Here’s why you might not see Babylon Berlin season 4 on Netflix this fall

01.09.2023 - 18:21 / polygon.com

If you asked me back in January 2023 what my most anticipated show of the year was, the answer was easy: Babylon Berlin season 4. There were several reasons it was at the top of my list, from the way the show built a glorious and grounded mystery in its previous seasons to the way it traced the crumbling Weimar Republic. Annoyingly, it was also my most anticipated show of 2022, and 2021 before that.

Yet here we are staring down another year, another preview, another list of most exciting TV shows to come and where is season 4? Much like Rihanna’s next album, we are constantly surfing the high of wondering, anticipating a drop at any moment. Unlike the long-awaited ninth album from Robyn Fenty, Babylon Berlin is, perplexingly… already out? It’s just not out here.

[Ed. note: We’re writing from the U.S., so our use of “here” means “the U.S., where we ache with anticipation and self-absorption.” If you’re somewhere this isn’t true, we are, sincerely, so jealous.]

In a day and age when so much is so accessible, the fact that Babylon Berlin season 4 has been released — in full — in Germany but not in the U.S. seems tantalizing and perplexing. The mystery is one that is worthy of the inquisitiveness of Gereon (Volker Bruch) and Charlotte (Liv Lisa Fries). Like their adventures in the late 1920s Weimar Republic, there seemed to be an obvious injustice thanks to some bureaucratic nonsense that could be righted.

But the answer — frankly like much of the corruption Gereon and Charlotte uncover in Babylon Berlin — is far more mundane. And unfortunately, for those of us who are hopeful for Babylon Berlin to suddenly get that “New Episode” tile on Netflix, the situation is just as precarious.

No! That’s part of the thing! Not only has Babylon Berlin season 4 aired — again, with all the American entitlement I can muster: In! Full! — it’s already been greenlit for season 5.

Tale as old as time, or at least as long as time has been streaming: Corporate rights.

Babylon Berlin is a co-production between ARD Degeto (a German free TV network) and Sky Deutschland, a Comcast subsidiary and satellite TV provider. The licensing agreement allows Sky to air the show first, as it did in fall 2022, then ARD gets the rights later before it lives on both channels’ platforms. This is of course just how rights work in Germany; in the dozens of other territories the rights go through different networks, like in the U.S. where it goes through Netflix.

But this year there was a plot twist: Sky announced it was shuttering its German scripted originals arm. While seasons that were already in production would be allowed to finish (like Das Boot season 4 or Helgoland 513), there would be no newly commissioned shows.

Thankfully, Baby