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You can watch all seasons of Parks and Recreation on NBC’s Peacock streaming service, which launched nationwide in July.
I don’t have cable, but new episodes of current shows are uploaded to the Hulu platform quickly, so with a Hulu subscription I can still keep up despite having cut the cord. For example, new episodes of Grey’s Anatomy air on TV on Thursday nights. If you’ve subscribed to either the basic ($6 per month) or Premium ($12 per month) Hulu plan, you can watch it the next day. There’s also the option of Hulu with Live TV for $55 per month, which acts as more of a cable replacement and lets you watch your shows in real time.
A downside to Hulu is that every season of a given show might not be available, so if you’re looking to do some serious catching up, you might have to look elsewhere for past episodes. Hulu does have all the seasons of some shows, like Bob’s Burgers and Family Guy.
Other programs, like the BBC’s Killing Eve, come out with an entire season at once. This is perfect for binging, but if you blow through them all, you’re stuck in a “show hole” until the next season comes out. Hulu Originals such as Shrill, High Fidelity and the Handmaid’s Tale sometimes release either an episode per week or an entire season at once.
Read more: Best live TV streaming services for cord-cutters in 2020
Netflix is a veteran streaming service. Remember when subscribing meant it would mail DVDs to your house? Netflix also introduced us to the modern binge-watch, as it houses iconic shows (old and new) like The Office, That ’70s Show, The Andy Griffith Show and The West Wing. It’s easy to put on your favorite and let it play, whether you’re actively watching or not.
Netflix has also become known for its Originals — movies, shows and documentaries, many of which have received both popular and critical acclaim. Think about the hype surrounding The Haunting of Hill House and Stranger Things, the psychological thriller series You or the Oscar-winning film Roma.
New seasons typically come out all at once, and after you blow through them in one afternoon, you have to wait months or even years for the next one. I would keep Netflix for the binge watching and those fascinating investigative docuseries such as The Keepers and The Pharmacist. While you’re waiting for your favorite show to come back, Netflix mixes up its content every month, releasing new titles every week.
If you subscribe to Amazon Prime ($13 a month, $6.49 per month for students) for savings on the e-commerce site, you also get access to Prime Video — Amazon’s streaming service. The service has new movies to rent or buy, like the Oscar-winning film Parasite. Prime users can watch a number of movies and shows for free, so long as they have the little Prime tag on the corner of the icon.
If you’re a movie fan, Prime Video might be the right choice for you: Amazon’s platform has four times as many movies as Netflix does, one study found. Not all of them are major blockbusters, but it is an extensive catalog.
If you have young ones or you’re young at heart, the Disney Plus streaming service is packed with content for you. In addition to original shows like The Mandalorian and The World According to Jeff Goldblum, Disney Plus is also home to Marvel movies and the Star Wars franchise.
With continued coronavirus lockdowns restricting access to movie theaters, Disney Plus has become a platform not only for old favorites and new originals but for big-screen releases too. At first, it started streaming already-released movies months earlier than planned, including Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Frozen 2 and Pixar’s Onward.
Now, Disney is speeding up the streaming releases of brand-new movies too, giving you even more bang for your buck. The film adaptation of young adult novel Artemis Fowl was scheduled to hit theaters in May, but instead premiered on Disney Plus instead in June. And the company’s live-action film version of the mega hit musical Hamilton went straight to Disney Plus on July 3, coinciding with the Independence Day holiday weekend in the US — more than a year earlier than its planned theatrical debut.
There’s also the nostalgia factor: My watchlist is almost entirely Disney Channel Original Movies from the late ’90s and early 2000s. Of course, there’s classic Disney content too, from original Mickey Mouse cartoons to vaulted films like Aladdin, The Jungle Book and Cinderella.
Peacock, the new streaming service from NBCUniversal, is a bit different from the others on this list. While, like many of the streaming services, it has a tiled interface and a big-name network behind it, it also includes live news and sports, new original series and a large back catalog of TV shows and movies — many of which you can watch for free, making it somewhat similar to a free streaming service like Tubi or Roku Channels.
Peacock’s free tier offers tons of ad-supported content, with the option to upgrade to ad-supported Premium ($4.99 a month) or ad-free Premium Plus ($9.99 a month) if you want to to expand the library even more. You’ll find shows, movies, news, live sports and skit-style clips, with standouts including Parks and Recreation, 30 Rock, The Bourne Identity, Jurassic Park and some Premier League soccer matches. You’ll also get episodes of current NBC shows like This is Us the week after they air on the free tier, or the day after on the premium tier.
One of NBC’s most-streamed series, however, The Office, won’t be on the service until January 2021 (you can find it on Netflix until then). And you’ll only get two episodes of new original series, like Brave New World, unless you upgrade to premium. The same goes for the original Psych movie sequel and the popular series Yellowstone.
At launch, Peacock still lacks a number of features that other premium streaming services have, including compatibility with the popular Roku and Amazon Fire TV devices, profiles for different users, mobile downloads or 4K HDR streaming. Some of these features are on NBC’s roadmap for the future, though. And, since you can sign up for free, we’re a bit more forgiving.
HBO Max, HBO’s entry into the streaming wars, is a slick app chock-full of popular TV shows and movies. It’s got HBO’s entire catalog, along with favorites such as Friends, Rick and Morty, the Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter movies, and almost every Studio Ghibli film — making it a solid streaming collection for adults and kids.
While HBO Max lacks a breakout original series at launch, it does have a great selection of movies, some new and many older. The service has the full The Matrix and The Lord of the Rings trilogies (though only two of The Hobbit movies), DC movies like Joker and Wonder Woman, classic films like The Wizard of Oz and Casablanca, and newer hits like A Star is Born and Crazy Rich Asians. Not to mention almost the entire catalog of Studio Ghibli anime films that have never been released for streaming in the US before. And if you’ve been clamoring for more of 2017’s Justice League, HBO Max will be the home of director Zack Snyder’s cut, since he stepped down in the middle of the film’s production.
If you’re subscribed to multiple streaming services, they can all link to your Apple TV (or Roku or other streaming device) so you’ve got a command central of sorts. Apple leveled up its Apple TV box and app with Apple TV Plus last fall. The addition of exclusive, star-studded shows such as The Morning Show, Servant and For All Mankind is a significant draw for the service — especially if you’re already an Apple user.
However, unlike Netflix or Hulu, Apple TV Plus doesn’t have a library of licensed shows or movies. It also doesn’t always release full seasons of its shows at once. At launch, it had nine shows, with five more on the way. However, subscribing only costs $5 per month, or $50 annually.