Beauty and the Beast, the 2012 detective drama starring Kristin Kreuk and Jay Ryan, is now streaming free on Channel 5. For viewers who missed it the first time around, the four-season series is suddenly easy to find again.

That matters because the show has been out of regular circulation since it ended in 2016, and its return gives a new audience access to a series built around Catherine Chandler, a New York detective played by Kreuk, and Vincent, the former soldier presumed dead in Afghanistan who pulls her into a dangerous partnership. The story starts with Catherine surviving her mother’s murder, then later meeting Vincent during an investigation and realizing there is far more to him than she first believes.

What keeps the show moving is not just the casework but the bargain at its core. Catherine agrees to stay silent about Vincent’s secret in exchange for his help in uncovering the truth about her mother’s death, and that uneasy deal gives the drama its lasting pull. It is a risk from the start: trust is the currency, and both sides know the price could be ruin.

Beauty and the Beast also leaned into the romance as much as the mystery, which helped separate it from a standard police series. Austin Basis and Nina Lisandrello were part of the cast as well, and viewers who have rediscovered the show on Channel 5 have described it as addictive, unusual and hard to stop watching.

For now, the main change is simple. A 2012 series that finished its run in 2016 is available again without a paywall, and that is enough to put Kristin Kreuk back in front of a fresh wave of viewers looking for a detective drama with a harder edge and a more complicated heart.