of its debut on the streaming platform. The David Appelbaum show is now ranked at No. 3 on the Top 10 list of TV shows streaming in the United States.

It had everything from time travel to prehistoric creatures to government conspiracies to secret experiments. Some might say it had too much going on, but for the nerds and the geeks, it is everything they could ask for. 

For the unversed, the whole thing starts as a massive sinkhole bursts up at the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles, California, and a ton of people fall in it. At first, the sinkhole was a search and rescue operation, but it quickly became apparent that it was a gateway between 2021 and 10,000 BC. It is a three-season time travel adventure where major characters find out shocking revelations about the past, while trying to uncover the mystery behind the literal hole in spacetime. 

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Now, the plot might sound like a show built to last. However, even a high-concept mystery like La Brea couldn’t escape an early end. 

With the tight thrilling premise, viewers expected a sci-fi thriller like La Brea to go beyond three seasons. But that never happened and it became one of the ten must-watch cancelled shows in 2024. It started strong, averaging 6.37 million viewers in Season 1, but fell sharply in Season 2, when the average dropped to just 3.86 million viewers. Additionally, the curiosity factor had already passed. 

It was also cancelled due to its high production costs. It started with good ratings, but as interest slowly decreased, NBC had a harder time continuing such an expensive sci-fi show full of visual effects and large sets. At the same time, industry pressures also allegedly forced the network to cut costs and end the show sooner. 

Hence, season 3 was cut short and was meant to be the final season, so the story could wrap up instead of leaving things on a cliffhanger. However, now it is experiencing a revival. And its recent Netflix resurgence shows the story hit harder than it did at the time of its original release. 

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Now that La Brea is streaming on Netflix, is it finally getting the recognition it deserves? Let us know in the comments.