‘Weeds’ Returns to Netflix But Only In International Regions
At least at the moment, the United States isn’t amongst the list of recipients, however.
Picture: Lionsgate Television
This year marked the 20th anniversary of the season 1 premiere of Weeds on Showtime, back in 2005. For many, they’ll have been exposed to Weeds for the first time via Netflix in the 2010s, but the show was yanked in 2020. Now, all these years later, following the show’s departure from the streamer, it’s been re-added in most international territories.
The show comes from Jenji Kohan, who, as you may know, has been working with Netflix on many projects in recent years under an overall deal. She began her Netflix run with Orange is the New Black and has since worked on Worn Stories and executive-produced GLOW, Teenage Bounty Hunters, and The Decameron.
In case you missed it on its first run, the series follows Nancy Botwin, who is recently widowed and turns to dealing marijuana to support her two sons, all while trying to maintain a picture-perfect reputation in the tidy suburb of Agrestic. Meanwhile, PTA mother Celia Hodes is determined to catch her daughter Quinn sneaking around with Nancy’s son Silas, only to uncover far more than she expected.
The series ran for 8 seasons across 102 episodes, and although there were plans for a reboot, those were confirmed to be scuppered over the summer.
The return to Netflix comes after four or five years for many. Most regions of the streamer saw the show depart in full back in early 2020. The series was re-added in full across most of Europe today, including Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and Turkey. The United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia were among the recipients, as were many Latin American territories.
Our understanding is that Netflix has picked up the show on a short, one-year license, meaning it’ll leave at the earliest in November 2026, unless an extension is negotiated.
The United States was the biggest holdout. The United States previously streamed the show through 2021. Since its removal from Netflix, it’s not been the easiest show to watch, with many lamenting on forums how hard it is to catch. It had a stint on Peacock in the US since its removal, but beyond that, it’s been mostly confined to VOD-only services.
The studio that produced it was Lionsgate Television, which holds the underlying distribution rights despite airing on Showtime. They’ve been on a licensing deal with Netflix as of late, with many of their hit shows from over the years, and even new ones, arriving on Netflix in the US and international territories.
Are you looking forward to Weeds returning to Netflix where you live? Are you in the US? Hope you’ll be next. Let us know in the comments.