Apparently, That IS What It's Called

A couple of weeks ago, I began writing an article after reading a recent interview Puck's Matthew Belloni had with HBO's Casey Bloys about the current direction of the MAX streaming platform.

And I put it off because something was off in the air.

About a week later, I started to rewrite that article after reading a feature story from Bloomberg Businessweek's Felix Gillette about the current woes of the Cartoon Network brand.

Both articles had a lot to be desired to say the least.

People like to paint Casey Bloys as some kind of wunderkind at HBO, and yes, his reputation at the network over the past two decades speaks volumes for how the HBO brand has evolved and changed. But in Belloni's interview, Bloys came off like an aloof numb who just seemed to be parroting what his superiors tell him to.

Belloni suggested to Bloys that Netflix should sub-brand their content the way HBO and others within the WBD serfdom do, but Bloys just blew it over. I should note that there are HBO and MAX originals on Netflix in the US, but there are no Netflix originals on MAX. Belloni also keeps harping to Bloys that these moronic decisions were made because they're ruining the company to sell it, to which I say why would anybody want anything to do with them at all? 

Also, for the record, it's not David Zaslav's company to sell. Just saying.

Gillette just recapped everything most folks knew, or at least assumed, about what's been going on within Cartoon Network, touching on the closing of the original physical studio, the #RIPCartoonNetwork hashtag from last summer, the de-emphasis of the Cartoon Network brand on-air and online in favor of Adult Swim, how the international side of Cartoon Network keeps the brand relevant and afloat almost in spite of what Ouweleen's doing in the States, and the purging of Cartoon Network and Cartoon Network Studios-made shows from MAX. Stuff people talked about in droves since 2022. Nothing really new there. 

But I held back writing it in full because there was a weird energy in the air when it comes to this company:

Something was amiss. 

Why were all of these articles about the woes of MAX and Cartoon Network coming out all of a sudden and so close to Warner Bros Discovery's annual advertising upfronts?

On Wednesday, May 14, 2025, the day of the upfronts, Warner Bros Discovery announced that they're re-rebranding MAX as HBO Max.

Yes, this genius company, which spent tens of millions to rebrand and reorganize the streamer to appeal to families who don't like the HBO brand and removed 3/5 of the shows and movies (most of which were popular library and family properties and productions made by Black, Latino, and LGBT creators) in order to fit in cheaply-made Discovery shows, just pissed away the last two years and ruined the reputation of not only the HBO brand but also Warner Bros as a whole just to make Discovery look good only to just go back and say "We're so sorry. We made a boo-boo. Whoopsie-doodle! Sorry."

Everybody in the room laughed AT Warner Bros Discovery.

Let's face facts. Only narcs and sycophants called HBO Max "MAX." Even my nearly 70-year-old mother who is not really the most tech-savvy person, called it HBO Max. The people who run this company are not serious people.

The de-emphasis on the HBO brand while expanding the Discovery brands was a choice. Hell, bringing in Discovery brands while purging out everything, most notably classic Looney Tunes shorts, was a choice. 

Don't even get me with "well, the algorithm says more people are watching Discovery shows than classic cartoons" or "they had to remove less than 100 hours of Looney Tunes shorts to make room for over 1000 hours of House Hunters to save server space" because algorithms can be altered to fit and justify corporate interests and agendas. 

It's incredibly easy to just alter algorithms and codes to fit in an agenda. You could even put in propaganda in every answer on a terrible service if you wanted to. I'd advise against it because, golly, that would be silly.

Looking at the whole situation, I realized that I totally called it nearly a year ago. I didn't need to say anymore. 

Honestly, what else could be said? 

The same moronic folks who made these decisions are still in power at HBO Max and WBD. The shows and movies that were purged and pushed aside to bring in Discovery programming, especially the more adult fare, will likely never return to HBO Max. The money spent on the rebranding to MAX is gone forever, and they're not getting that back. The services and sites shut down to make room for MAX are gone for good. 

This whole MAX experiment has been a waste of everybody's time that made no sense, destroyed the reputation of an entire media company, and made a handful of people incredibly rich. This chaos only begs one question:

What's next for HBO Max and WBD?

Most likely, they're going to chug along and continue to make mistake after mistake hoping something will stick occasionally surprising viewers with breakout hits (The Pitt's first season was incredible, and so far, Duster is pretty damn amazing, so do check those out). 

However, as some folks have suggested, perhaps the re-rebranding of HBO Max could be the beginning of the purging of Discovery from not only the streamer but also from the company itself. 

WBD seems to be embracing the scripted and sports sides of the company more these days, and you can tell that the Discovery brands are feeling more like an afterthought.

Oh, don't look at me like that, cartoon fan. 

I'm going to have to talk about that in full right here.