Before the internet I was a big fan of cable TV. In fact I am such a fan of television in general that my life long dream was to work at a commercial TV station. That is why I studied broadcasting and now am working as a TV producer for a local station.
Then the internet came along and Netflix sort of replaced basic cable for a large number of Americans, myself included.
I am happy to report that since I expanded my streaming options I have had even fewer reasons to log into old faithful less and less. Starting tomorrow I will be diving into the newest premium streaming service to launch.
Now when it comes to old cable people seem to forget the cable companies basically have a monopoly in whatever town you live in shutting out competition. Unless of course you count satellite which is a fair alternative. But when it comes to streaming those same people seem to be okay with a monopoly and despise choice. I don’t get it.
Anyways enough of the ripping on people. Let’s dig into what excites me about it.
I am one of the more choices is better people. I recently discovered a ton of FREE and yes LEGAL streaming options such as Crackle, Pluto and Stirr, among others. I even signed up for Shudder (still need to do a full review of that) and now I am excited to try out HBO Max.
I preordered for the discounted price in order to get ahead start. I spent some time this weekend checking out HBO Now, which will be replaced on my tablet tomorrow.
The first thing I noticed about HBO Now is, yes it does have far less overall content than Netflix or even Hulu. But, I was still more than satisfied with the movie selection. Where Netflix often has a handful of Hollywood movies and tons of B-movie and direct to video (streaming) crap, HBO lives up to its name which, in case you forgot, stands for Home Box Office. The whole point of HBO was always to deliver a Hollywood experience in the home, and to that end even the simplified version delivers.
It reminds me of when Netflix used to have a deal with Starz years ago, only not quite as extensive of a catalog so far.
Now the first thing I am going to check is not just the Hollywood movies from the Warner and family vault, which if lists I have read online are any indication will still provide me personally with plenty of favorites to revisit to keep me busy.
The next thing I am going to dive into is the catalog of TV shows. Sure HBO itself has a decent assortment of top notch content, however it is somewhat limited in scope. You basically have the best adult oriented shows around, there isn’t much else. This should be different as the new combined service is supposed to bring in favorites from the entire Warner spectrum, hopefully this will include DC Comics and Hanna Barbara to name just a few. Combined with the Looney Tunes and friends there is sure to be plenty to check out.
The hesitancy comes from the Disney Plus debacle. While I do maintain it provides quality entertainment and certainly has a place in our society, it feels a little underwhelming with them intentionally leaving out so much of the Fox library that had fans like myself excited. Warner/ATT could do something similar where they promise everything and the kitchen sink and then deliver a cardboard box with the letters IOU in giant letters across the side like Disney did.
Fortunately as long as the New Line Cinema offerings are intact, ensuring me an endless availability of instant access to my beloved Nightmare on Elm Street Franchise, a simple horror fan like myself will be more than satisfied. Only time will tell if it lives up to the hype or disappoints but I am very much looking forward to checking it out, at least for the next month.
Stephanie Bri 