Peacock And HBO Max Are Already Proving Their Worthlessness
HBO Max debuted May 27, and that launch included all eight of the Harry Potter movies. Undoubtedly there was a Potterhead or two who went through the mind-numbing torture of decoding the differences between the various HBO platforms in order to watch these movies indefinitely. But now those films are set to go from leviosa to levio-see-ya as HBO's deal with Warner Bros. expires August 25.
But it's not just Potterheads who are feeling the sting of their favorite titles vanishing as quickly as they appeared. NBC's streaming service Peacock, which launched just last week, will be losing the rights to the original Jurassic Park trilogy by the beginning of August. If you were a Jurassi-maniac who signed up for Peacock in order to watch those films, then you got them for a whopping 17 days. What was that famous quote? "Man creates dinosaur movie. Man creates streaming service. Streaming service destroys dinosaur movie. Man destroys himself." It was something like that, right?
It kind of feels like a bait and switch, no? The whole point of these subscriptions was that you had to have them to get their parent company's movies and shows. If said movies and shows are actively engaging in this proverbial game of streaming musical chairs (The Harry Potter films might move to Peacock. The Jurassic Park films might go to Netflix), then HBO Max and Peacock are essentially just more generic streaming sites rather than the extensions of their networks which they purport to be.
Sure, this is only two instances, but keep in mind that Peacock and HBO Max just started. If they're pulling this shit now, then what's stopping The Wire from being exclusive to Quibi in a couple of months? Okay, maybe Quibi won't be around in a couple of months, but the point still remains.
We are at the mercy of our streaming overlords, as they wheel and deal in the heavens above, and dole out to us whatever morsels of prestige cinema they see fit to let fall below. What we watch will forever be decided by fate, and fate alone. It's a sad truth, but perhaps it is something we have always already known. Or we could just buy every streaming subscription, but that would be actually insane.
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Top Image: Warner Bros./ Universal Pictures
