Why is Hulu denying us our annual rewatch of this spooky season staple?

Over the Garden Wall, Patrick McHale’s beloved Cartoon Network miniseries, is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year. Which makes it extra cruel that Over the Garden Wall is currently embroiled in a grim situation too many animated series have begun facing: It might be erased from legal streaming.

The only place you could legally stream Over the Garden Wall has been on Hulu. But Patrick McHale posted on September 19, 2024, that Over the Garden was apparently leaving Hulu that very day.

“Uh oh, is today the last day to watch Over the Garden Wall on Hulu this fall before it’s removed? Oops! Is that the last place for people to legally stream it? Oops! Happy 10th Anniversary!,” he wrote on X.

Ostensibly, Hulu realized they’d upset a lot of people. Hulu support commented on one fan’s outcry on X, apologizing “for any upset” and assuring fans, “Our team just confirmed with us that Over the Garden Wall will not be expiring.” PHEW! Excellent news! McHale jubilantly posted the update to his account.

But merely an hour later, McHale returned to X with a grim, infuriating update: “It’s definitely been removed from Hulu actually.”

I personally checked Hulu three hours later, and episodes 2 and 7 (out of 8) were bizarrely streaming on the platform, with the rest of the series missing in action. [Update: as of Monday, September 23, all 10 episodes are once again available on the platform.]

Hey Hulu: What the f**k?

In one of the comments to Patrick McHale’s post, one fan pointed out that Over the Garden Wall has huge spikes in viewership in September and October. In fact, watches were currently trending upward. It’s a Halloween show! Of course people want to save it for spooky season! I’d even say it’s become a spooky season staple for a lot of people!

In other words, September is the worst possible time to pull Over the Garden Wall from streaming.

Hulu’s actions here are infuriating, and all the more so because so many other animated shows have been removed from streaming in the past few years, particularly in the wake of the Warner Bros. and Discovery merger. Infinity Train, another Cartoon Network series, was the most high-profile loss.

Over the Garden Wall is at least available on DVD. Many newer series aren’t as lucky, meaning that their existence is essentially erased—unless you pirate the show.

Once again, here we are, musing over how execs toss around animation like it’s nothing. It becomes the duty of the shows’ creators, like McHale, to tell the fandom what’s going on. And that sucks.

I want my annual rewatch of Over the Garden Wall. Hulu, let us have this.