4 posts.
HBO Max has the best library, Apple TV has the best originals, Netflix has the most subscribers but the worst original movies, and Prime Video has the worst interface. Every major streaming service placed on one tier list.
Eight ad-free streaming services now cost 139 dollars a month, within four dollars of the inflation-adjusted cable bill people fled in 2016. Streaming prices have risen three times faster than inflation since 2022. The math has changed.
Since 2010 more than half the top ten grossing films each year are sequels, reboots or franchise entries; in 2021 exactly one was original. Three mechanisms keep the machine running, and none of them is the audience's appetite.
Thrust gravity, flip-and-burn, belters who can't survive Earth. The Expanse proved constraints create drama — and Andor proved it works for character too. The hard-SF TV renaissance explained.