Nothing makes sense. The characters are all in different places than they should be, they keep making references to stuff taking place that you have no idea of. You see some important spoilers before you realize that what was labeled because the second episode is actually the 3rd. You've just been unwitting casualty of Netflix out of order shows.
Netflix uploads hundreds and hundreds of individual episodes each month, so they can be forgiven for making an occasional mistake in the system. Lamentably, this seems to happen quite often. Here's just some of the recent shows with episodes out of order on Netflix:
Recent shows on Netflix with missing or out of order episodes:
- Miami Vice
- Desperate Housewives
- Whale Wars
- Eureka
- MI-5
- Burn Notice
- 90210
- Mythbusters
- Women of Brewster Place
- Reno 911!
- Firefly
- Justified
- The Tudors
- Sliders
- Coach
More are being reported almost every day. Very often, when fans of these series complain about the missing episodes or spoilers Netflix takes the whole season down - making the show available on disc only. This is a really bad solution after they separated their online streaming and physical disc plans last year. Some other times they simply take away the offending episode, so only that episode cannot be watched online. So what is a bright, post-cable person to do? Are we supposed to go back to cable until streaming video is further developed?
Fortunately that's not the case. As this is the Internet Age, numerous sources of this kind of info have popped up to help you with the correct order. When shows have been taken down or are just missing, those sources will provide links to legal alternatives to see it online. This is the situation with the show Eureka, which the people over at CordCuttingWorld realized that you can watch Seasons 1 through 4 in order on Netflix, and Season 4-5 are both available on Hulu (you only need to be a Hulu Plus member to view Seasons 1-3). On a similar note, on the show "MI-5" the CordCuttingWorld team found the missing Season 1, Episode 2 is available on a public TV site legally. So you can make your way over to that site for the episode and then see the rest via Netflix. Sites like this are a lifesaver when you're trying to avoid accidentally stumbling onto a spoiler, and a simple search for something like"Netflix episodes out of order" will lead you to the right sites to check. Further on the previously mentioned CordCuttingWorld, all previous "Netflix Fixes (shows that they have posted the right order for) are listed on the right-hand side of the site. Open the site and browse the right column just before starting a new series and you'll be spoiler-free and still able to drop your satellite provider.
So go ahead! Turn off your expensive satellite or cable, buy a Netflix streaming plan, and keep an eye on CordCuttingWorld for out of order shows before you begin a new one. If you watch a new show on Netflix and find a show out of order, let others know by commenting in the CCW requests thread.
