The process to go from HBO Max to Max is actually quite simple.
If you’re wondering why your HBO Max app is no longer working, then you’ve officially entered the age of Max.
HBO’s parent company Warner Bros. Discovery has officially transformed HBO Max into just Max, a catch-all streaming hub for Warner Bros., HBO and Discovery programming.
Now, you’ll watch the latest episode of your favorite HBO show and reruns of House Hunters on the same app.
The switch over to Max is pretty simple, although it will require you to download a new “Max” app to your television instead of seeing the transition take place on the old HBO Max app.
That will take you to download the new “Max” app that features all of the HBO Max programming combined with the Discovery programming. Once you do that, you will get the “Max” app on your television, and it will be signed in and ready for you to use.
The company says all Amazon, Cox, Roku, VIZIO TV and Xfinity users will already have the Max app on their televisions ready to use.
HBO Max subscribers had their subscriptions swapped over to Max when the service launched on Tuesday.
So if you’re worried about missing Sunday’s Succession and Barry finales with the Max change, don’t be alarmed. It’s a quick process to transition over to the new streaming platform.
PSA: That app that you use to watch Successionand all kinds of other HBO content?
It’s no longer HBO Max. Say hello, instead, to … Max.
The idea, I guess, is that it takes out the HBO part of things because HBO Max has content from other companies after WarnerMedia and Discovery merged. Confusing? Maybe a little bit. But it’s not that big of a name change, so we’ll all get used to it in no time.
That said: Now that the change has happened, Twitter of course had so many jokes about the streaming service making the switch in moniker:
If you weren’t watching live, it just … isn’t the same.
This is the online version of our daily newsletter, The Morning Win. Subscribe to get irreverent and incisive sports stories, delivered to your mailbox every morning. Here’s Bryan Kalbrosky.
Streaming services like Netflix got us all comfortable either binge-watching TV or watching shows at our own pace. That isn’t always a good thing, however, especially when it comes to series released episodically.
I’ve seen headlines arguing that Succession fans ruined the show’s most anticipated moment Sunday night by flooding social media with immediate reactions. I fully disagree. It’s far more enjoyable to tune in at the same time as everyone else, and it is an immersive experience.
Justin Kirkland helped explain this powerful feeling (via Esquire):
“All of us, as it turns out, are looking for some semblance of structure in our lives. And as silly as it sounds, I think that appointment television represents this weird human connection to look forward to—a friendly interaction, if you will, that you can rely at the same day and time. In an era when everything feels so uncertain and fleeting, appointment television has reemerged as this reliable totem of time and consistency.”
During the final credits, I immediately pull out my phone and check for other reactions, memes, and analyses.
These pesky posts act as spoilers for fans who didn’t get a chance to watch it live. But this show just hits harder when we can all react simultaneously — and there are a lot of people who are tuned in. The premiere episode of the final Succession season drew 2.3 million live viewers across HBO Max and other linear telecasts. (That’s more than the opening night TV ratings (2.2 million) for Nets-Bucks on TNT in 2021-22.)
It is exponentially much more fun and only natural to freak out with everyone else when Succession showrunners shock us collectively with a jaw-dropping plot twist. It’s not dissimilar to reacting with everyone else on Twitter when an NBA star hits a buzzer-beater.
Speaking of basketball: During the 1970s and the 1980s, the NBA would occasionally broadcast playoff games on tape delay. Leigh Montville, in 1980, wrote about why that was so absurd (via Boston Globe):
“A delayed-tape presentation of a sports event is almost worse than not presenting the event at all. It is dried milk as opposed to normal milk. It is mashed potatoes without butter or salt or pepper. The flavor, the excitement are taken away artificially. Even if the viewer doesn’t know the score, if he has steeled himself for the 2½ necessary hours in an airtight bunker, impervious to news reports, wire reports and loud-mouthed friends and family . . . even if he has done all that, hard as it may be, the game is not the same.”
Forty years after that column about basketball, I now feel the exact same way about Succession. Even if you’ve managed to avoid the plot spoilers, if you weren’t watching live, it just … isn’t the same.
Montville mused that the NBA playoffs were “not a show,” but instead, news. I’d argue that the same is true of Succession and any other show that reaches a similar level of success and cultural relevance. Even the Los Angeles Times covered Sunday’s episode as if it actually happened to someone who isn’t a fictional character. That may have annoyed some fans, but it was brilliant work.
We are lucky to have prestige shows like Succession (or White Lotus and The Last of Us) that are must-watch live events and that are still a quality watch even if the plot does get spoiled. If you want to avoid spoilers, you have to try your best to stay offline until you’ve seen the show. Otherwise, it feels like you’re complaining about someone spoiling the score of last night’s game.
Quick Hits: Jon Rahm won the Masters! … Hot MLB mics … NBA teammates throwing punches? … and more
Looking for an Irish film to watch for St. Patrick’s Day? We’ve got you covered.
Ireland is among the many nations to have contributed to the rich tapestry of international film.
As we celebrate St. Patrick’s Day on Friday, it’s worth looking at some of the relatively recent Irish films that have been released and point you in the right direction of where to watch them.
From very recent Oscar nominees to crowd-pleasing favorites set in Ireland, these recent Irish films are more than worthy of a St. Patrick’s Day viewing.
All of these films listed are available right at home for streaming or home rental, so you won’t have to travel to the Emerald Isle to catch these Irish film favorites.
The unexpected demise of a beloved Sex and the City character set Twitter ablaze.
Warning: This post is chock full of spoilers about the first two episodes of HBO Max’s new “Sex and The City” series, “And Just Like That…”, including one that will ABSOLUTELY DEVASTATE YOU IF YOU EVER CARED ABOUT THIS SHOW OR THE MOVIES (EVEN THE SECOND MOVIE WHICH WAS OBJECTIVELY NOT GREAT). Proceed with caution.
Diehard “Sex and The City” fans who’d been eagerly anticipating this week’s premiere of the series’ latest installment, “And Just Like That…” thought they’d only be grieving the absence of Kim Cattrall, who decided not to reprise her role as Samantha.
But it was the unexpected demise of another beloved character that set Twitter ablaze following the release of the show’s first two episodes. Mr. Big — a.k.a. John James Preston, a.k.a. the guy who messed with Carrie’s head for a decade before finally deciding he loved her before finally deciding to marry her before LEAVING HER AT THE ALTAR WITH A BIRD ON HER HEAD BUT WINNING HER BACK WITH A CUSTOM CLOSET AND A PAIR OF ROYAL BLUE SILK MANOLOS — dies in the final minutes of the first episode.
While Big’s death was shocking, it wasn’t so much that he died but how he died that left viewers and longtime SATC fans stunned. After Carrie leaves him at home to attend Charlotte’s daughter’s piano recital, he mounts his trusty Peloton bike — one of the show’s many forced reminders these people are firmly living in 2021 with all the pandemic-induced trappings that come with it — to complete his 1000th ride. He makes it through only to collapse in the shower moments later as the result of a heart attack. Carrie returns home to the horror of finding him barely alive and wraps herself around him in his final moments. Naturally, because this show has the subtlety of a bulldozer, she was wearing those same blue stilettos that reunited them 13 years earlier.
Then, the most jarring end-of-episode voiceover in SATC history:
“And just like that…Big died.”
GOOD.
LORD.
Never mind the fact we’ve invested in this series (which was ultimately anchored by Carrie and Big’s on-again/off-again love story) for 23 YEARS, or that we somehow managed to forgive Big for being the absolute worst boyfriend and fiancé imaginable because Carrie loved him AND WE WANTED TO SEE HER HAPPY, or even how we scrubbed that godawful second movie from our memories when Carrie fled to Abu Dhabi after Big had the audacity to *checks notes* put a TV in their bedroom?!
We stuck with it because Carrie deserved her happily-ever-after — AND SO DID WE, DAMN IT — and they reward our decades-long investment by making her … WIDOWED BY PELOTON?!
To be fair, the second episode works overtime to keep the blame off the bike itself. Miranda tries to comfort a distraught Steve before the funeral by reminding him Big had heart problems for years and that his cardiologist had cleared him for intense exercise. There’s even a subplot crafted around Charlotte’s guilt for inviting Carrie to her daughter’s recital that night when she was supposed to be in the Hamptons with Big.
Man, I feel sorry for those poor Peloton lawyers who didn’t push HBO for more storyline info once they knew Big was getting a bike 😂 #AndJustLikeThat 😂 pic.twitter.com/WC5ebiqEb1
It’s bad enough getting older makes me think about my own mortality!! But to have my fav show slap me in the face with it…is 💔…why couldn’t we have one more season with Carrie & Big on the town!!! And I’m looking at my #peloton so differently now!!! #JustLikeThatpic.twitter.com/W6S3P1atsY
“Mr. Big lived what many would call an extravagant lifestyle — including cocktails, cigars, and big steaks — and was at serious risk as he had a previous cardiac event in season 6. These lifestyle choices and perhaps even his family history, which often is a significant factor, were the likely cause of his death. Riding his Peloton bike may have even helped delay his cardiac event.”
The ending of “The Sopranos” is always going to boggle people’s minds (READ: Make people angry). We’ll never know exactly what happens to Tony after that screen goes black.
But we’re about to know everything that happens before! Like, way WAY before. Before the entire Sopranos series even began.
The Sopranos prequel “The Many Saints of Newark” is coming on October 1 on HBO Max and the trailer was finally released on Tuesday.
It featured Michael Gandolfini stepping into the role of a young Tony Soprano in place of his late father, James. It was incredible to watch.
*Warning: There is some NSFW language in this trailer*
Every legend must start somewhere.
The Many Saints of Newark, a prequel to The Sopranos, will be in theaters and streaming exclusively on HBO Max October 1. pic.twitter.com/qn48MhI6r6
Sometimes, people can be so mean online. Other times, though? They’re genuinely great, nice people.
We’re seeing the latter show out in the HBO Test email fiasco. Lots of HBO Max subscribers took to the internet to figure out if anyone else had been sent a random test e-mail from the service.
The e-mail was empty and it looked sort of like it was a potential phishing attempt which, obviously, can be pretty dangerous.
No one quite knew what was going on. The email only said it was an “integration test email #1” and that the template was used for integration tests only.
Turns out we were never supposed to see this. This was an e-mail accidentally sent to subscribers from HBO Max. And, funnily enough, it was because of an intern.
We mistakenly sent out an empty test email to a portion of our HBO Max mailing list this evening. We apologize for the inconvenience, and as the jokes pile in, yes, it was the intern. No, really. And we’re helping them through it. ❤️
Whew boy. We all know how this usually goes. People never miss a chance to pile on someone’s mistake — especially when they’re an intern.
People love to make fun of bad tweets by saying the intern sent them. Which, by the way, is completely messed up and disrespectful to interns who are only trying to make a way in their respective industries.
But…that’s not what happened here. It’s not even close! People on the internet were actually nice!
They sent lots of tweets about mistakes they’ve previously made and sent words of encouragement to the intern. It was pretty awesome.
Let me be entirely awenest, my friends: I’m still (sips Wawa coffee) not over (munches the hoagie I keep two feet from my right arm at all times) the death (flings Mike-Schmidt-era Phillies hat) of Detective Colin Zabel (switches to a Yuengling-Rolling Rock double fist, or as I call it, college.)
But life goes forward, and there’s a mystery to solve, and we’re here to help you do that as we trudge through the last hours of waiting for the seventh and final installment of HBO’s Philly-riffic, Kate Winslett-driven series Mare of Easttown (tonight, 10 p.m. ET).
Naturally there will be some spoilers here, if you aren’t current with the series. But, also, I’m not sure you’re going to understand anything I say in this article if you haven’t seen the show.
Episode 6 ended with a dastardly cliff-hanger. It was so unfair that I’m contemplating buying tickets to Delaware men’s basketball games this season so that I can throw things (a great Philly sporting tradition!) at Blue Hens coach Martin Ingelsby, whose brother Brad is the writer and producer of Mare.
The ending scene has Mare chasing after Billy Ross, who earlier that day confessed to his brother John that he, in fact, killed Erin McMenamin.
However, back at the Easttown Police HQ, Erin’s best friend Jess Riley has arrived to reveal that she retrieved a photo out of Erin’s diaries, before they were burned by ex-boyfriend Dylan Hinchey, and that it may have some bearing on the case.
Chief Carter looks at the photo and quickly tries to have Mare contacted. But we never see what’s on the photo. We only know it’s going to change the direction of the narrative.
With that being the case, let’s take a look at the possible suspects and why they do or don’t make sense. I’ll weave in some of my own observations as well as the best of many, many, many theories making the rounds on the internet.
