Paramount+ Has Gone Too Far

It wasn’t that long ago when CBS announced a streaming service once called CBS All Access and since changed to being named Paramount+. It seemed like an idea that wouldn’t have worked. Why pay money to buy a streaming service when you could get the DVDs or blu-rays instead?

First, they throw the bait and then they see if fish will come to the bait. First, the service put up a new show called The Good Fight which was a sequel series to The Good Wife which aired all of its seasons on the CBS network. And then they put the first episode of The Good Fight on TV with the rest of the episodes put on the streaming service.

One may not think that this was going to work. But the streaming service took off and many watched the show with it being renewed and is still set to air in the future. There have been other shows that have also aired on just that streaming service.

Now how did the streaming service go too far? It was recent things that made me wonder more about this in the future. I would have thought that most of what wound up on there was because it could not air on network television without edits. When the first season of The Good Fight made it to the network in 2019, it was clear that they were editing out swears in these network broadcasts. When another CBS all access show aired on the CW, namely Tell Me a Story, they edited out nudity at one point based on the one episode that I saw of it on TV.

Then we get to Star Trek: Discovery. With it airing on CBS in both 2020 and 2021 to fill in for stuff that was not ready due to the pandemic, it didn’t seem like these were edited down for the network in any way, shape, or form. Thus, there was no real reason why it had to air on streaming services versus on the network like any other show based on the information I can tell about it at the time.

If putting content on the streaming service that could have easily wound up on the network wasn’t going to far, then the plan for next season is. After only airing on CBS, the show SEAL Team is moving to the streaming service. Now while I stopped caring about that show, many people did not and will only be pissed off by that. It isn’t alone. Both Clarice and Evil will be airing their second seasons on the streaming service instead of the network. Is there just not enough room on the network for all of these shows? Do they not want to wind up like the CW by biting off more than they can chew? 

Honestly, I still have no interest in signing up for any paid streaming service. I may have Disney+ for now, but that was more of a family decision that I wasn’t part of. I won’t have any issues going without these shows as I can always buy seasons of The Good Fight on DVD and stop watching as much fucking shows that I don’t need to put up with. But I do hate not just the steaming service of Paramount+ for doing this, but also CBS for letting them do this. While I should be happy that these shows will live on and do exist, I see this problem as having gone too far.