A couple of weeks ago, I made a decision to abandon my subscription with Apple Music and transitioned to becoming a Spotify user. Despite Spotify having a more beneficial algorithm and manageable interface, my stubbornness prevailed for far too long. I had all these playlists that I didn't want to let go of, and Apple's aesthetic was just so familiar to me. But at the end of the day, I came to the conclusion that I needed more bang for my buck.
What's interesting is that this conundrum doesn't exist for the modern-day television consumer in the same way it does for an avid music listener. There are people that pay for five or six streaming service subscriptions every month. I, myself, pay for only two or three of those subscriptions—it's so hard to keep track—but have several other ones that my friends share with me in return. However, I understand that not all of us have the financial capacity or free time to determine which streaming services we should be active subscribers.
So, in an attempt to cure the tough decisions that many households will have to make over the next year as cable becomes fossilized and streaming becomes immortalized, here is a definitive power ranking of the best streaming services for television and film.
9. Discovery+
Cost: $4.99/month
The Selling Points: HGTV and Planet Earth, I guess?
My mother recently purchased a subscription to Discovery+ in order to have unlimited access to house hunting series, tasteless cooking shows and the cheesiest, most predictable stories that modern television has to offer—Lifetime movies. She can't get enough of them, and I can't fathom why anybody would pay $5/month to even be a shareholder in this company, let alone a consumer of them.
8. Apple TV+
Cost: $4.99/month
The Selling Points: Ted Lasso, Boys State, and Beastie Boys Story
I don't know much about what Apple TV+ has to offer, so I tried doing some research on their content. As it turns out, not even Apple knows exactly what they have to offer. Obviously, there's the beloved Ted Lasso series, which I've only heard the highest of praises about; there's The Morning Show, which eighteen people really enjoyed; and then there's the Tom Hanks-deserves-a-Medal-of-Honor-vehicle, Greyhound, which I'm sure blew hundreds of dads away. Until Apple starts pumping out this Scorsese movie, I'll be observing their catalog from a distance.
7. Peacock
Cost: $4.99/month
The Selling Points: The Office, Yellowstone, A Serious Man (2009)
Is the name good? No. Was the rollout effective? Not particularly. Do they offer never-before-seen footage of America's favorite sitcom The Office? Hell yeah, baby. Aside from the mock docuseries about a struggling paper company based in Scranton, Pennsylvania, Peacock offers a ragtag group of movies that are actually quite good for a young streaming service that is behest by one of the most powerful corporate entities the universe has ever known. On the flip side, you can still find 30 Rock, Parks and Recreation, and Seinfeld on either Hulu or Netflix.
6. Prime Video
Cost: $8.99/month
The Selling Points: Fleabag, Zodiac (2007), Dr. Strangelove (1964), Chinatown (1974), Reservoir Dogs (1992), Lost in Translation (2003), Inside Llewyn Davis (2013) and The Lighthouse (2019)
Now, this is where things start to get semi-spicy on the list. Prime offers a wide range of films that span decades and genres (see above). You could go consecutive days without watching a single film that has the same tempo, director or genre, and still find yourself pleasantly surprised with how much you purely loved that movie. From Stanley Kubrick's Cold War satirical masterpiece, Dr. Strangelove, to Phoebe Waller-Bridge's critically adored television series Fleabag, Amazon offers a tasty slate of brilliant auteurs at the top of their games.
Where Amazon lacks is its interface and aesthetic quality. The scroller naturally becomes slightly bored by the curation and selections of the algorithm, asking themselves, "Why does Amazon want me to watch The Report so bad? I love me some Adam Driver, but..." until they realize that Amazon Studios has a lot of weight behind The Report. Nice try, Amazon, but that movie's boring—just like your interface.
5. Hulu
Cost: $11.99/month
The Selling Points: Boogie Nights (1997), Parasite (2019), Gone Girl (2014), Booksmart (2019), Superbad (2007), Seinfeld, 30 Rock, and The Handmaid's Tale
Hulu is so damn close to having it figured out. To have both Boogie Nights and Parasite in your Rolodex is quite the flex, but to have Seinfeld and 30 Rock, too? That's almost too much power for a service as underrated as Hulu. It should be noted that Hulu, Disney+ and ESPN+ also offer each of their services as a package for only $15/month, which is quite the bargain if you're really into The Avengers, The Handmaid's Tale and Kevin Durant's DETAIL series which he adopted from the late, great Kobe Bryant. Where Hulu is lacking is, you guessed it, their interface. It's too difficult to navigate to their classic movies selection and their related titles are often absent from the Home Screen, making it far too difficult on the user to find a new show or movie that might adhere to their particular interests.
4. Disney+
Cost: $6.99/month or $69.99/year
The Selling Points: Every Pixar Movie Ever, Every Marvel Movie Ever, and Every Star Wars Movie Ever
Now, this is where the list starts to get a little complicated. Because if you're a parent, then you'd be out of your mind to not have Disney+ in your streaming service catalog. But if you're a 23-year old guy like me, then it's not the craziest thing to essentially rent the service once every three or four months to binge The Mandalorian or Wandavision, and then abandon the service until the next series rolls around. Where things get tricky is this: I love Pixar so much. If I can have the option to watch Ratatouille whenever I want, then I'm going to hold onto that option as tight as Remy's tug on Linguini's curls. Disney+ is a lovely service and will likely be the first service to be in every American home one day.
3. The Criterion Channel
Cost: $10.99/month or $99.99/year
The Selling Points: La Haine (1995), The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972) and Frances Ha (2012)
If you are an active Letterboxd user—which I am—and if you've ever taken a deep look at the section on their search page titled "Official Top 250 Narrative Feature Films"—which I have—then you will see a collection of movies that are regarded as, you guessed it, the 250 best films of all-time according to a community of self-proclaimed movie critics. Typically, I wouldn't consider any list like this to be verified and would imagine that Christopher Nolan's Interstellar would be towards the top of it because a bunch of film bros said so.
But after a few sit-downs with this list, I decided that it seems legitimate enough to consider as a bucket-list of movies for myself. And I would not be able to complete this bucket list of movies if it weren't for the Criterion Collection, a streaming service that is home to 41 of the top 100 movies on this list, as well as 89 of the top 250. As I move one step closer towards pretentious movie douchery, the Criterion Collection becomes the biggest notch in my belt. Is it the best streaming service? No, because despite its unbelievable variety of movies that encompass all languages, centuries, filmmakers and lengths, the Criterion Collection isn't home to any television programs. And sometimes, you just want to turn on a sitcom and quietly laugh to yourself while cooking.
2. Netflix
Cost: $17.99/month
The Selling Points: Remaining relevant in workplace chit-chat, Lady Bird (2017), Goodfellas (1990), There Will Be Blood (2007), The Departed (2004), The Social Network (2010), Uncut Gems (2019), The Irishman (2019), Moonlight (2016), Ocean's Eleven (2001), Good Time (2017), Django Unchained (2012), A Clockwork Orange (1971), Scott Pilgrim vs. The World (2010), Stranger Things, Peaky Blinders, Schitt's Creek, Mindhunter, The Crown, The Queen's Gambit, Bojack Horseman, and Master of None
There's no real argument against it: Netflix is still king. It's the pioneer that began the streaming revolution, and it remains not only the most expensive streaming service (if you want all of their options, which are much less like options in 2021 and are more like necessities), but it is also the most popular. And how could it not be? It's home to such an egregious amount of content that you could go the rest of your life without being able to complete their ever-expanding library.
From the ever-charming and resonating Lady Bird, to the gangster classic Goodfellas, to the mind-numbing excellence of Schitt's Creek, Netflix is growing exponentially and shows no signs of stopping despite their competitors. The only issue that keeps Netflix one spot away from top dog for me personally is this: there's just too much garbage on there. 90% of their original content is a miss. But when it's a hit like The Irishman, Bojack Horseman, Master of None, Stranger Things, or The Queen's Gambit, then it's really, really special.
1. HBO MAX
Cost: $14.99/month
The Selling Points: The Sopranos, Curb Your Enthusiasm, The Wire, BARRY, Succession, I May Destroy You, Game of Thrones, Big Little Lies, Industry, Insecure, Chernobyl, Westworld, True Detective, Silicon Valley, The Leftovers, Watchmen, The Night Of, The Righteous Gemstones, Girls, Phantom Thread (2017), Pulp Fiction (1994), Judas and the Black Messiah (2021), The Shining (1980), Barry Lyndon (1975), No Country for Old Men (2007), Citizen Kane (1941), Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966), 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), Mad Max: Fury Road (2015), Casablanca (1942), Midnight Cowboy (1969), The Dark Knight Trilogy, The Graduate (1967), Kill Bill (2003), City of God (2002), American Beauty (1999), Dog Day Afternoon (1977), Se7en (1995), Elf (2003), My Dinner with Andre (1981), US (2019), A Star is Born (2018), Prometheus (2012), Broadway Danny Rose (1984), Dunkirk (2017), The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, Swingers (1996), One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), Scream (1996), Jaws (1975), Inherent Vice (2014), My Neighbor Totoro (1988), Spirited Away (2001), IT (2017), Die Hard (1988), Alien (1979), Aliens (1986), The Conjuring (2013), The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007), Clerks (1994), Blood Simple (1984), Shaun of the Dead (2004), Argo (2012), After Hours (1985), Mystic River (2003), Magic Mike (2012), He Got Game (1998), Mulholland Drive (2001), The Austin Powers Trilogy, Cast Away (2000), Lincoln (2012) and Happy Gilmore (1996)
I could let the content speak for itself, but where's the fun in that?
For years we asked ourselves, why isn't there a service where I can watch Tony Soprano digest mass amounts of capicola and Prozac one night, then slowly mold myself into Larry David over the next couple weeks, and finally come full circle and replenish my soul with the entire Studio Ghibli filmography? HBO Max came to our rescue and gave us all the answers to our inquisitive souls.
There isn't a service out there that rivals the sheer determination to compile quality content across a plethora of different avenues. You can get top-notch animation from the genius of Hayao Miyazaki, a good portion of Stanley Kubrick's best films, the entire Lord of the Rings and Hobbit series, a relentless Diego Maradona documentary, and so much more.
HBO isn't just determined to bring you movies straight from the Turner Classic Movies vault—including Citizen Kane and Casablanca—but it's also been the golden standard for prestige television over the last two decades. You cannot discuss quality TV without The Sopranos, The Wire and Game of Thrones being in the first paragraph. You can't talk about comedic television without praising Curb Your Enthusiasm or The Larry Sanders Show. And you sure as hell can't talk about giving a platform to Black voices without mentioning I May Destroy You, Insecure and Watchmen. HBO has been the centerpiece of American TV consumption for the majority of the 21st century, and they've done it by putting the creators first and themselves second. HBO Max is merely an extension of the Home Box Office that we've all come to know and love. There isn't a single service that pails in comparison when discussing bang-for-buck.
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