There is nothing worse than accessing a streaming service, hoping to see a certain show, and then realizing that it is no longer available. While it used to be rare, streaming services are frequently canceling TV shows and movies in order to save money.

It turns out that Paramount Plus has done just that. Shockingly, one of their shows has been suspended and I am outraged.

The show in question is The Gold, starring Hugh Bonneville, Dominic Cooper, Charlotte Spencer, and Jack Lowden. The show is about the 1983 Brinks-Matt robbery in London. The first season of six episodes was a hit for the BBC in the UK and a somewhat quiet hit for Paramount Plus in the United States. It was also a critical success, earning a 92% rating on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer; the BBC renewed it for a second time this past November.

But now, even if you have Paramount Plus, there is no way to watch the show. And people only find out about it when they look for the show on Paramount Plus. I only found out about it thanks to a recent episode of Ringer's podcast, The Watch.

So what happened? How does a show that is critically successful, has been renewed for a second season, has a star-studded cast, and is being pushed by two major studios, get taken off a major streaming service? And now that it's gone from Paramount Plus, will you still be able to watch it? After some research, both questions have been answered.

Ironically, we just learned that "The Gold" was robbed from Paramount Plus, but it seems that over the past month, people have been slowly realizing that it has disappeared from Paramount's catalog. r/ParamountPlus subreddit of the Reddit thread contains comments from about a month ago indicating that the show has mysteriously disappeared.

The thread also stated that no one had expected this to happen and did not know why it happened. So I did a little research and I think I figured it out. The Gold debuted on February 12, 2023. The show disappeared around February 2024. So did Paramount have streaming rights to the co-production for only one year? The math says yes, but the logic doesn't make sense. Why would Paramount lose the rights to a show that is currently in production for a second season?

The reason may be simple: at the announcement of season two, Deadline reported that Paramount was no longer involved in the production of The Gold. It seems odd to then sacrifice streaming rights in the U.S., but with rumors of a merger with Peacock and Paramount Global in financial trouble, perhaps the money simply wasn't right.

While there is no satisfactory end to this mystery, I am convinced that this is the most likely cause as to why "The Gold" disappeared from Paramount Plus. Now the question is: ...... Where can I watch it?

If you are in the UK, there is good news. The best way to watch "The Gold" is on BBC iPlayer, and it is still available there. And if you are a Brit abroad, you can watch it wherever you are using a VPN like ExpressVPN.

But if you are an American, you are limited to paid video-on-demand streaming services like Amazon and Apple TV. Of these, I recommend buying or renting "The Gold" from Amazon. Amazon has the most options for buying or renting: 4K, Full HD, and standard definition.

I myself will be doing so in the near future. With standard definition, you can rent the entire first season for only $9.99. It's more expensive than a subscription to Paramount Plus, but given the show's many accolades, including Esquire magazine's call it "the best of British TV," you'll have to watch it anyway. Let this be a lesson to those who continue to trust streaming services to watch the show.