A few months ago I finally cancelled my Amazon Prime subscription. For a while, especially when I was a student, it felt like it was worth the monthly subscription fee. I didn't really order things often, but next day shipping and Amazon Prime felt worthy of the £8.99 per month. For a while, I liked Prime Video a lot. It had a lot of shows and films from prior years that I loved watching, Prime Video had Monk, Psych, The X Files, and a plethora of movies to choose from that seemingly were updated almost daily. For a while, even Amazon's own original shows seemed, well, okay. They were certainly hit and miss for the most part. Some shows I found really intriguing, others, I found myself completely uninterested. The Man in the High Castle held my attention for a long time, for example. Though I never did finish it.
Over time, I found myself watching less and less on Prime Video. Slowly, one-by-one, all my favourite shows began to disappear from the platform as licensing agreements clearly had ended. And then Amazon, instead of ever really replacing content as it was removed, fell into the area of low-budget Hell. Terrible independent films flocked the library, things that shouldn't be on a streaming service and would be more fitting for YouTube would appear lumped in alongside the few shows I did like and were still present. As I finished those, I found myself frequently browsing the catalogue in search for something to replace them. It was a struggle. Amazon's own original content seemed less and less appealing to me, and when I did check something out from them, I was quickly met with the news that they'd already been cancelled. Even though many of these original productions were met with strong praise from critics.
This isn't specific to Amazon, however, Netflix does the exact same thing. And you might be wondering: why haven't I yet mentioned Netflix? Well, these days I don't even bother with Netflix. It's not worth the monthly subscription cost in England, and the content is slowly drying up. The original content is for the most part terrible, and the library is nothing more than a shallow puddle. This brings me to my new discovery, and it's one that others have been ahead of me in discovering for weeks, months evenL Disney+.
I've never considered myself to be a fan of Disney's works. Sure, some of their old animations are nice, but I've never been the type to give them high praise and call myself a fan. And when it comes to superhero productions: many of you may know from the Movies & TV Shows Discord server that I have absolutely zero interest in any of it. In fact, even here on Hive, some of my highest rewarded posts over the last few years have been posts in which I complain about the world of cinema and the state of superhero productions that began to flock to screens. So, taking out the classic Disney animations and superhero side of the catalogue, I'm still incredibly surprised at how much content is available on Disney+! I feel as if I've been lied to all this time with Amazon Prime and Netflix, and another world has been made available to me.
These days I find myself browsing through the library, and instead of struggling to find something interesting to watch, I find many things that interest me and ultimately struggle to choose between them! Some of my favourite shows are available where they're not available elsewhere anymore, too: Malcolm in the Middle, The X Files, The Simpsons (older seasons of course), and a ton of movies from prior years. And the best thing about this all: Disney actually owns these, there's no licensing issues to take place that will result in them being removed.
One thing in particular that I really like is how well categorised everything is! Other services make finding something to watch next to impossible with just terrible user interfaces. Disney+ has all these collections available for you to enter and browse through that makes things a bit easier. Want to watch something about Disney princesses? Sure, there's a collection for you. Not interested because you're a 27 year old male? That's fine, check out the National Geographic collections which are filled with all kinds of interesting documentaries.
I'm actually in awe at how much better this service is, and more so in particular at the price of just £7.99. Though, I'm sure the price will slowly rise in the future as other services have done in the past and continue to do. But in its current state, the service is definitely worth the cost. Particularly if you're me and forever wanting to watch things and write about them here on Hive.
Nostalgia Trips
There's no doubt that the library on Disney+ contains a plethora of what I'd refer to as nostalgia bait: movies and series from yesteryear that we all love and want to watch over and over throughout the years. From times we'd consider better, from our youth and when things were "just easier". But there's also a lot of really good films and series on the platform too. I say this given my prior statements on Disney as a company have never really been positive. I have (and still do) consider Disney to be an evil company, but I caved in and paid for the monthly subscription fee and intend to continue to do so despite saying to people in the past that I never would.
I'm happy to admit I'm an idiot and was completely wrong about the service. And Disney+ definitely deserves to be praised as a good service, I can't deny it. Though, it might not be the case elsewhere in other countries where services like Hulu, Prime Video, and Netflix might offer better libraries. For me, in England, this is the best streaming service I've seen currently available. Even without the animation and Marvel side of things, I still feel the library is massive and will keep me happy for months to come.
And if you're looking for some shows to watch, check out Malcolm in the Middle and The X Files!