Stania Katic in Absentia season 2Elena Nenkova / ©Amazon / Courtesy Everett Collection
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Dan Zinski
Published 23 minutes ago
Dan Zinski is a freelance scribe currently contributing to ScreenRant as a movie and TV news writer. He previously wrote for FanSided, The Viking Age and Lightly Buzzed.
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There is no absence of interest in the 3-season FBI thriller show that recently debuted worldwide on Netflix.
Absentia premiered November 14, 2025 on the world’s biggest streamer, and has gone straight to near the top of the service’s global streaming chart, landing at #2 for November 25, 2025.
The show’s performance has been stronger overseas than in the US, where it only places #8. Globally, only the twisty thriller series The Beast In Me places higher.
Becoming more widely available has helped Absentia catch on as a streaming hit. The show debuted on Prime Video back in 2017, with the first 2 seasons also carried to international audiences on Sony’s AXN.
Absentia season 3 made its way to Prime Video in 2020, but was only available to United States customers. It seems a lot of international Absentia fans are sitting down to catch up on season 3, now that it’s finally been made available worldwide by Netflix.
Castle’s Stana Katic headlines Absentia as Emily Byrne, an FBI agent kidnapped by a serial killer and kept in captivity for six years, during which time she is declared dead in absentia. Suspected of being a murderer herself, the bewildered Emily must go on the run in order to clear her name.
Critics were never as high on Absentia as audiences, leading to a big Rotten Tomatoes divide between season 1’s poor 47% Tomatometer score and significantly higher 67% Popcornmeter number.
Rotten Tomatoes has no critics’ score for Absentia seasons 2 and 3, but its audience score has remained solid, with season 2 sitting at 77% and season 3 all the way up at 82%.
Absentia season 1 reviews praised the show’s lead actor Katic, but accused the writing of leaving the star stranded in a predictable narrative.
ScreenRant’s own run-down of Katic’s 10 best movies and shows includes an Absentia review that mostly agrees with critical consensus as reflected by the show’s 47% RT score for season 1.
“The mystery at the core of Absentia is less interesting than the setup and there are diminishing returns over the three seasons of the show,” ScreenRant says, adding, “It also depends a little too much on classic procedural tropes to bring anything totally new to the genre.”
Speaking to ScreenRant back in 2020, Katic addressed Absentia’s very real international dynamic, and how it helped the show achieve greater authenticity:
This is a global story that was influenced by people from across the globe. And that's something that I think is a credit to the culture of the show that was sustained by our showrunner [Will Pascoe].
Absentia was canceled after season 3, having produced 30 episodes from 2017-2020. All three of those seasons are now available on Netflix.
Absentia
10 stars 9 stars 8 stars 7 stars 6 stars 5 stars 4 stars 3 stars 2 stars 1 star Like Follow Followed TV-MA Crime Drama Mystery Release Date 2017 - 2020-00-00 Directors Oded Ruskin, Kasia Adamik, Greg Zglinski, Adam Sanderson Writers Gaia, Violo, Matt CirulnickCast
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Stana Katic
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Matthew Le Nevez
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Patrick Heusinger
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Cara Theobold
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Absentia
We want to hear from you! Share your opinions in the thread below and remember to keep it respectful.
Absentia was canceled after 3 seasons - do you think this was the right decision or would you have liked to see the story continue?
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23 minutes ago
Fans of the show who enjoyed the mystery and Stana Katic's performance may have wanted to see more seasons to further explore the characters and storylines. However, with the series' mixed reviews and declining reliance on procedural tropes, others might argue that ending it after 3 seasons was the right choice to maintain quality and avoid stretching the premise too thin. The cancellation could also leave the show with a more concise, complete story.
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