There’s nothing I love more than coming home from class on Friday afternoon, tossing my backpack on the ground and flopping onto the couch. Finally, another long week of classes has come to an end. Hello, weekend! I reach for the remote and flip on the TV to decompress. The television displays its homepage, popping up with each streaming service. Between the five girls that live in my house, we collectively have log-ins to pretty much every platform. But the ongoing decision persists… which streaming service should I select?!?
Let me start with a streaming service that I find myself choosing less and less: Netflix. What was once the go-to streaming service for so many has, in my opinion, severely fallen off. Whenever my friends and I scroll on Netflix for movie nights, we always end up switching to another platform. I have never heard of most of the shows and movies in Netflix’s selection. Nothing jumps out at me as an, “oooh I want to watch that!” moment while I’m scrolling through. I’ll only open up Netflix in the foreseeable future when Stranger Things season five comes out. But until then, it will just be another un-clicked app on my television screen.
This may be an unpopular opinion, but I am also not Hulu’s biggest fan. When I am streaming a show or movie, being interrupted by ads is such a vibe killer. Whether I’m relaxing and mindlessly watching a show, or if I am intensely glued to the plot on the screen, ads popping up unexpectedly ruin my viewing experience. Especially since Hulu tends to play the same ads over and over again within the same show. Once my show is over, I always have all of the stupid jingles of the repetitive commercials stuck in my head. The last time I ever chose to watch something on Hulu was this past summer when I watched “Normal People,” and I have to admit I don’t see myself selecting this service any time soon.
In contrast to Netflix and Hulu, which I rarely ever stream, two streaming platforms are constantly on the television in my living room. For this entire semester, these two services have been my and my roommate’s go-to’s, one of which being Disney+.
Maybe I am biased because I am a huge Disney fan, but Disney+ truly offers something for everyone to sit back and enjoy. I get so sick of endlessly scrolling through movies and coming up with nothing that grabs my attention. On Disney+, this is never the case. No matter who I am watching TV with, whether it is my roommates, friends or family, I can always count on Disney+ for providing a great selection of movies that everyone will be happy with. From the Marvel universe to any old Disney channel throwback, this platform offers a great variety. My roommates and I watch Disney+ at least once a week to keep up with “Dancing with the Stars” alone. Another great thing about Disney is that you can upgrade your plan to include Hulu as well. Although Hulu isn’t my favorite, I do think this deal is unbeatable. Needless to say, Disney+ will always be one of my all-time favorite platforms.
Lastly, my top streaming service has to be HBO Max (or just Max, as they rebranded recently). Max has so many of my favorite shows that I love to circle back to, like “Friends,” which my roommates and I always have on our television screen at any given time of the day. Some more of my favorites on this platform include “Pretty Little Liars,” “Sex and the City,” “Gossip Girl” and “Euphoria.” If you’re not into these chick-flic type shows like I am, Max also has classics like “The Sopranos” and popular original shows like “Industry.”
Not only this, but Max also boasts an amazing movie selection — my favorite being the entire “Harry Potter” series. As Christmas is approaching, they have all of the holiday favorites like “Elf,” “Home Alone,” “The Santa Clause” and more. For friend and family movie nights, my friends and I always throw on something to laugh at, like “Grown Ups.” We also love a good romcom, and Max has all the best ones, like “He’s Just Not That Into You” and “Pretty Woman.”
It’s safe to say that when I come home after class this Friday, I am sure to flip on either Disney+ or Max. Maybe I’ll continue “Friends,” or relax with a fan-favorite movie like “Spiderman: Homecoming.”
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