Some of AMC's best shows are going to start streaming on Max later this week, and the good news is that they're going to be streaming ad-free for even ad-lite subscribers. Max, which is owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, is going to be streaming a whole bunch of shows from its rival AMC.
There will be around 200 episodes in all and they'll be branded "AMC+ Picks on Max". The shows will be available to stream from Friday 1 September, and as a horror fan this new AMC Plus bundle could replace Netflix for us.
That's the good news. The bad? It's only until Halloween on October 31. So, with that in mind, here are three suitably scary AMC shows to enjoy before they go back from where they leave the best streaming services.
1. Fear The Walking Dead
The first seven seasons of Fear The Walking Dead will be available to stream in the new AMC Plus Picks on Max selection. The show is a prequel to The Walking Dead and focuses on the world as it descends into chaos rather than the aftermath, and it delivers some suitably scary zombie action as the infection starts spreading. It can be a little patchy sometimes – critic ratings on Rotten Tomatoes vary from the 70% and 80% in the first few seasons to a low 55% for season five before soaring to 89% for the sixth season – but when it's good it's great, gory fun.
2. Anne Rice's Interview With The Vampire
This series has much better ratings than the film of the same name. Where the Tom Cruise movie got 63% from critics on Rotten Tomatoes who said the movie lacked... wait for it... bite, the TV show has an impressive 99% from the critics. Sam Reid as the vampire Lestat is "incredible", says Primal Screen, while the Sydney Morning Herald says it's "a show for lovers of blood and padding and the beauty that can come from the exploration of monsters". Meanwhile the Daily Dot says "it's a horny, gothic celebration of toxic behavior".
3. A Discovery of Witches
Based on the supernatural trilogy by Deborah Harkness, this spooky series tells the story of Diana Bishop, an Oxford professor and reluctant witch who stumbles upon an enchanted manuscript and is thrust into a magical world unlike any she’s known. The first season has a whopping 94% from the critics, who praised its mix of reality and high fantasy, its forbidden love story, its stunning scenery and what The Atlantic describes as a dynamic of "sexy-sexy sex".
Which other AMC shows are coming to Max?
In addition to the above shows, Max will also screen season one of Dark Winds, both seasons of superbly silly and ridiculously violent London gangster drama Gangs of London, five seasons of Ride With Norman Reedus and four seasons of Killing Eve. That's the list so far but we're expecting more shows to be announced shortly.
The goal here is clearly to drive more people to subscribe to AMC Plus, which has been struggling to get eyeballs. Its most recent financials disappointed investors, and rather than growing subscribers it's losing them. According to Variety, its goal is 20 to 25 million subscribers by 2025, but it's just dropped 300,000 to 11 million paying subscribers. The Max deal is clearly designed to try and reverse that.
