For many, the beginning of the month of December marks the most overwhelming and busy time of the year as students work to excel in their final exams and projects, and teachers rush to get grades in and ensure all students end the semester on track. However, the end of the month is a different story as the much anticipated Winter Break arrives at last. Students earn well-deserved free time, relishing the chance to kick back and relax, spend more time with friends and family, or finally get around to binge-watching their favorite series on Netflix. Except, this year, the chill experience of watching Netflix will not come with quite the same allure as students log onto the streaming platform to find all their favorites have disappeared from the site– an anything but chill situation for film fanatics.

Each year, Netflix adds a ton of new content to the platform, but in order to do so, it has to get rid of some shows and movies. This is because Netflix does not own all the videos it streams, so content comes and goes with much regularity. This year, over 50 movies and series will be leaving the platform by the end of December, and most notably among those are Dexter, Gossip Girl, and The Notebook.

Although this out with the old, in with the new strategy is intended to keep the content on the platform fresh and prevent viewers from growing bored with their options, the removal of shows often sparks indignation as fans watch their favorites get taken away. The action is enough to cause some to even reconsider the continuation of their Netflix subscription as they turn to other platforms to keep up with certain shows and movies. “They take away everything good, removing some of my all-time favorites like Dexter and that 70’s show,” said junior Rives Smith. “If they keep removing these classics, I might have to drop my subscription and switch to Hulu.”

The end of December is also supposed to award students the chance to enjoy a stress-free couple of weeks. Except, some are instead having to use this free time scrambling to watch series before they are removed for good. Junior Ava Granot is one student particularly crestfallen with the removal of Gossip Girl. “I’ve watched the show six times over at least. Still, I am now having to rush to watch it a seventh time before Netflix takes it away,” she said.

So for those who have yet to watch some of the series being removed, take this final opportunity to watch Dexter, Gossip Girl, and other cinematic masterpieces alongside the other Dubs gearing up to squeeze in eight seasons of a show during the final days of 2020.