Paramount+ Premium: Worth the Price or Just Premium Pretend?

• 0 Comments

🎬 Paramount+ Review: “Streaming With a Side of Showtime Shenanigans”

You’ve got a bazillion streaming services fighting like street gangs for your attention—and wallet. Paramount+ swaggered in, rebranded from CBS All Access in 2021, added Showtime content, live sports, and original hits like MobLand, Tulsa King, and Halo. Now they’ve simplified to two plans: Essential and Premium. But does that extra dough buy you less anxiety or more legit binge time? Let’s dive in…

📦 Setup: “Unboxing the Behemoth”

Getting Paramount+ up feels like signing a multigenerational custody agreement. You plug your card, pick a plan, and bam—they hit you with NFL, Champions League, and a few Showtime teasers even on the cheap tier. Ready faster than a toddler with a new toy.
Score: 8/10

📺 Features/Selection: “The Buffet of Broken Promises”

Choices galore: thousands of episodes, classic shows (Star Trek, Cheers, Twin Peaks), recent blockbuster flicks (12 Years a Slave, Pulp Fiction, Godfather), and sports overload ($$$ live soccer, NFL).
TechRadar even named Paramount+ one of the “world’s leading platforms” thanks to its fat catalog indiatimes.com. Still, it’s the kind of buffet where the seconds are microwaved, and you cynically wonder if that’s actually chicken.
Score: 7/10

🕹️ User Interface: “Where Dreams Go to Buffer”

The app’s layout is straightforward—landing page, menus, search, yada yada. But woe betide you during impact shows: slow loading, occasional freeze-ups, and nudging promos to pay up for the ad-free tier. You want Showtime? It’s time to cough up.
Score: 6/10

💰 Price: “You Pay, You Pray”

• Essential (ads): $7.99/mo or $59.99/yr cabletv.com+1cinemablend.com+1

• Premium (ad-free + full Showtime): $12.99/mo or $119.99/yr moneylion.com+7goal.com+7cinemablend.com+7

Pretty standard, but let’s be honest—that little $5 bump is more like a backstage pass to premium content without commercial interruptions.
Score: 8/10

🔌 Performance: “Buffer This”

Premium plan removes ads—but not buffering. Sorry, not sorry. Expect occasional hiccups when live sports hit peak minutes. And yes, that 4K trailer plays smoother than a three-day-old server. They keep the Netflix-level speed dreams locked in their vault.
Score: 6/10

🎯 Final Verdict: Score 7/10

Paramount+ is like finding a dusty DVD collection at your grandma’s house: full of nostalgia, some hidden gems (MobLand smashed records, and some classics you forgot you loved, yet lacks the polish and speed of bigger platforms. It’s competent, sometimes even clutch—especially if you’re into clever originals and live sports—but you’ll still sigh whenever you hit that bummer buffering spin.

If cord-cutting plus Showtime thrills, sports, and occasional pop-culture deep-dives float your boat—go for the Premium. Want something lighter? Essential still gives you a surprise or two, with ads.