Hmm... another streaming service?
When we first learned that Friends would be leaving Netflix some time in 2020, the collective freak out among millennials and generation X was near deafening. For some reason, people don't want to subscribe to yet another streaming service to watch the trash sitcoms they grew up watching.
But it appears that'll have to be the case if you want to get your fix of six lousy, privileged white people who can't possibly afford those apartments trading quips with each other for 22 minute blocks as Friends will be exclusively streaming on WarnerMedia's HBO Max service launching in 2020.
We are at streaming overload. Peak capacity. It's time to consolidate, not expand. The market does not have room for individual networks starting their own streaming services. We can't afford it. This is the revenge of the cable companies, taking all the shows that are on TBS in the middle of the afternoon and jamming them on exclusive services.
Apple's TV Channels might consolidate some of this, but if you want Friends, if you want Fresh Prince of Bel Air re-runs, then you'll have to subscribe to HBO Max. Or you can just let the past, be the past. You can watch new shows (of which HBO Max will have) or watch Frasier instead. The point is, you can be entertained without tapping into some twisted nostalgia that requires you to constantly watch Rachel settle on that flapping moron. That's the definition of insanity.
Will HBO Max put the squeeze on Hulu or Netflix? It's doubtful another network streaming service will dent consolidation services such as Hulu or Netflix much. There is always something else to watch. Plus, HBO Max will have content from HBO as well as Warner Bros., New Line, DC Entertainment, CNN, TNT, TBS, truTV, The CW, Turner Classic Movies, Cartoon Network, Adult Swim, Crunchyroll, Rooster Teeth, and Looney Tunes. That's a whole lot of stuff you've already seen.
No one needs re-runs of Franklin and Bash mixed with Riverdale spin-offs. Or perhaps we do. If we're this hot for Friends after all these years, who is to say that the rest of it isn't as appealing? Sure, a lot of users will turn to piracy to save money as well as the headache of app compatibility across numerous devices and operating systems, but some people are still so grounded in 1998 that where Friends goes, so do they.
That appears to be the only selling point of HBO Max at the moment, and it's a weak one at that.
The great thing about streaming at its inception was that it wasn't cable. Rather, it took the best of cable along with new content and gave us one place, one channel, one app to find it all. Now, cable is splitting off into individual apps, congesting the landscape with rote trash that we've already slogged through on cable itself. It's 2019. It's time to watch something new.
