Disney+ Hotstar has recently released the highly anticipated docuseries, BTS Monuments: Beyond the Star to celebrate and look back on the journey of the world’s biggest boy bands.
The episodic series features never-before-seen interviews, performances and other BTS (behind-the-scenes) moments with the Bangtan Boys – a name given to the collective members of BTS, including RM, Jin, SUGA, j-hope, Jimin, V and Jung Kook.
The show has eight episodes dedicated to highlighting the band’s journey in the last 10 years. BTS fans (also known as ARMY) are taken through the highs and lows of making it in the K-Pop industry. Beyond the highly competitive trainee qualifiers and grueling training, the show captures the success of the band as it was catapulted into international fame.
The Bangtan Boys definitely leaves an impression in the series. Through the episodes, viewers embark on a journey through the BTS experience as it becomes a household name. The show also explores the thoughts of each member as they delve more into their doubts and motivations. With unexpected challenges like sudden fame, burnout, and the recent pandemic, one of the core themes centered around perseverance.
Overall, the show does a good job at giving fans an intimate look into the band’s thoughts while putting the spotlight on important milestones. However, those who are generally unfamiliar with the band or K-Pop may find it more difficult to follow along. With mentions of several band-references and references to K-Pop specific events, the docuseries is very much an ode to fans.
You can catch BTS Monuments: Beyond the Star on Disney+ Hotstar. Looking for more show recommendations? Check out our recent article on 10 movies you should not miss out on here.
August has come and gone… and with the strikes happening in the U.S., it can seem like there’s not many things that you can add to your watchlist – whether it’s offline or on one of the growing number of streaming platforms. But, don’t be down in the dumps, we’ve got a rundown of a few shows that should be on your watchlist, if they aren’t already.
If you missed the first season, what have you doing with yourself!? This is arguably one of the best epic high fantasy series on streaming right now. The series is based on a series of 15 books called “The Wheel of Time” and follows a group of young people, an Aes Sedai and her warder as they try to stave off the Dark One.
Source: Amazon Prime Video
Season 2 picks off where Season 1 left off with our main characters scattered to the winds as the end of the world quickly approaches. After the events that happened in Fal Dara, we see Nynaeve and Egwene learning the ways of the Aes Sedai while maneuvering the politics that have seeped into the White Tower. Meanwhile, Moirraine and Lan are in a remote hillside as she learns to navigate the realities of being sealed off from the Source. Her inner turmoil straining the bond between her and Lan. Perrin continues the search for Padan Fain as he seeks revenge for the death Fain has wrought.
While all of this is happening, we are left with the threads from season 1’s finale as new, unknown forces have begun to invade from the ocean. Don’t forget, the Dark One is still out there.
Season 2 kicks off on September 1, 2023 with 3 episodes being released simultaneously on Amazon Prime Video. The season will consist of 8 episodes in total. The series stars Josha Stradowski, Rosamund Pike, Daniel Henney, Zoë Robins, Madeleine Madden, Marcus Rutherford, Dónal Finn as Mat Cauthon, and Ceara Coveney.
Based on the popular manga and anime series, One Piece brings the adventures of Luffy and band of misfit pirates into live action. The series follows Monkey D Luffy as he quests to find the “One Piece” to become king of the pirates. Luffy’s journey begins in the East Blue Sea, driven by a quest to uncover the legendary “One Piece,” the ultimate treasure left behind by the late King of the Pirates, Gol D. Roger. His ambition is to claim the title of Pirate King for himself. To achieve this, Luffy seeks to build his own crew, known as the Straw Hat Pirates. Along the way, they are joined by a diverse group of individuals, each with their own unique talents and quirks.
Their journey is anything but ordinary as they cross paths with fellow pirates, bounty hunters, criminal organizations, and revolutionaries. They also face off against enigmatic scientists, soldiers of the morally ambiguous World Government, and a host of both allies and adversaries. As they navigate the vast seas, they inch closer to realizing their dreams and ambitions.
“One Piece” is a tale of adventure, friendship, and the pursuit of one’s destiny, offering a rich and immersive world that continues to captivate audiences around the globe. But then again… you already knew this… right
The series stars Iñaki Godoy, Mackenyu, Emily Rudd, Jacob Romero and Taz Skylar.
Star Wars fans will undoubtedly already be devouring this series. The new series in the Star Wars franchise follows one of the most popular characters to come from its animated Clone Wars series – Ahsoka Tano, Anakin Skywalker’s Padawan.
Source: Disney+ Hotstar
Having forsaken the Jedi order after the events of the Clone Wars and slowly become a figurehead in Rebel movement, Ahsoka finds herself looking into an emerging threat after the fall of the Empire.
The series premiered back in August and stars Rosario Dawson as the titular character.
Disney+ is coming off a pretty good quarter when it comes to subscribers. The streaming service is now the largest of its kind with 152.1 million subscribers worldwide. However, it looks like the House of Mouse is still struggling to make its streaming businesses profitable. Yep – businesses – Disney has more than one streaming service repertoire; Disney+ is its most widely available. Hulu, ESPN+ and Live TV are also part of the catalogue but aren’t widely available. Altogether, the businesses have seen an aggregated USD$1.1 billion in losses.
It would seem that to make the business more profitable, Disney+ will be introducing a Disney+ Premium subscription while the current tier will become an ad-supported one. You read that correct, Disney isn’t introducing a brand new tier, it’s turning its current tier into an ad-supported one. The new ad-free “Premium” tier will be priced at USD$10.99 (MYR48.85), a 37.5% increase in price. It would seem like the ad-supported tier will be screening 15- to 30-second ads for every hour of viewing which can be pretty disruptive especially if you’re watching a movie. The change will be introduced on December 8, 2022.
The change in the subscription structure has, so far, only been confirmed for the United States. Disney hasn’t commented on the change in other regions. In Malaysia, the service is currently available for MYR54.90 for 3 months that’s equivalent to USD$3.09 a month. However, it’s available under its Disney+Hotstar brand which carries a whole other catalogue including local content and licensed content under Hotstar. If the service is to follow the repricing the U.S. is doing, yearly commitment for the service would be MYR301.95 from the current MYR219.60. At which point, it may be cheaper to simply get it as part of a bundle from Astro.
That said, Disney+ isn’t the only service looking at introducing an ad-supported tier. Just recently, Netflix announced that it would be doing the same in a partnership with Microsoft. However, Netflix’s implementation of the ad-supported tier will limit the amount of content accessible to the user in its ad-supported tier. For now, Disney+ seems to not do this. However, we shall wait and see.
