The Penguin Is Following HBO’s Formula for Prestige TV Success
The Penguin Is Following HBO’s Formula for Prestige TV Success
So The Penguin is great, but this article is a lot of fluff and really just pointing out how stupid Warner Bros. Discovery is.
The strongest sign that The Penguin, the TV spinoff of 2022’s The Batman, would be a good show was when it was announced that the series would switch from Warner Bros. Discovery’s streaming service Max to become an HBO original series.
The decision was likely a combination of the generally confusing identity of Max to the public consumer and the desire to hitch The Penguin onto a brand name that has historically stood for being the peak of premium TV and that launched the Golden Age of modern television: HBO.
"Max" was a stupid branding decision. HBO is the long-standing name associated with quality. The show is high quality unrelated to the deck chairs the higher ups rearrange.
If "HBO" means quality, then what does "Max" mean?
Max means Cinemax to me.
That's how badly they fucked up.
That, and, y'know, pulling HBO content from the service.