Netflix boss says the streamer 'saved' Hollywood, a very obvious lie

The executive, who spoke recently at a Time 100 event (per The Guardian), implied that the very concept of seeing films in cinemas is obsolete, saying “I believe it is an outmoded idea, for most people.” He then added that Netflix is “saving Hollywood” by securing an audience for films at home because that's the only place people really want to watch movies.

I think anyone who watched The Electric State would disagree that Netflix is "saving" anything.

Snark aside, Sarandos choosing now to say this seems especially strange, as strong box office performance helps Netflix in the long run. When movies are successful in theaters, folks naturally want to revisit them at home. 2024's Moana 2 is a perfect example of this. After scoring the biggest theatrical opening in Walt Disney Animation Studios’ history, the film was released four months later on Disney+, and notched a colossal 27.3 million views globally on the streamer in its first five days, making it the third-largest animated theatrical premiere of all time on Disney+ (per Disney)

I don't understand Sarandos' logic here in trying to create a narrative about the future viability of the theater experience, especially when box office numbers are so healthy and data shows that big theatrical blockbusters almost always turn into surefire streaming hits.

Granted, this is just the latest in a string of weird statements from Netflix executives, so maybe Netflix is just trying to keep themselves in the news cycle. I'm here typing about it, so in that way, perhaps this latest, clearly untrue statement was actually effective at achieving what it was actually designed to do.

Max gets a new account add-on feature

If you've got a friend with an Ultimate Ad-Free Max plan, now is the time to hit them up

After cracking down on password sharing last year, Warner Bros. Discovery has announced a new feature that will allow Max subscribers to add additional users outside their home for $8 each.

Though Max isn't the first streamer to offer this kind of feature, it is the only one I've seen that charges a flat fee no matter what tier the primary user is on that gives the extra user all the benefits found on the primary account. So, for instance, if the account owner is signed up for an ad-supported profile, the added member will stream titles with ads as well, but if they are subscribed to a top-tier Ultimate Ad-Free plan, the additional user will get ad-free viewing as well as 4K resolution, all for the same $8 that someone added to the lowest tier would pay.

This makes this an honestly pretty good deal for folks who are looking to subscribe to Max and have friends who are subscribers to the highest Max tier.

Andor returns to Disney+ for a binge-able final season

Get ready for three hours of Star Wars every Tuesday.

One of my most-anticipated shows of the year is the final season of Andor, and after a long three years Disney+ finally dropped the first three episodes this past week. As expected, the series has made a major jump forward in time, and is dealing with some heavy subjects that have seldom been explored in the Star Wars galaxy.

However, as with the first season, the series is following a bit of an unconventional release schedule, with three episodes dropping at a time. This means next week, episodes 4–6 will drop on April 29, Episodes 7–9 will then hit the service on May 6, and the final three episodes will debut May 13. It's an interesting mix between Netflix's erstwhile binge-all-at-once strategy and Disney+'s weekly releases, but it seems to be keeping this show's momentum moving in a very positive way, and I for one, can't wait to see what surprises are in store as we head full steam ahead towards the events of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.

The Last of Us finally goes there

If you made it to last week's episode without spoilers, congratulations

When The Last of Us was surprisingly renewed for a third season a few weeks ago, I was worried that this meant that HBO would be padding out the beginning of The Last of Us 2 game in order to give fans more time with star Pedro Pascal's grizzled version of Joel. However, I was more than happy to be wrong as this week's episode saw Joel meet his fate in pretty graphic fashion.

Though a lot was changed in terms of the structure of how this iconic game moment went down, I was happy to see that the folks behind this show weren't afraid to go for broke during this scene, and the performances by not only Pascal but also Bella Ramsey and Kaitlyn Dever were truly top-notch this week. I was definitely a little skeptical going into this season that this show would be able to maintain the quality of season 1, but thus far it seems my fears were unfounded, and I'm happy to report that The Last of Us season 2 remains one of the best shows on TV.