Netflix Rescues Showtime's 'Entitled' From Paramount-Induced Limbo

It was over three years ago, in June 2022, that Showtime and Channel 4 announced they would collaborate on a new co-production series called Entitled. The series would star American actor and Stranger Things breakout star Brett Gelman, who was also still riding high on his turn in Phoebe Waller-Bridge's Fleabag, as Gabe, the grieving husband of a long-lost relative of the British aristocracy. Though the series begins in the U.S. and stars an American, it was a very promising-sounding series for Anglophiles, which is why its emergence from streaming limbo to premiere on Netflix in July 2025 is welcome news.

Upon learning his wife's passing leaves him a giant fortune and a crumbling gothic mansion in the English countryside, Gabe decides to try to become an English Country Gentleman, only to be confronted with his wife's eccentric family and quickly realizes why she fled to the U.S. These estranged relatives have been living the genteel poverty life in her mansion, and expect their new patriarch to allow them to continue living there in the manner to which they are accustomed.

Showtime was still a standalone network in 2022, making its own deals, and its co-production with Channel 4 was merely the next in a long line of US-UK series, along with shows like The Woman in the Wall. However, it wasn't long before Showtime was merged under the Paramount+ umbrella, becoming "Paramount+ with Showtime," and Entitled became part of a slew of U.K. shows greenlit by the streaming service... which were then mass canceled in 2024. Despite being completed, Entitled was one of those shelved, even though Paramount+ hadn't even been the ones to greenlight it in the first place.

This is not Netflix's first rescue by far, but it is notably the second show for July 2025 that was co-produced by a streaming service that then never aired the completed series. The Lazarus Project Season 2, a TNT show given the same cancellation-by-fiat treatment by the company's streaming service, even though it wasn't the one that made the deal, will also premiere at the end of July. It's a significant signal that the streaming wars are, at this point, basically over, and it should not be a surprise if we start seeing more Paramount+ and HBO Max shows arriving on Netflix as production studios give up the dream of airing them themselves and just go for the licensing fees they'll bring in instead.

Like The Lazarus Project's second season, which aired as initially planned in 2023 in the U.K. even as it disappeared over here, Entitled also already debuted in 2023; however, it wasn't in the U.K. or on Channel 4, who have been unable to move forward with it because of the Paramount+ fiasco. Instead, it aired in Australia on Foxtel. The series still does not have a U.K. premiere date, although Channel 4 now lists it as coming "in 2025," suggesting that once it is live on Netflix, the network will be free to premiere it as well. Also, most interestingly, there's no trailer to be found online either.

The synopsis from Netflix is sparse:

Gabe, an American widower, must get to know his British wife’s estranged family in their crumbling gothic mansion in the English countryside.

Gelman co-stars with several PBS favorites, including Pippa Bennett-Warner (Moonflower Murders), Brendan Patricks (Endeavour), Donald Sumpter (Les Misérables), and Mark Quartley (The Marlow Murder Club). The supporting cast includes Charlotte Arrowsmith (This is Going to Hurt), Kelly Wenham (Merlin), Jonathan Livingstone (Bridgerton), Eliza Hunt (Unforgotten), Joseph Macnab (Cursed), and newcomer Ari Dayan.

The concept was dreamed up by series creator Matt Morgan (Mister Winner) and is not based on any pre-existing novel or property. Morgan co-wrote the eight-episode series with Leo Reich, Gemma Bedeau, and Krissie Ducker. Director Tim Kirkby (You, Me & The Apocalypse) helmed all eight installments.

All episodes of Entitled will debut on Netflix in the U.S on Tuesday, July 15, 2025.