Streaming is the new king of television, and every media company out there is developing its own exclusive service with the ultimate goal being you can only watch specific movies and TV shows in one place. After Netflix and Hulu, one of the most prominent and popular of these is Disney+, using the company’s seemingly endless billions of dollars to provide dozens of original programs along with thousands of archived films, shorts and TV shows.

Kicking things off with the ridiculously great “The Mandalorian” for Star Wars fans and “WandaVision” for Marvel Cinematic Universe fans, the scripted content aimed at older and teen fans has wavered between good and awful with few truly great shows that keep these long-running franchises worth watching anywhere other than on the big screen.

While Disney+ plus has content for just about every demographic — Disney also owns The Muppets, National Geographic and 20th Century Studios — it’s the box-office-breaking Marvel and Star Wars properties that have kept the company chugging along. Sadly, more often than not in recent years, this means settling for bland stories that potentially get the most eyeball watching them but don’t have anything new or interesting to say.

Starting with Marvel, one of the better shows to balance the need for something new and of consequence while anchoring with a familiar character was “Loki.” Set in an out-of-time mid-century styled office building known as the Time Variance Authority, the mischievous Norse god was the first MCU character to fully see the multi-verse story that the entire saga was heading toward.

Since then, other series such as “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier,” “Hawkeye,” “Moon Knight” and, most recently, “She-Hulk: Attorney at Law,” do their best to check all the boxes for a serviceable product but not much more. There’s lots of jokes, there’s CGI battles, there’s connections to past movies and future movies/shows, but both the looks and stories are bland and predictable.

The one stand-out has been “Ms. Marvel,” the story of a nerdy Muslim high schooler in New Jersey whose favorite superhero is Captain Marvel and one day, through a bit of family history Ex Machina-ing, acquires superpowers of her own. Between the new characters and setting, unique stylization and compelling protagonist in Iman Vellani as Kamala Khan, “Ms. Marvel” is a refreshing and promising future for where the MCU could be headed.

Meanwhile, with the Star Wars properties, “The Mandalorian” continues to be the high mark for the entire saga and the best piece of Star Wars entertainment since “The Last Jedi” was released in theaters in 2017. Although still a part of the main series movies, there is enough of a different flavor to make it fresh and exciting by focusing more on the western origins of the Star Wars IP akin to a Clint Eastwood movie rather than a sci-fi epic.

Since then, however, the reception for other shows, both animated and live-action, has been good to mixed. Although spin-offs like “The Book of Boba Fett” and the “The Bad Batch” had their highs and lows, the highs were often tied to already existing stories from previous shows or movies with the original aspects not amounting to much. Meanwhile, the anime anthology series “Visions” is the least-connected thing to the original films we’ve seen yet, but that has also turned some viewers off to something too unfamiliar.

Until the season 3 release of “The Mandalorian” next year, the best thing Star Wars has going is “Andor,” itself a spin-off series of the spin-off film “Rogue One.” Following Diego Luna as Cassian Andor set about five years before his turn as a Rebel saving the galaxy in the 2016 film.

Except for the spaceships and laser blasters, nothing about “Andor” feels like a classic Star Wars story, and that’s the best thing about it. For the first time, the galaxy’s fate isn’t dependent on someone named Skywalker but on regular people who want to see democracy survive, even if some shady missions have to happen.

Disney+ has its problems, as all giant corporations do, but when they get it right, it really works. None of these shows have been a waste of time, but only a few have meant much more than the 45 minutes a week of watching them. Hopefully, we’ll see more of that in 2023.