The Best and Worst Streaming Services
What used to be synonymous for years with Netflix is now the next frontier of entertainment, all a studio's hopes and dreams held together by digital code and accelerated by this horrid pandemic in the form of a streaming service. Cutely named 'The Streaming Wars,' though not nearly epic enough to live up to said name, studios have tweaked and published their home cinemas in the form of apps that customers can subscribe to in order to gain access to their digital library of film and television.
Throughout the past few years, customers have seen the skirmishes of war between these apps via licenses. If you ever wondered why a TV show was pulled from Netflix only for it to pop up on the newly minted Paramount+, that's simply the sign that Netflix's contract ran out. Now that Paramount has a place to store their own products they don't need to rent them out to competitors anymore. Notable examples of this include The Office moving to Peacock, Brookline Nine-Nine being divided between Peacock and Hulu, and the Netflix Marvel shows that moved over to Disney+. How important are these licenses you may ask, well, just look at the amount of money Netflix spent trying to keep Friends on their service.
Now that these streaming services have had a couple years under their belt, and the great license shuffling has settled down for a time, I thought it would be a grand idea to explore which streaming services are doing well, and which need some serious help if they're going to survive extinction. We certainly don't need another Quibi on our hands, especially with the vast original libraries under their control that will inevitably disappear and create thousands of lost media overnight.
HBO Max
This is quite possibly the most balanced streaming service available at the time of this post. The advantage HBO Max has is access to the vast spectrum of iconic Warner Bros. entertainment. The app can be divided between a number of hubs for easy access to their most popular properties like Cartoon Network, Adult Swim, Studio Ghibli, TCM, and Looney Tunes among others. It's quite easy to find what you're looking for and there is something for everyone of any age. They even have a great selection of animation ranging from preschool to adult, which most streaming services would lump together and not promote. The latest episodes from HBO are usually promoted on their home page so that weekly warriors can keep up to date.
The design is quite appealing and enhances the ease of access to titles. Recommended movies and shows pop up underneath a title's home page, recently added content is front and center on the home page of the app so that you're always up to date on what's available, and each title's promo card feels like a poster, as opposed to messy photoshop graphics, allowing viewers to scroll without any eye strain.
Their originals reflect the balance of content on their app from absurdist cartoons by Jellytone and serious capers like The Staircase, most of which are quite exciting.
Paramount+
The dark horse on this list, Paramount+ has been such a delight to discover over the past few months. Studios looking to get into the streaming game should look to this as a successful example. Paramount has a rich history in Hollywood and their app represents their history quite well. While their promotions may focus on modern features their library does store a rich history of cinematic gems from the 60s and 70s. It's not easy to find their older stuff unless you know what to look for, but their library does go farther back than most streaming services.
New to the original game, Paramount + has been putting genre after genre to the test in Halo and 1883. One of their original series (The Offer) is about the making of The Godfather. In it, you will hear numerous references to movies that made Paramount what it is today, and luckily everything they mention can be easily found on their service. They even have a recommended section that lists all the movies mentioned in the show, so if you ever wanted to know what Love Story is about that made Paramount think twice about selling their studio, it's on there waiting to be watched.
The true test of this streaming service, however, is how well it has done with marketing. It has the fairly standard pieces where new episodes of originals make it to the front page. Then there are marketing pieces that reflect the theater experience. When Sonic 2 came out Paramount+ made sure Sonic The Hedgehog was on the front page. When Top Gun: Maverick came out they made sure Top Gun was front and center. Then there's their algorithm, which so far has matched me fairly well based on what I put into My List (and helped me discover older films once I added those too). Overall, their marketing in the app has really impressed me and peaked my curiosity on what else they have, making me come back again and again. Even if it would be easier for them to have a classics tab.
AppleTV+
Like modern blockbusters, streaming services tend to aim for every demographic -- throwing everything they have at the wall to see what sticks -- in order to curate their libraries. AppleTV+ is the only service on this list that feels specifically adult-oriented and curated. Not a company to sweat over money, AppleTV+ has been giving out contracts to the most creative in the field to have, if not the best, the most respected library around. From massive science fiction epics (Foundation) to history documentaries (Prehistoric Planet) to new Charlie Brown specials, AppleTV+ is ramping up to be a powerhouse when it comes to quality. While some will balk at the small library on offer I like to view this as the antithesis of Netflix where it’s impossible to find something to watch.
The app needs some getting used to when you first dive in but with their limited library, it hasn't been a problem finding anything as of yet. What makes this streamer appealing is the adult tones it seems to strive for. While it has the money to be a spectacle, their stories tend to be thought-provoking and full of meaning. Recently they've also been on the kid crowd. What used to be primarily Snoopy and Charlie Brown content has grown to include El Deafo, Fraggle Rock Back to the Rock, Wolfboy, and a slew of other heartwarming kid stories. And while teens will definitely like what AppleTV+ has to offer, this streaming service does seem to have a sizeable hole when looking at the teenager demographic.
Prime Video
I have such a love/hate relationship with Prime Video. It has good content. The Boys is a tremendous breath of fresh air in the superhero genre, and the service has a ton of weird obscure movies from the 70s and beyond available, but the way the app is designed doesn't make me want to come back to it every day. When the streaming wars were just Netflix, Prime Video, and Hulu I actually liked the design. However, now with the influx of streaming apps, it's clear that Amazon has no intention of updating their service to something sleeker and that's a shame.
Amazon produces great movies. Indie arthouse gems thrive under their banner. Their shows are quite good, if at times experimental when they started doing original programming. What isn't good is the minimalist opaque design and the not great descriptions. Sometimes the bio of movies and tv shows are so bland it doesn't even describe what said movie or tv show is actually about. Their algorithm doesn't seem up to snuff compared to other services too.
What they do have is interesting, even if I tend to peruse their non-originals more often, and I do respect that they promote 4K, but ultimately Prime Video will never be my first choice.
Disney+
Disney has a massive catalog under their wing from Star Wars to 20th Century Fox, Pixar to Disney Channel originals, but what I’ve been finding myself drawn toward most while perusing their simplistic app are the older shows I feel nostalgic for, or newer shows that I had missed out on like Amphibia. Their library is quite a resource for nostalgia, appropriately.
The Disney+ app reflects the modern Disney mantra of everything new is sparkly and the most relevant. It has quite an aggressive streak when promoting new shows and movies that have dropped, and it will take more scrolling than other apps to find something that isn’t promoting work that released in the last 5-8 years. Their curation consists of their most expensive outings with Pixar and Star Wars.
The design is alright. Take away what you will of it, but the best descriptor one can come up with for Disney+ is that it is what’s expected from Disney. If you love what they have been putting out lately then you will enjoy this app immensely, however, if you have not then you may find it troubling how difficult it can be to find your favorite comfort shows without using the search bar.
Hulu
Hulu may have the simplest app on this list. A resource for modern television, Hulu is an ecstatic pool for those weekly warriors and truly a boon for those that have cut cable. They promote the latest episodes from new series as well as their odd originals whenever they drop, but Hulu’s premiere status does not lie in original content. While they have dived into original programming, to some success, their word of mouth is eclipsed by other streamers.
The app is dedicated on freshly new content and because of that their catalog can sometimes be hard to grasp. It feels more like flipping through TV stations when you’re trying to find something interesting to watch, and the simplistic style Hulu has been riding on for about a decade has now made it quite chaotic in trying to find something without having to spend ten to thirty minutes scrolling through their libraries. I do have to point out, though, that they have some interesting categories like ‘Adult Animation’ that other streamers do not offer. Alas, Hulu ultimately feels like wading through on demand than a modern streaming service these days.
Netflix
How the mighty has fallen.
Netflix has gotten some heat in recent years, and valid criticisms, when it comes to how they market and spend their money on original programming. What once was the one stop shop for streaming has now turned into a desperate attempt to stay relevant through expensive original tales. Granted, some of what they have done is great and has effected the cultural bubble (take Stranger Things) but for every big hit they have there seems to be a multitude of stock being buried.
Before bringing this film blog back I had entertained the idea of creating a magazine for streaming services. To prepare, I had made a list of every original property released by every streaming service in the month of December of 2021. Would you like to know how many original movies and TV shows Netflix had released in that one month alone? Over 80. Mind boggling. Absolutely mind boggling that Netflix had made/bought over 80 TV shows and movies from their own money and released them in a span of 30 days. You cannot market that. Netflix has so much stuff that it’s impossible to market anything other than their massive hits. That’s why you’ll always see Netflix original schlock pop up in the weirdest places, and why when that schlock is good you ask “why wasn’t this promoted?”
Similarly, this mindset of stick everything anywhere is what makes finding stuff on Netflix too difficult. Between their licensed offerings and their originals it can be daunting to find something to watch. The old adage of too many options being overwhelming is essentially Netflix’s slogan at this point and why I like to think AppleTV+ is the antithesis to that.
Peacock
I rarely go on Peacock. Not because they have bad originals, though few do peak my interest, but because their app interface hurts my brain. It feels incredibly outdated even though it’s the newest. Finding shows is a slow process and the automatic preview play is quite annoying when you’re trying to read what a show or movie is about.
I have checked out a few originals, and I think it’s perfectly what you’d expect from an NBC show. So far their offerings don’t feel any different than what they offer on TV. The catalog is interesting just because NBC has a rich history, but even their fair showings of classic television isn’t tantalizing enough for me to go back to their app again and again. Which is probably one of the reasons they take pride in hosting The Office, much to many’s chagrin.
And so, we end it here. There is an app out there for everyone at this point. I certainly gravitated to certain ones that I believe others wouldn’t. If you agree or disagree with me please leave a comment, I’d love to know what I am missing from certain services that I didn’t think too highly of.
