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There are no hard and fast rules for tv shows on Netflix. It all depends on who owns their Canadian distribution rights (for Netflix Canada).

There are some shows that are "Netflix Originals" that are only available on Netflix and are made available as full seasons at once. These are shows like Orange in the New Black and House of Cards.

There are some shows that Netflix took control of after they were cancelled by their original broadcaster and turned into "Netflix Originals" for one or more seasons. Arrested Development and The Killing are both examples of this type of show. Typically, once the deal is made for Netflix to produce new episodes, all of the previous episodes are made available and then once the new episodes are done, they're all released at once.

Then, there are the typical broadcast show that airs on a regular channel and is made available some months after the season finished airing, usually before the next season begins airing on the regular broadcaster. This is similar to the DVD release schedule a lot of shows have.

To further complicate things, there are some shows that Netflix owns the Canadian rights to (but not the US/UK rights), so those can show up on Netflix a lot faster than other shows. Season 2 of Hannibal was on Netflix within a week or two of the season ending on NBC (season 1 aired on City in Canada, but not season 2). The show Mike Tyson Mysteries airs on Adult Swim in the US (a channel not available here), and Netflix owns the Canadian rights to it, so new episodes are on Netflix Canada the day after a new episode airs in the US.


Then, to add a final wrinkle to the whole situation, the Netflix owns the local rights to some shows in other countries that they don't own in Canada or the US, so new episodes of those series may be on Netflix UK or Australia the day after they air on their US networks. If you have an international VPN, you can get some shows that way long before they show up on Netflix Canada.


I believe there's always at least a day's lag between a show airing in the US and it showing up on a local Netflix. If you want to be able to talk about Sunday night's episode of The Walking Dead on Monday morning, you're going to have to keep your subscription to AMC (or use torrents).