HBO Max’s “Last Chance” is the Streaming Innovation Every Service Needs

We’re so deep into the streaming wars it’s rare for any service to debut a feature that’s actually innovative; yet HBO Max has managed to do that very thing. HBO Max’s “Last Chance” option has taken the most frustrating part of streaming — the inevitable disappointment that comes when you realize your favorite show is leaving — and brilliantly repackages it into a somewhat exciting feature.

Last Chance is exactly what it sounds like. It’s a list of shows and movies on HBO Max that are about to expire. Some of those titles are set to depart on their own unique timeline, like Wonder Woman 1984, which left the service on Sunday (January 24). Most follow the timeline we’ve become accustomed to and are set to depart at the end of the month. Mind you, this is information that’s been available for years about every streaming service: each month all major streamers announce the shows and movies that are set to leave their platforms. But prior to now, finding those titles has felt like a treasure hunt.

If you want to watch something on Netflix or Hulu before it expires, you have to put in work. Your easiest option is to head to one of the many entertainment sites on the internet, like — random example — Decider.com. From there you need to find the article about all the titles leaving Netflix or Hulu for that month, search through that list to find something you’re interested in watching, then type that title into Netflix or Hulu. Yes, this is a process that generates clicks and, in effect, money for the very site that pays my bills. It’s also an incredibly clunky system for the user. That’s about five minutes of work to learn that 27 Dresses is leaving Netflix in two weeks.

HBO Max has streamlined this entire process. Now, if you want to know what’s leaving HBO, you only have to click a couple of times on a single site. Simply go to HBO Max, open up the “More” menu which is displayed as three lines, and select “Last Chance.” Bam. You’re there.

This option has been a game changer in answering the question that haunts all streamers: What are we going to watch tonight? You could scroll through one platform’s seemingly endless library, or you could just go to the Last Chance guide and pick out Martha Marcy May Marlene. That’s a movie you’ve heard good things about but haven’t had the time to watch. Why not do it now before it disappears to who knows where?

To be clear, the Last Chance option does nothing to cater the best HBO Max has to offer. Like with any major streaming service, there’s a lot of trash worth ignoring. What it does instead is help simplify your search in choosing something to watch. Instead of feeling overwhelmed by HBO’s powerhouse of original series, TNT dramas, TBS comedies, Adult Swim and Cartoon Network cartoons, and its library of old movies, you now have a solid starting point. You may scroll through HBO Max’s Last Chance list and decide nothing there is worth your time. That’s perfectly fine and reasonable. But this feature makes it less likely that the alternative will happen: that you’ll wait for weeks to watch a certain movie you KNOW is on HBO only to have it disappear the day before you’re actually ready to watch.

As we travel further and further into this new world of streaming, content overload has become as prevalent a problem as price. With so many excellent shows and movies to watch, where do you start? No streaming service has quite figured out the answer to that question. But with its Last Chance function, HBO Max is making that ask feel a little less daunting.