Paramount Plus: All the shows that make the service worth the price
As new streaming services continue to greedily snatch up exclusive content, we can have a hard time deciding which shows make another monthly streaming subscription worth the price. Paramount Plus is making waves as one of the latest streamers racking up users, and it’s all because of its TV shows.
Paramount Plus has some great movies, but its value lies with its many TV shows bursting with millennial nostalgia. Paramount Plus is one of those services with content too good (and rare) to ignore, and new users are signing up every day. Check out our list of our favorite Paramount Plus shows. Without these gems, we may have resisted yet another streaming subscription.
The Real World
The Real World is the reality show without which there would be no Jersey Shore, Too Hot to Handle, or Love Island. Back in the day, you didn’t need gimmicks for a reality show, just seven strangers picked to live in a house, have their lives taped, and see what happens when people stop being polite and start getting real (sorry, we had to).
Many of us grew up with The Real World, and old seasons serve as neat time capsules, not only for fashion & music, but also for reality TV history. Before reality shows had blueprints, with forced storylines & goofy music, The Real World feels like a raw & entertaining docuseries more than a reality show.
Paramount Plus has twenty seasons of the show available to keep you busy. Get ready for some cringey moments though, because as entertaining as old seasons of The Real World are, they’ll remind you times have changed.
The State
Before Wet Hot American Summer & Role Models had theaters uproaring with laughter, director David Wain joined his usual ensemble of funnymen & women on The State in the early 90s. You’ll recognize the crew of some of TV’s best comedic actors on the show, from Reno 911’s Thomas Lennon to Brooklyn 99’s Joe Lo Truglio.
The State is one of TV’s best alternative comedy sketch shows, and basically shows audiences what SNL could be with better writers and a funnier cast. If you aren’t a cult follower of The State’s comedians (like we are), you’ll spend the time in between laughs watching the show saying “where do I know them from?” to nearly every cast member.
Most of the cast has gone on to bigger & better things, but watching The State will remind you why they got there.
Another Period
Another Period is one of Comedy Central’s many unrecognized shows, most of which are now available on Paramount Plus. We can’t speak for all of the one-season experiments CC put out over the years, but we can say Another Period is one of the network’s most original & over-looked series.
Another Period is basically a spoof on early 20th century period dramas ala Downton Abbey. The series draws comedy from what is glossed over in period dramas, from historically accurate hygiene, to disease, to treatment of women. The show comes together as something funny, dark, and uniquely weird. Overall, Another Period will have you saying, “how have I not seen this?”
Are You Afraid of the Dark?
Millennials looking for a nostalgia blast need look no further than the Nickelodeon section on Paramount Plus. The service offers nearly every show from Nickelodeon’s classic 90s line up, from The Angry Beavers to All That. We think Are You Afraid of the Dark? holds up the best of them all.
Are You Afraid of the Dark? scared us all as kids, and the show will still manage to creep any twenty-something out (and not just from the middle-school flashbacks). Millennials moved on to shows like The X-Files & Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but Are You Afraid of the Dark? presents the same monster-of-the-week format, easily drawing viewers right back in, even after more than a decade apart.
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These are just some of the many shows we think make Paramount Plus worth the price. Did we miss your favorite? Sound off in the comments!
