She-Ra is gone from Netflix: What to do now
I don't know what kind of intro to give to this post other than joining the chorus of sadness and frustration over such a beloved and important show being taken down from its original platform. I remember not being able to sleep the night before the final season dropped, staying up until 3 am and then binging the entire thing in one go. I might write another post about what She-Ra means to me and its place in the history of sapphic media, but yeah, suffice to say for now, we're all rightfully sad.
Very quick run down
I'm not going to get into all the nuts and bolts of distribution, but basically, Netflix fucking lied when it said that She-Ra was a ''Netflix Original'' and who it truly belongs to is DreamWorks, who in turn is owned by NBCUniversal, who in turn is a subsidiary of Comcast. Netflix had a deal with NBCUniversal to distribute She-Ra for a number of years and now that deal is over, so it left Netflix, same situation as several other ''Netflix Originals'' that have left the platform like Voltron.
So, there's no use begging Netflix themselves to bring the show back, you have to appeal to DreamWorks/NBCUniversal, the actual owners of the She-Ra IP. NBCUniversal owns Peacock, so that's the streaming service some of the other DreamWorks shows pulled from Netflix have gone to and where She-Ra would be the most likely to end up in if it comes back.
Why legality matters
I'm going to make this clear up front: I'm not dying to give more money to Comcast's executives and shareholders, nor am I thrilled about the fact that so much mainstream entertainment is effectively held hostage by a handful of powerful conglomerates who are in the midst of acquiring each other and further monopolizing the media landscape. No, what this section is about is the importance of shows like She-Ra being available and easily accessible to their intended audiences, children.
I have young children in my life that spend way too many hours on their ipads, and they're not going on pirating websites or google drives to watch content. One of the reasons why traditional media has basically already lost the battle against platforms like YouTube and TikTok is because those are free and easily accessible. Why would a kid go through the trouble of digging through pirating websites or hunting down links of google drives when there's already endless hours of entertainment available just on YouTube alone? Even aside from TikTok and YouTube, it's just more user friendly for these kids to browse through a streaming service, which is precisely one of the big reasons why traffic to pirating websites went down back when streaming services first started getting big.
To be frank, I think it's condescending and short sighted to say ''Who cares if it's not legally available, you can still pirate it.'' Well, I care because I want kids and young teens whom this show would mean the world to to be able to discover She-Ra naturally on a big platform. The adults who already know about She-Ra can find and watch it easily enough, but the queer kids who are yet to discover She-Ra likely won't unless there's an adult in their lives that will introduce the show to them.
It used to be that She-Ra would come up as a recommendation on Netflix after watching another animated Netflix ''Original'' (heavy quotation marks on original). Being on the same platform as freaking KPop Demon Hunters was a big advantage, it naturally increased discoverability for the show. I don't think that any other paid streaming service aside from Disney+ has that kind of discoverability for family programming, but it sure as hell would still be nice for She-Ra to find a home on Peacock and be part of a proper catalogue again. It would also, obviously, be super nice if fans could own all the seasons on physical media.
Actions you can take
Tagging on social media: This is going to be the most common and easiest one, for understandable reasons. The only thing I would add is to not focus on tagging Netflix, focus on the DreamWorks and NBCUniversal social media accounts.
Signing and spreading petitions: This was the biggest petition I could find asking for the entire series to be released on physical media, so please sign and share it. There's also a gofundme to fly an aerial banner over DreamWorks Studios, which would obviously be incredibly cool if it does end up happening.
Writing to them: Call me an old fashioned geriatric millennial, but I still believe in the power of writing directly to companies. I think it leaves an impression whenever somebody takes time to write a proper letter, and of course the lack of character limits means you can express yourself to your heart's content.
The only email address I could find to contact DreamWorks was [email protected], I sent a short message to test it and so far I haven't gotten any notifications about there being a problem with the address.
DreamWorks also have a physical address you can send letters to if you want to really go the extra mile: 1000 Flower St, Glendale, CA 91201 , as well as a phone number you can call at 818-695-5000.
Suggested talking points when contacting them (you don't have to touch on all of these, just some ideas):
The importance of She-Ra to you and other queer viewers
How you have engaged with She-Ra aside from watching it (making cosplay, fan art, fanfics DON'T INCLUDE THAT ONE, being part of the fandom in general, etc.)
Any She-Ra merch, official or fan made, that you've bought
If there are any kids in your life you want to introduce the show to
The demand for all seasons to be available on physical media like DVD, Blu-ray, 4k, etc.
THE GOOD NEWS
It's actually not the case that you can't watch the last seasons anywhere legally. First off, the show is currently up on The Internet Archive , though how long it will be there probably depends on how litigious NBCUniversal are.
Also, and perhaps more importantly, She-Ra is already available online in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland in its entirety on Joyn. This is obviously great news for viewers in those countries in particular, and it also means that NBCUniversal doesn't intend to keep She-Ra completely locked away in some vault. People not from those countries who want to give the show a boost in official viewing metrics can simply use a VPN to watch it, and my understanding is that Joyn is free as well as available in English! This is also just one streaming service I came across, it's very possible there are streaming services from other countries that have the whole show up already and I'm simply not aware of them.
Have Hope
You know, in these times where it feels like everything is going straight to hell and She-Ra being taking off the platform feels like another sign of the incredibly shitty times we're living in, it's understandable to feel like any effort made is pointless. I can't guarantee you that She-Ra will be back on another major streaming service soon, or even eventually, but I do think it's more likely than not that it'll be easily accessible again.
Like I said above, it's already legally available in a few select places. The goal now is to push NBCUniversal to put it on Peacock and other widely available platforms around the world, as well as secure a physical release for the last two seasons.
She-Ra isn't some super niche show only a few people cared about. It might not feel as big as shows like Avatar or Voltron, but it's been beloved for many years now and is widely considered to have been groundbreaking. I'll leave you with this one last image to give you some hope, straight from DreamWorks's own website:
