Before he was Jack Reacher, Alan Ritchson was the tough-talking linebacker Kevin “Thad” Castle on the football comedy Blue Mountain State, a raunchy and hilarious mash-up of Friday Night Lights and American Pie. If you missed out on that cult favorite sports series during its original run, well, you’re in luck: Not only is it already available to stream for free with ads on services like Freevee, Tubi, and Plex, but it’s going to be available to stream uninterrupted (again) on Netflix starting Wednesday, May 1, five years after it was suddenly removed from the streamer’s library.
Blue Mountain State ran for three seasons on Spike TV (now Paramount) and centered on a rather ridiculous fictional Midwest football team whose football team, the “Mountain Goats,” was full of ne’erdowellers who were obsessed with hard partying. The show ran for three seasons, from 2010-2011 but was canceled by Lionsgate TV in 2012.
Thanks to a Kickstarter campaign by series co-creator Eric Falconer, which raised more than $1.9 million, a follow-up movie, titled Blue Mountain State: The Rise of Thadland as a nod to Ritchson’s character name, was released in 2016. The film will also be available to stream on Netflix starting May 1 for all the completionists in the bleachers.
If the Alan Ritchson of it all wasn’t draw-in enough for finally checking out Blue Mountain State on its new (and old) streaming home, a sequel series may be on the way. Deadline reported in February that Lionsgate Television is in negotiations to bring the show back, with Ritchson reprising his role and fellow co-leads Darin Brooks and Chris Romano reprising their roles alongside him. Given Ritchson’s success on Amazon’s Reacher, the trade reports it’s likely to head there when the series gets the official green light.