The Most Controversial Sherlock Holmes Adaptation Heads to Netflix Ahead of Season 2

Netflix may be the home of Enola Holmes, but now, the platform is inviting another member of the legendary Sherlock Holmes’ inner circle to its catalog. The streamer put its ongoing feud with Paramount over who will acquire Warner Bros. aside for the moment to strike a deal that will bring a handful of Paramount+ titles over sometime in 2026. Among those is CBS’s Watson, the Morris Chestnut-led medical mystery procedural centered on the renowned sidekick of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle‘s landmark detective. The news came courtesy of Netflix’s fourth-quarter earnings letter, though release details, including whether both seasons will make the jump, are unclear at this time.

Watson debuted nearly one year ago on CBS with a shocking twist — Sherlock Holmes is dead. Not only that, but he was presumably killed by his arch nemesis, James Moriarty, played in the series by Randall Park. With his best friend and partner apparently gone, Dr. John Watson (Chestnut) returns to his medical practice six months later, applying his mystery-cracking skills to rare medical cases that enter his Pittsburgh clinic funded by Holmes’ will. However, while trying to save the lives of patients, he comes across evidence that indicates that Moriarty is still alive. The discovery kicks off a new chapter in the legendary rivalry in Season 1, with Watson and his team stepping up to thwart the villain who did in Holmes.

Given that Moriarty somehow survived the fatal encounter that seemingly killed both him and Holmes at Reichenbach Falls, the currently ongoing Season 2 addresses whether Holmes, too, could’ve lived through the incident. Indeed, the series landed a big new addition in the form of Robert Carlyle to play the returned detective while Watson continued his case-of-the-week work. He joined a cast that also features Eve Harlow, Peter Mark Kendall, Inga Schlingmann, Ritchie Coster, and Rochelle Aytes. Despite the talent involved in the Craig Sweeney-created series and a strong start in viewership that at one point overtook Tracker during Season 1, the series has been more controversial among critics and audiences, with just 50% and 35% score on Rotten Tomatoes, respectively. Season 2 has been hailed as an improvement, though, and, with new episodes expected to return to Sundays this spring, it will be a good chance for subscribers to jump in and catch up on the mystery.

What Other Paramount Shows Are Coming to Netflix?

Watson is just one of three Paramount+ streaming favorites making the jump to Netflix with this new licensing agreement. SEAL Team, the David Boreanaz-led military action drama, which concluded with Season 7 back in 2024, will also arrive on the platform in the U.S. sometime in 2026. The biggest shock, however, is Mayor of Kingstown. The Jeremy Renner-led crime drama will mark the first Taylor Sheridan-created series to appear on Netflix and the first to be available on any platform outside of Paramount+ since Yellowstone struck an early agreement to stream on Peacock. These three titles are part of the company’s push for more buzzy licensed titles throughout the year and just a small fraction of the 20 shows they say have been licensed. “We have a new slate of licensed titles from Paramount, which is going to bring a lot of new series, shows that Netflix has never had around the world,” Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos said about the deal.

Watson arrives on Netflix sometime in 2026. Stay tuned here at Collider for further updates when its streaming release date is announced.