Lessons From HBO Max’s First Year This story first ran in Buffering, Vulture’s newsletter about the streaming industry. Head to vulture.com/buffering and subscribe today! This story first ran in Buffering, Vulture’s newsletter about the streaming industry. Head to vulture.com/buffering and subscribe today! Photo-Illustration: Vulture; Photo by HBO Max It’s been a year for HBO Max, both literally and figuratively: The platform turns one year old today, and the last 12 months have been, well … eventful. Debuting amid a global pandemic was never going to be easy, but Max lived up to its moniker by producing the maximum amount of drama. There was that early and very confusing nonsense over the naming of various HBO products; an uninspired launch marketing campaign; COVID-related delays of tentpole shows such as