I didn’t think I was going to find a good supplement to Netflix, especially after my lackluster experiences with Amazon Prime, Hulu, and Disney+. However, in trying HBO Max, I’ve been pleasantly surprised. It seems to have a good selection of movies and TV shows that Netflix doesn’t have, and having more options to watch things in this era of COVID-19 is always a bonus. So far I’ve been watching Friends (1994-2004), a show I absolutely love and find classic, The Big Bang Theory (2007-2019), The Carbonaro Effect (2014—), Whose Line Is It Anyway (1998—), and Hack My Life (2015-2018)—more on my thoughts on some of these shows later!

The subscription price of HBO Max is free only if you have a subscription to a qualifying TV provider. The cost otherwise is $14.99/mo. (which is $179.88 for the full year, which is comparable to Netflix’s standard subscription, which is $13.99/mo. and $167.88/yr.).

So far, I have been finding it a good supplement to Netflix. It seems to have a wide arrange of TV shows (without commercials, yay), and also has Hayao Miyazaki films, which you can search by typing “Hayao” in the search box. If you are into Japanese animation and haven’t seen any of his films yet, I highly recommend them.

At first, I was only really watching Netflix. For my personal tastes, I was not into the selection of Amazon Prime (which is now a whopping $119 to subscribe to Prime—yikes—it’s almost becoming not worth it for the free two-day shipping, even though I’m a frequent flier with them), Hulu, or Disney+. I was skeptical to try HBO Max, but the availability of Wonder Woman 1984 the same day as theaters and INCLUDED WITH THE SUBSCRIPTION (which I think is how it should be done, if subscription services are offering newly released movies to paying subscribers of their platform, unlike what Disney+ did with Mulan (2020)), made the subscription enticing. After playing with it for a few weeks now, I find it to be incredibly worth it and a good supplement to Netflix’s offerings. Especially since I’ve been mostly staying indoors (barely go out, in all honesty), it’s nice to have some new things to watch.

Don’t take it from me though. If you see a free trial offer for HBO Max, I think it’s worth giving it a peek. I think maybe about 1-2 weeks might be all you need to browse the offerings and assess for yourself whether the content is worth it for you.

Anyway, that’s all I really have to say about the service. If anyone else has it and has an opinion to share with people, please feel free to sound off in the comments!

Also, this is belated, but I realize I didn’t write it before in my earlier entry for this year. Happy new year to all, and here’s to hoping 2021 goes better for us all, and that COVID-19 becomes more under control.