HBO Max dominated the Emmys this year. With a whopping 140 nominations across 24 series, the streaming platform and its shows took no time to impress the audience. Now it looks like, they are once again among the fan favorites as they announced that kids and family-oriented shows will not be a part of their working strategy. This happened as soon as they canceled the drama Gordita Chronicles focusing on a 12-year-old Dominican Girl. This garnered a lot of love from the audiences as they claim that this is the reason why they can make shows with such critical acclaim.
But it is a notable fact that the praise for HBO Max didn’t arrive alone but also brought equal to more criticism for another major OTT giant, Disney+. It is very alarming for the platform as it can be noticed that the streaming-loving audience is not at all satisfied with the teenage drama or family drama tropes that work mainly on the kids.
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HBO Max’s take on family dramas:
While canceling the critically acclaimed Gordita Chronicles, HBO Max stated that kids and family shows will stay out of focus from their upcoming plans, and as a result of which they are moving forward with the decision to cancel the series:
“Live-action kids and family programming will not be part of our programming focus in the immediate future, and as a result, we’ve had to make the very difficult decision to end Gordita Chronicles at HBO Max,”
After this, they also added praise to the cast and crew members involved in the show. Even though critically acclaimed and loved by everyone, the cancellation of this show has caused quite a buzz around and also shows us that a streaming platform is a place that the producers only intend to keep for mature audiences from where they can get maximum attention and respect they deserve.
They know very well that by working on mature shows, they can get to explore a wide spectrum of digital content instead of sole independence on something that has already been explored in many different contents. It is also a pretty commendable fact that HBO Max conquered the market very well and it didn’t even take them much time to dethrone some long-time contenders in the streaming business. Their Emmy nominations speak far well about them regarding that.
Also Read: How Netflix Losing Subscribers Can Be Disastrous For HBO Max and Disney+ Too
The Fans are extremely happy with HBO Max:
It can be well perceived by the reactions of the fans that they are extremely happy with the shows made on HBO Max and fully support their idea of not focusing on the Family Audience. The main comparison which came up in the debate was Disney+. By now everyone knows that, unlike HBO Max, the House of The Mouse-led streaming platform focuses more on family-friendly stuff which also garnered criticism many times from the audiences.
Some of the tweets praising the move by HBO Max are:
Disney has that locked up, so why bother? Good strategy for WB.
— Shaun O'Rourke (@ShaunORourke5) July 29, 2022
this is why HBO has the best content by far
— reiner (@oneiromancerrr) July 29, 2022
Considering WB and HBO content was never really aimed at kids can't blame them. Even cartoon network and other WB animation always seemed more popular with adults than kids, no point trying to target a populated market with Disney, paramount and netflix
— L…A… (@LitonA10) July 29, 2022
Nobody:
Absolutely no one:
HBO: pic.twitter.com/sE2cswknEh
— Tᴏɴʏ! Tᴏɴɪ! Tᴏɴᴇ́! 𝚂𝚝𝚊𝚛𝚔 (R.I.P.) 🕙 (@StarkTTT) July 29, 2022
Makes sense. The HBO moniker has always had an adult edge and flair to it since it's first days. They still have Sesame street and it's spin offs for kids programming which is great. But especially with what has been popular, more adult focused content is just obvious
— A Skeptical Yoshi 🇺🇦 (@Sethjohny) July 29, 2022
Right move, Disney is going to dominate that space. HBO can focus more on mature projects and win that space
— Aydan & Jovan (@jovanrivera_) July 29, 2022
Disney better do the same with daredevil
— Ray Shiod🤫 (@ahah_jide) July 29, 2022
It is pretty evident from the reactions and the recognition received by the shows of both the platforms, that the fans are inclined more towards HBO Max and its mature content.
Disney+ VS HBO Max:
While HBO Max bagged a total of 140 nominations, Disney+ couldn’t even get 40 and ended up at 34 Primetime Nominations among which the maximum consisted of the Marvel shows which mainly got nods for their technical departments. And now after the Warner Media-led streaming service’s statement, everyone was aware of the bullets of criticism coming towards Disney+.
Disney+ has often been subjected to criticism for its lack of mature stuff and little to zero elements that can be enjoyed by grown-ups. This overdose of family-friendly stuff has drastically affected the name of the platform and it can be well perceived by the reactions of the fans that they stand with HBO Max’s decision and are not impressed by the underwhelming contents of Disney+.
But there is also another angle to all of these. It can’t be denied that earlier when Disney added the 20th Century Fox made Marvel movies which are far more mature and dwells on more serious elements than the modern MCU, the platform had to face heavy criticism from the parents as well as the president of the Conservative group. They all claimed that Disney didn’t follow its words of producing only family content. Not only that but even the shows like Daredevil faced criticism after being added to the platform
So now it pretty more seems like that Disney is caught in its own loop of family drama where it can’t do anything new despite trying it. On the other hand, the parents who thought Disney would only focus on Kids are now afraid of their kids to find movies like Deadpool or Logan on the streaming service. As it seems, Disney has to do something new with their ways of working if they need to reach heights and focus on a wide spectrum of audiences.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
