Below are some of the films and TV shows that couldn’t be airing were it not for Netflix that came to their rescue:

Stranger Things

The Duffer brothers presented the popular series “Wayward Pines,” which stars a couple of young teens, to many Hollywood networks as a nostalgic teen horror program set in the 1980s. They applied to fifteen or twenty networks, but were turned down each time until they were able to find a home on Netflix. The Duffer brothers remembered an executive putting out the suggestion that “the show should either be shifted to focus on the detective character, Hopper, investigating paranormal activity in the town, or turned into a kids’ show.”

Squid Game

After just 28 days of availability, Hwang Dong-hyuk’s well-known Green Light, Red Light game, also known as Squid Game, became the biggest series in Netflix history. But the success of the survival thriller did not come easily. Hwang developed the idea more than ten years prior, but until Netflix became involved in 2019, he was unable to secure backing from a network or production company.

Breaking Bad

While “Breaking Bad” is considered among the best TV shows ever made, it was passed up by several networks before AMC signed on to air the show. FX, TNT, and HBO all refused to air the story of Walter White amid fears of green-lighting a story about a teacher turned drug dealer.

Orange is the new black.

Jenji Kohan, the show’s creator, had a hard time persuading network executives that her program, which explored the brutal realities of life in a women’s jail, would be a hit. Once Netflix finally picked it up, it completely transformed how people watched TV. One of the first programs to release an entire season at once, it made it possible for viewers to binge-watch the whole thing in a single day. In addition to the numerous accolades it has received, it now holds an 8/10 rating on IMDb and a 90% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.