Mullis: The battle has been lost against Netflix, but not the entire 'Foyle's War'

Netflix sends me emails with the subject “Nicole, we just added a show you might like,” but they don’t know what I like.

Everyone in my family uses my account and we rarely agree on what to watch — terrible rom-coms, gory war movies, yet another Audrey Hepburn film. I delete these emails without opening them.

That is until Netflix took something I actually like.

Before I had kids, I followed a few television series but motherhood made tuning in at the same time each week as rare as successfully programming a VCR. When streaming services like Netflix made television series “on demand,” my teens embraced the binge, but I remained a one-episode-at-a-time girl. A good show would last me a while.

Recently, my editor recommended “Foyle’s War,” a British production. Apparently, this critically acclaimed series ended in 2015 after a nine-season run. My editor closed her recommendation by saying the series had been on Netflix “forever.”

Perfect.

I watched the pilot and was hooked. The show centers on a police detective working in England during WWII. Each episode is a self-contained mystery, but the bigger story is Foyle’s devotion to justice in a world gone mad.

I decided to stream the show at night after everything was done. It would be my treat. Unfortunately, I kept nodding off, which is a bad thing to do with a who-done-it.

My sister suggested I put the Netflix app on my phone, so I could watch when I had downtime during the day and was more caffeinated. I could stream shows or download an episode for viewing on the go without using my data.

I didn’t know this was a thing. I felt like a squirrel with a store of nuts – nine seasons of great television ready whenever I’m waiting for a kids’ game to start or Microsoft to install a critical update.

A few weeks ago, I had the second episode of season two in my phone and an hour to kill between games of my daughter’s soccer tournament. I got in my car, rolled down the windows, opened the app, and…“Title no longer available.”

I figured the error was on my end. When I got home, I logged into my Netflix account only to find all nine seasons of “Foyle’s War” were gone. No warning. No email saying, “Nicole, we’re going to remove a show that we know you like, so take three days off and start binging.”

I didn’t understand. There are a lot of crummy shows they could have taken. Why “Foyle's War”?

I went to Netflix’s help center. They had the usual FAQs, none of which expressed outrage about “Foyle’s War.” I didn’t want to write an email that would rot in a digital garbage can, so I hit the “Live Chat” button. I wanted a real live person to give me a real live answer.

The real live answer was the contract had changed. I told them I was in the middle of the binge, figuring that would be sacred ground to them and worth opening back-channel access to the show or at least free DVD rental until I’m done.

The representative was sympathetic but could only offer me a link to request the show’s return. Demoralized, I clicked the link repeatedly, binge-questing “Foyle’s War.”

My Netflix emails have doubled as a result, each one proclaiming, “Nicole, we just added a show you might like.”

I open them like ransom notes to no avail — yet.

I accept I’ve lost the battle, but not “Foyle’s War.”

Nicole L.V. Mullis is the author of “A Teacher Named Faith.” You can reach her at nlvm.columns@gmail.com or www.NicoleLVMullis.com.