When La Brea premiered on NBC, it instantly set off Misplaced alarm bells: strange folks, a sudden disaster, prehistoric weirdness, and mysteries stacked on high of mysteries, and critics have been like, “We’ve seen this earlier than.” Like many style exhibits that dared to chase the mystery-box excessive, La Brea was branded a shameless try and recapture the magic of Misplaced, then picked aside for its pulpy plotting, tacky dialogue, and more and more unhinged mythology. The irony was that the muse was stable. The high-concept premise had all the suitable items, however the execution typically felt uneven. And but, lengthy after its finale, the sequence has delivered a staggering streaming efficiency because it finds itself amongst Netflix’s most-watched sci-fi exhibits of 2025.
In contrast to Manifest, which leaned closely into mirroring Misplaced’s construction, La Brea swung for one thing bolder. As an alternative of an air catastrophe in the midst of nowhere, the disaster strikes proper within the coronary heart of Los Angeles, the place an enormous sinkhole mysteriously opens and swallows whole metropolis blocks, plunging buildings and folks right into a harmful, primeval world under. These trapped on this prehistoric panorama are pressured to band collectively and discover a means again to the floor, whereas the family members left behind scramble to grasp what occurred. On the heart of all of it is the Harris household, torn fairly actually in two, with Gavin (Eoin Macken) and daughter Izzy (Zyra Gorecki) above floor, determined to reconnect with the remainder of their household misplaced beneath the sinkhole.
The vital verdict on La Brea was swift and unforgiving. Season 1 limped to a 29% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with the location’s consensus bluntly noting, “There could also be technique to its insanity, however La Brea merely doesn’t decide to its insane premise exhausting sufficient to shake out a present price watching — not less than not but.” Audiences, nevertheless, initially confirmed up. The sequence debuted to greater than six million viewers, signalling actual curiosity round its high-concept hook. Sadly, that momentum didn’t final. Scores steadily declined because the mythology grew extra unwieldy, and the present finally wrapped after three seasons, a run that, on the time, appeared to substantiate critics’ early doubts.
‘La Brea’ Was One in every of Netflix’s Most Watched Sci-fi Reveals within the First Half of 2025
La Brea aired its third and remaining season in February 2024, with the finale drawing simply over two million viewers, a far cry from the six million who tuned in for the debut. However paradoxically, the present subsequently grew in reputation on streaming. The sequence has since been made accessible to stream on Netflix in worldwide territories, and in 2025, the sequence appeared to have discovered fairly an viewers. Based on FlixPatrol information, Seasons 1 and a pair of racked up roughly 60 million hours considered, turning into the third and seventh most-watched sci-fi sequence within the January-to-June 2025 window. It is a formidable turnaround for a present as soon as dismissed as a knockoff. Maybe, a part of its enchantment lies in its “is unnecessary, however I can’t cease watching” issue. Viewers might roll their eyes, however they will’t look away.
La Brea is streaming totally free on Tubi within the US and on Netflix in a number of worldwide territories.
