The Best Streaming Services
Contents
Netflix ( Starts at $8.99/month)
The biggest name in movie and tv show streaming. It was the original, but has seen a lot of competition and fragmentation in the past years. The biggest appeal is their own movie and tv show catalog which are accessible globally. Some of the most popular original shows include:
- Stranger Things
- Altered Carbon
- Orange is the New Black
- Arrested Development
- Bojack Horseman
- Marvel’s Defenders series (Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Punisher, Iron Fist, Luke Cage)
- House of Cards
- Peaky Blinders
- Narcos
Amazon Prime Video($12.99/month)
One of the biggest benefits of Prime Video is that it comes with Amazon Prime. So it’s hard to talk about the TV & Movies in isolation. You also get access to music, ordering benefits and more. Amazon also has some original shows, some of the most popular being
- The Expanse
- Fleabag
- The Grand Tour (the old Top Gear team)
- Undone
- Catastrophe
HBO Now ($14.99/month)
If anyone has expertise creating original TV series, it’s HBO. Decades of some of the best television makes HBO Now an attractive service. Some of the best TV available on HBO:
- Game of Thrones
- Sex and the City
The Wire - The Sopranos
- West World
- Silicon Valley
- True Blood
- Boardwalk Empire
- Deadwood
- Curb Your Enthusism
- Veep
- Chernobyl
Disney+ ($7/month)
Disney, Pixar, Marvel, and Star Wars. Probably the strongest brand showcase of any of the streaming services. It has a lot of shows falling under those major brands but also a lot of nostalgic shows from the 90’s including perhaps the most iconic, The Simpsons along with:
Mandolorian
X-Men
DuckTales
Boy Meets World
Agent Carter
Doug
Disney+ also has a deep catalog of movies attached to the Disney, Pixar, Marvel and Star Wars brands. Aladdin? No problem. Rogue One? Yup. Black Panther? Absolutely.
Hulu ($11.99/month no ads*)
The fact you have to asterisk the no-ads policy should tell you Hulu is perhaps the worst experience of the group. Who wants to pay and still be blasted with ads? Not me. Hulu does offer a lot of currently airing tv shows and bundles with multiple platforms including HBO and Disney+. Some of the best shows on Hulu right now are:
- Brooklyn Nine-Nine
- Grey’s Anatomy
- Law & Order SVU
- It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia
- Shameless
- South Park
- Shark Tank
Bonus Tips
Streaming TV shows and movies has never been easier. But it’s become more and more difficult to keep track of where favorite TV shows are available with catalogs that constantly shift. One helpful site is Reel Good, which allows you to find which streaming service any show or movie is on.