Which Streaming Service Is Right for You?

Tom Philip

It's November 2019: The end of the decade fast approaches and around the world, people are asking themselves, "What the hell did I do with the last 10 years? Dear God!" Leave it to tech algorithms to know that, during such a time of existential self-flagellation, we'd be far more susceptible to the promise of a shiny new streaming service to take our minds of... well, everything. Apple TV+ and Disney+ both launched this month, adding new competition and bloat to an already crowded marketplace.

Deciding what to watch won't get much easier down the road, mind you. NBC's streaming service, Peacock (Katy Perry will see you in court), is on its way, as is HBO Max, soon to be the exclusive home of Rick and Morty and Friends, which all but guarantees a massive day-one viewer base.

Subscribing to every single streaming service is a pain, yes, and now pretty much disproves that the great cord-cutting experiment performed throughout the 2010s led to any kind of meaningful savings, or indeed a less fractured content landscape. To make things a little easier, here are our impressions of all the current major streaming services, and who they're for.

Netflix

The first streaming site to really get off the ground is still an amazing option, even if its impressive catalog has thinned a bit over the years. You won't get Avengers: Endgame on here, but there are still great movies being added monthly, especially in the horror and comedy departments. What's more, there are stellar originals still being churned out like Russian Doll, Sex Education, and The Haunting anthology series from director Mike Flanagan.

Good for:

  • Moms

  • People who just want to watch something

  • People leeching off someone else's account

Hulu

Hulu still offers a ton of currently-running shows the day after they air, and you can easily bundle it with Disney+ and ESPN+ for $13 a month now, which isn't too shabby. Hulu's originals are hit-and-miss, but Castle Rock has found its feet in its second season, and there are still tons of folks hooked on The Handmaid's Tale. Hulu's also upped its game on movies, which was always a weak point.

Good for:

  • People who still watch network TV

  • Reality TV fans

  • Rich completionists who can afford the "no ads" option

Amazon Prime Video

As well as being the best place to get some cheap underwear and fast (let's see you send a 12 pack of Hanes to my apartment, Disney), Amazon Prime also has an increasingly impressive, deep roster of original programming. Recent comedy-dramas Undone and Forever are small, bolstering triumphs in a streaming war increasingly focused on size and scale. (Okay, Amazon's also got a hugely expensive Lord of the Rings series in the works, but you get it.)

Good for:

  • Fans of offbeat genre shows

  • People who already have Amazon Prime, duh

  • A24 devotees

  • Whoever the hell's watching Jack Ryan (not sorry to this man)

HBO Go/Now

Even before HBO's catalog falls into HBO Max, Go/Now is a streaming service very much worth it, offering up the full series runs of seminal shows like The Sopranos, The Wire, Game of Thrones, Bored to Death, Sex and the City... Look, you get it. There's a ton of good shit on there, and it's not like Succession is going anywhere any time soon.

Good for:

  • People whose parents have forgotten entirely about their HBO Subscription and know the login password

  • People who think Westworld deserves one more shot

  • Watching the best show of the decade, The Leftovers

Apple TV+

Apple's streaming service, at $6 a month, still feels a little frivolous at this point. There's no content not directly made by Apple available yet, and its originals are all over the place, frankly—the delightfully ahistorical comedy Dickinson being the consistent exception.

Good for:

  • People who've just gotta have all the streaming options

  • People who don't really care how good it is and would just like to see Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon in an expensive prestige drama, thank you very much!

  • Optimists

Disney+

The big one. The grandaddy of the new generation of streaming sites. Disney+ isn't here to play, with an accessible subscription price and immediate access to pretty much every Star Wars and Marvel movie in existence. Along with that, pretty much all the classic animated movies from your childhood you know and love are streaming in gorgeous, vibrant HD, and, high-key, the live-action Lady and the Tramp movie is solidly entertaining and delightfully weird in a way recent flops like Aladdin or The Lion King didn't have the guts to be. A promising start!

Good for:

  • Hardcore Star Wars, Disney, and/or Marvel fans, which makes up pretty much the entirely of the U.S. population ages 21-50

  • People who have forgotten that Rescuers Down Under absolutely GOES

  • Bob Iger's wallet

Want to get watching right away? Netflix, HBO Go, Amazon, Hulu, AppleTV+, and Disney+ all offer free trials so you can start streaming without committing a cent. Note: If you sign up for a free trial through these links, GQ may earn an affiliate commission.

Originally Appeared on GQ