Netflix became so big because it offered a unique service that everyone at the time believed they needed. It offered its viewers a chance to watch any show they wanted by paying a small monthly subscription.
According to some, addressing this issue from the standpoint of sociology and legislature, Netflix struck the strongest blow against piracy in the least expected of ways. It made watching these shows legally so cheap that people found it preferable to watching torrenting shows. For just $7 per month, they could forget about going through shady, ad-riddled sites, trying to find torrents with enough seeders, and all the rest.
Unfortunately, this scenario didn’t last that long.
Soon, the monopoly that Netflix held was broken, and many other platforms joined the game. Sure, this could turn out to be a great thing for the market (in the long run) but for users, it created one more dilemma. The shows they watched were now scattered across multiple platforms, and a lot of consumers found the combined cost of subscriptions to be too high.
This raised the question of which platform is worth paying a monthly subscription for.
While this is a subjective question with no definitive answer, here are some of the strongest draws for each of these platforms that should help you figure out which platforms to get in 2024.
Netflix
The biggest challenge with Netflix is its geo-restrictions and the fact that it’s not the same all over the place. For instance, Shawshank Redemption, Silence of the Lambs, and Goodfellas are available in Canada, Australian Netflix has all of the Lord of the Rings movies, and Dutch Netflix has Pulp Fiction. However, with the right VPN for Chrome users, you can access all of this content without much trouble and bypass restrictions in your local area.
Bodies is an interesting show worth watching in 2024. If you loved the German show Dark from a few years back, this will be right up your alley.
The Fall of the House of Usher, a show loosely (very loosely) based on Edgar Allan Poe’s short story of the same name, is another must-watch.
Sex Education returned with season four, and it’s still going strong. Moreover, this is the final season of the series, which means that, if you’re an old fan, you have a chance to see how it ends. If you’re a new fan, you can binge it all without having to wait for the next season.
One of the highly anticipated Netflix exclusives is the Umbrella Academy. Season four is coming sooner than you think (8 August 2024), and with the cliffhanger that the previous season left us on, we can expect this one to start with a bang.
HBO Max
One of the biggest and most renowned platforms of all time, HBO can brag with a lot of exclusive shows. These shows are sporadically available on other platforms, but seeing how they were developed by HBO, it feels natural to watch them here.
The first show on the list is the iconic Band of Brothers, with its two spin-off series, Pacific and Masters of Air. The show portrays some of the biggest exploits of one of the arguably greatest generations that ever walked our planet. More importantly, these are not war shows; they’re shows about the camaraderie that forms among people serving together.
Wire is an iconic crime drama, but it’s much more than that. It’s not a cop show (and it’s definitely not copaganda). It’s a eulogy of a dying city and an autopsy of all the different social phenomena that made it the way it is. It’s about corrupt and lazy officials, rigged statistics, and countless young lives whose conditions set them on the path of destruction before they even realized it.
If you’re a fan of the mob genre, then The Sopranos is a must-watch. This is a much grittier take on a well-known genre, mostly for people who prefer Goodfellas to The Godfather. In fact, if you’re a fan of Goodfellas, you’ll definitely love The Sopranos, seeing as how 26 actors from the movie appear in the show.
Rome is probably the biggest missed opportunity in television history. It’s a historical drama like no other that was too expensive and was canceled too early but has since amassed a cult following.
Disney+
Lovers of the Sci-Fi and superhero genre have no dilemma when it comes to the platform that’s worth subscribing to the most. Disney+ owns and has all their favorite Star Wars and Marvel shows.
First, this is the home of The Mandalorian. Sure, the show might have fallen off during the last two seasons, but just tune in to the reaction for the last episode of season two in order to see just how easily grown men cry. Of course, The Mandalorian is not the only thing worth watching. Clone Wars, Book of Boba Fett, Ashoka, Visions, Andor, and more are available on this platform.
When it comes to Marvel, this is where you can watch Loki, WandaVision, Secret Invasion, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and, if you feel the need for it, even She-Hulk: Attorney at Law.
People looking for animated comedy can enjoy The Simpsons and Gravity Falls. If you’re a fan of standard comedy outside of Hulu, this is the only place where you can watch It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Some people would find this show alone to be worth the subscription.
Moreover, this is where all your favorite childhood animated movies are. Hercules, The Little Mermaid, Prince of Egypt, The Lion King, and everything else that crosses your mind can be found here.
Amazon Prime
Now, people who love superhero movies are on Disney+; however, those who are sick and tired of this trope and want to watch a great subversion can find two of the best shows on Amazon Prime. Both The Boys and Invincible are based on comic books that are a subversion of the genre of the highest order.
Then, for those who love a bit unorthodox (yet cutting-edge) comedy, there’s nothing quite like Fleabag.
People who like action or mystery are bound to enjoy Reacher. The show is currently in its second season, and it’s getting stronger and stronger with each episode.
Now, people who are lovers of epic fantasy and steampunk often lament the fact that there’s no more representation of the crossover between these two genres in popular culture. Carnival Row is an exception to this rule, and it works like a charm.
People who love satire, social commentary, dystopia, and WW2 cannot go wrong with The Man in the High Castle. This is a series based on a novel by Philip K. Dick, and it’s just terrifying in its brilliance.
Choose carefully and change your mind later
While it may cost too much to subscribe everywhere all the time, you can always just cancel your subscription and subscribe someplace else. You can make your to-watch plan, pay for one platform for a month, and then binge-watch everything you’re interested in. Then, you can switch to a different platform.
Also, it’s not a one-or-all type of deal. You can always subscribe to two or three services. You can even omit one that you don’t feel like paying for. Either way, the future in which we’re offered a bundle containing all these streaming services (basically reinventing cable TV) is probably not that far away. In the meantime, it doesn’t hurt to develop a subscription strategy on your own.
