Netflix Just Scored a New Sleeper Hit With a 3-Part Sci-Fi Series Taking Over the World

_

By

Safwan Azeem

Published May 4, 2026, 8:00 PM EDT

Feel free to connect with him or check out his work. He's everywhere — Upwork, YouTube, Spotify, SoundCloud, Collider, LinkedIn, Instagram. 

Sign in to your Collider account

Netflix has turned a cancelled network sci-fi show into a fast-moving chart play. After all three seasons landed on the platform on May 1, 2026, the series entered FlixPatrol’s U.S. Netflix TV **chart at No. 3 on May 2 and held that exact spot on May 3 and May 4. **The Netflix bump also makes sense because this is a completed three-season genre package with a built-in “why did this end?” hook. Not to mention a lot of people would now be sampling it without even knowing that the show was cancelled after three seasons.

The show originally ran on NBC from 2021 to 2024, but its final season was shortened to six episodes, with reports tying the abbreviated order to strike-contingency planning and cast-contract logistics. That kind of messy network ending can hurt a live-broadcast run, but it can help on streaming: viewers now get a contained, 30-episode sci-fi mystery without waiting years for answers.

The series is La Brea_, created by David Appelbaum and starring Natalie Zea, Eoin Macken, Zyra Gorecki, and Jack Martin. Its premise is pure network sci-fi madness in the best streaming-binge way: a massive sinkhole opens in Los Angeles, sending survivors into a dangerous ancient world while their loved ones above ground search for answers. Netflix frames the story around a family split between two worlds, with primeval threats, survival alliances, military rescue efforts, and time-travel mystery all feeding the hook. That makes its sudden Top 3 Netflix arrival easy to understand: the premise is instantly clickable.

_

COLLIDER Collider · Quiz

Collider Exclusive · Sci-Fi Survival Quiz Which Sci-Fi World_ Would You Survive? The Matrix · Mad Max · Blade Runner · Dune · Star Wars

Five universes. Five completely different ways the future went wrong — or sideways, or up in flames. Only one of them is the world your instincts were built for. Eight questions will figure out which dystopia, galaxy, or desert wasteland you'd actually make it out of alive.

💊The Matrix 🔥Mad Max 🌧️Blade Runner 🏜️Dune 🚀Star Wars

TEST YOUR SURVIVAL →

QUESTION 1 / 8INSTINCT

01 You sense something is deeply wrong with the world around you. What do you do? The first instinct is often the truest one.

APull on every thread until I understand the system — then figure out how to break it. BStop asking questions and start stockpiling — food, fuel, weapons. Questions don't keep you alive. CKeep my head down, observe carefully, and trust no one until I know who's pulling the strings. DStudy the patterns. Every system has a rhythm — learn it, and you learn how to survive it. EFind the people fighting back and join them. You can't fix a broken galaxy alone.

NEXT QUESTION →

QUESTION 2 / 8RESOURCE

02 In a world of scarcity, what resource do you guard most fiercely? What we protect reveals what we believe survival actually requires.

AKnowledge. If you understand the system, you don't need resources — you can generate them. BFuel. Everything else — movement, power, escape — runs on it. CTrust. In a world of fakes and informants, a truly reliable ally is rarer than any commodity. DWater. And after water, information — the two things empires are truly built on. EShips and credits. The galaxy is big — you survive it by being able to move through it freely.

NEXT QUESTION →

QUESTION 3 / 8THREAT

03 What kind of threat keeps you up at night? Fear is useful data — if you're honest about what you're actually afraid of.

AThat reality itself is a lie — that everything I experience has been constructed to keep me compliant. BA raid. No warning, no mercy — just the roar of engines and then nothing left. CBeing identified. Once someone with power decides you're a problem, you're already out of time. DBeing outmanoeuvred — losing a political game I didn't even know I was playing. EThe Empire tightening its grip until there's nowhere left to run.

NEXT QUESTION →

QUESTION 4 / 8AUTHORITY

04 How do you deal with authority you don't trust? Every dystopia has a power structure. Your approach to it determines everything.

ASubvert it from the inside — learn its rules well enough to weaponise them against it. BIgnore it and stay out of its reach. The further from any power structure, the better. CAppear to comply while doing exactly what I need to do. Visibility is the enemy. DManoeuvre within it carefully. You can't beat a system you refuse to understand. EResist openly when I have to. Some things are worth the risk of being seen.

NEXT QUESTION →

QUESTION 5 / 8ENVIRONMENT

05 Which environment could you actually endure long-term? Survival isn't just tactical — it's physical, psychological, and very much about where you are.

AUnderground bunkers and server rooms — cramped, artificial, but with access to everything that matters. BOpen wasteland — brutal sun, no shelter, constant movement. At least the threat is honest. CA dense, rain-soaked city where you can disappear into the crowd and nobody asks questions. DMerciless desert — extreme heat, no water, and something enormous living beneath the sand. EThe fringe — backwater planets and busy spaceports where the Empire's attention rarely reaches.

NEXT QUESTION →

QUESTION 6 / 8ALLIANCE

06 Who do you want in your corner when things fall apart? The company you keep is the clearest signal of who you actually are.

AA tight crew of believers who've seen behind the curtain and have nothing left to lose. BOne or two people I'd trust with my life. Any more than that and someone talks. CNobody, ideally. Alliances are liabilities. I work alone unless I have no choice. DA community bound by shared hardship and mutual survival — people who need each other to last. EA ragtag team with wildly different skills and total commitment when it counts.

NEXT QUESTION →

QUESTION 7 / 8MORALITY

07 Where do you draw the line — if you draw one at all? Every survivor eventually faces a moment that tests what they're actually made of.

AI won't harm the innocent — even the ones who'd report me without hesitation. BI do what I have to to protect the people I've chosen. Everything else is negotiable. CThe line shifts depending on who's asking and what's at stake. DI draw a long-term line — nothing that compromises my people's future, even if it'd help now. ESome lines, once crossed, can't be uncrossed. I know which ones they are.

NEXT QUESTION →

QUESTION 8 / 8PURPOSE

08 What would actually make survival worth it? Staying alive is one thing. Having a reason to is another.

AWaking others up — dismantling the illusion so no one else has to live inside it. BFinding somewhere — or someone — worth protecting. A reason to keep moving. CAnswers. Understanding what I am, what any of this means, before time runs out. DLegacy — shaping the future in a way that outlasts me by generations. EFreedom — for myself, for others, for every world still living under someone else's boot.

REVEAL MY WORLD →

Your Fate Has Been Calculated You'd Survive In… Your answers point to the world your instincts were built for. This is the universe your temperament, your survival instincts, and your particular brand of stubbornness were made for.

The Resistance, Zion

The Matrix You took the red pill a long time ago — probably before anyone offered it to you. You're a systems thinker who can't help but notice the seams in things.

• You're drawn to understanding how the system works before figuring out how to break it.

• You'd find the Resistance, or it would find you — your instinct for spotting constructed realities is the machines' worst nightmare.

• You function best when you have access to information and the freedom to act on it.

• The Matrix built an airtight prison. You'd be the one probing the walls for the door.

The Wasteland

Mad Max The wasteland doesn't reward the clever or the well-connected — it rewards those who are hard to kill and harder to break. That's you.

• You don't need comfort, community, or a cause larger than the next horizon.

• You need a vehicle, a clear threat, and enough fuel to outrun it — and you're good at all three.

• You are unsentimental enough to survive that world, and decent enough — just barely — to be something more than another raider.

• In the wasteland, that distinction is everything.

Los Angeles, 2049

Blade Runner You'd survive here because you know how to exist in moral grey areas without losing yourself completely.

• You read people accurately, keep your circle small, and ask the questions others prefer not to answer.

• In a city where humanity is a legal designation rather than a feeling, you hold onto something that keeps you functional.

• You're not a hero. But you're not lost, either.

• In Blade Runner's world, that distinction is everything.

Arrakis

Dune Arrakis is the most hostile environment in the known universe — and you are precisely the kind of person it rewards.

• Patience, discipline, and political awareness are your core strengths — and on Arrakis, they're survival tools.

• You understand that the long game matters more than any single victory.

• Others come to Dune and are consumed by it. You'd learn its logic and earn its respect.

• In time, you wouldn't just survive Arrakis — you'd begin to reshape it.

A Galaxy Far, Far Away

Star Wars The galaxy far, far away is vast, loud, and in a constant state of violent political upheaval — and you wouldn't have it any other way.

• You find meaning in being part of something larger than yourself — a cause, a crew, a rebellion.

• You'd gravitate toward the Rebellion, or the fringes, or whatever pocket of the galaxy still believes the Empire's grip can be broken.

• You fight — not because you have to, but because standing aside isn't something you're capable of.

• In Star Wars, that willingness is what makes all the difference.

↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ

Why Did ‘La Brea’ Get Cancelled After Three Seasons?

La Brea ended after three seasons because NBC’s renewal came with unusual production realities. La Brea Season 3, for instance, was ordered as a shortened six-episode final run, largely shaped by strike-contingency planning before the 2023 WGA **and SAG-AFTRA **work stoppages. The shorter order also helped release cast members from longer contract obligations, making it easier for actors to pursue other work once the show wrapped. Ratings likely played into the decision, too: the series started in 2021 and currently has a weak 45% audience rating on RT and 5.8/10 ratings on IMDB.

La Brea is available to stream on Netflix. Stay tuned to Collider for more updates.

_

La Brea

**

Like

Follow

Followed

TV-14

Drama

Action & Adventure

Fantasy

Science Fiction

Release Date**

2021 - 2024-00-00

Network

NBC

Directors

Adam Davidson, Cherie Nowlan, Thor Freudenthal, David Barrett, Ron Underwood, Greg McLean, Nick Gomez, Rose Troche, Christine Moore, Tara Miele

Writers

David Appelbaum, Rob Wright, Christopher Hollier, Jerome Schwartz, Onalee Hunter, Jessica Granger, Jose Molina, Russel Friend, Bisanne Masoud, Zakiyyah Alexander, Erica Meredith

**

Where to watch _

Close __

WHERE TO WATCH

Streaming**

BUY

Cast

Natalie Zea, Eoin Macken, Martin Sensmeier, Akosia Sabet, Chiké Okonkwo, Zyra Gorecki, Karina Logue, Jack Martin, Veronica St.