The day of reckoning is almost upon us. Soon, HBO Max will simply be known as Max.
The long-awaited (if vaguely feared) reboot from Warner Bros. flagship streamer Discovery launches next Tuesday, May 23rd. before that. Since then, we’ve had a ton of updates, including keeping Discovery+ as a separate service; new titles, such as a serialized reboot of “Harry Potter,” which are picked up by Max; and a boatload of cancellations and removals of TV shows and movies from the soon-to-be-defunct HBO Max platform.
And Warner Bros. Discovery isn’t over yet. Several Warner Bros. Television-owned titles will still leave the service in the coming days, before the catalog combine occurs. Shows removed from the streamer include the late night satire “Full Frontal With Samantha Bee”, the Adult Swim series “Space Ghost Coast to Coast” and “Metalocalypse”, and a TruTV reality series called “Hack My Life: Inside Hack” ( which is about lifestyle improvements and not the dramedy starring Jean Smart, to be clear.)
It’s a minor felling compared to the much larger content bars that have occurred in the past; The first round of streamer cuts, in August, hit children’s programming and animated series particularly hard, as the company scaled back efforts in those areas. A cut last December shifted the focus to more adult live-action shows, from the sci-fi epic “Westworld” to the adapted novel “The Time Traveller’s Wife” to the period comedy “Minx.”
Reality TV has also been decimated, with ‘Legendary’, ‘Finding Magic Mike’ and ‘FBOY Island’ also being dropped by the streamer while the unscripted division faced major layoffs. Unlike their animated siblings, those shows have at least been lucky to have found new homes since; “Westworld” and “The Time Traveller’s Wife” are available on FAST platforms, while “Minx” has been picked up for a new season by Starz.
Will the relaunch end WBD’s reign of terror over its content? This is to be determined. But as we prepare for Max’s brave new world, let’s take a minute to mourn what we once shared with service as we knew it. Here is a list of the 87 shows and movies that have been downloaded by the streamer since August 2022, including series that will be released in the next few days.
Note: Entries appear alphabetically with children’s programming at the end. This list is not and may not be complete, as some titles have been removed without notice. Some titles may still appear on the service for an unknown, limited time.
