It’s about to be the end of an all-too-short era for Netflix. 2 years ago, something strange happened at Netflix – something we’d all thought unthinkable, in fact – the streaming giant was able to license exclusive material from a rival service. In the summer of 2023, HBO licensed a selection of the premium TV channel’s greatest shows on a short-term contract (the length of which was undisclosed at the time). And now, sadly, as the deal comes to an end for those shows, Netflix fans are about to lose HBO’s greatest show of all time.
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Alongside The Pacific, HBO’s game-changing war epic Band of Brothers – made in collaboration with Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks – will leave Netflix entirely on September 15. This follows the departure of Insecure, Going Clear: Scientology & the Prison of Belief, and Dwayne Johnson’s Ballers, which all disappeared earlier this summer. With respect to those shows, none is as big a loss to Netflix as Band of Brothers, and if you’re looking for something profound and life-changing – without any hint of hyperbole – you should take the next 4 days to binge it.
The final HBO shows included in the deal are the also-excellent Six Feet Under, which is set to leave on November 1, 2025, and all 6 seasons of Sex and the City, which will stick around until June 30, 2026, having joined later.
Why Band of Brothers is HBO’s Best Ever Show
It’s always controversial to stand up and say that anything is the best of anything, and in HBO’s case, there’s a lot of competition. But Band of Brothers has only grown in reputation in the quarter of a century since it was released. For a start, the cast is stunning, led by future TV royalty Damian Lewis, Ron Livingston, and pretty much every actor to ever work in Britain (including early cameos for James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, and Tom Hardy). They navigate the twin responsibilities of establishing brotherhood and convincingly showing the horrors of war with haunting success. And the cameos of the real-life Easy Company veterans are a beautiful touch.
Band of Brothers was the moment HBO truly announced itself as cinematic: sure, there had been great, glossy shows before, but this was like watching an extended Saving Private Ryan. The war sequences are traumatic, the personal relationships compelling, and the devastatingly real moments – of death, liberation, and love – are just as profound now as they ever were. And while other shows like The Sopranos, The Wire, and Game of Thrones have very legitimate claims to HBO’s top table, none of them were as perfectly consistent as Band of Brothers, which was short enough to avoid any sag at all. Yes, it’s a close-run race, but I’ve thought about this for decades, and it’s the only answer.
You Still Have Time To Binge Band of Brothers
While it’s a shame that we only got 10 episodes of Band of Brothers, the silver lining is that it’s the perfect show to watch over a single weekend – or in this case, over 4 days. And despite the heavy material, the miniseries works as a bingeable series, with chapters that ebb and flow with emotion, and cleverly pitched breathers between the most tense moments. So what are you waiting for?
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