I was binge-watching "Dawson's Creek" on Netflix the other day and was struck by this line from Joey Potter, played by Katie Holmes: "Dreams aren't perfect, Dawson. Dreams come true, but they're not free."

This sentiment can be applied to the current uproar boiling over on social media about "The Office" moving from Netflix to Peacock and the ad-supported streaming of classic episodes of the old NBC show for most users

Streaming was one of the few things that wasn't the worst last year. Many movie theaters remain closed and we continue to work from home as the coronavirus outbreak continues. Streaming can be soothing and comforting. But like dreams, streaming is not free.

In 2020, the streaming arms race heated up with new entrants Peacock and HBO Max. Both companies entered the field armed with large back catalogs of content owned by their respective companies, Comcast's NBCUniversal and AT&T's WarnerMedia.

HBO Max launched its service by taking one of Netflix's longtime binge staples, Friends (produced by Warner Bros. Television). Six months before that, Disney Plus did the same thing by siphoning Marvel and Star Wars movies to its own service. And now Peacock is paying its sister studio Universal Television $100 million a year for the streaming rights and is trying to make "The Office" a major title.

Peacock is betting that "The Office" will attract users, and if you go to PeacockTV.com, the website is heavily advertising the show, claiming that the first two seasons are available for free. Clicking on "Upgrade" displays a price based on the amount of "The Office" viewed.

According to social media posts, fans of the comedy show are flocking to Peacock. As tech reporter Walt Mossberg noted, they were unpleasantly surprised to have to watch the ads:

Yes, the ads suck. No one likes to watch ads. I still subscribe to cable TV and religiously fast-forward through commercials on my DVR recording.

But as I said before, streaming is not free, it costs in some way. In this case, the cost for the first two seasons is to watch the ads. The cost for the remaining seven seasons (plus bonus material) is to upgrade to Peacock Premium for $4.99/month and watch the ads. To watch ad-free, you must upgrade to Peacock Premium Plus for $9.99/month.

In other words, you have to pay to watch ad-free, but you also had to do that when the comedy was on Netflix. And remember that the OG version of "The Office" was free on NBC: ...... Ad-supported.

The biggest drawback to paying for Peacock Premium Plus is that it is not completely ad-free. I tried it out and was able to watch a dozen episodes of "The Office" without interruption, but other users have noted that some movies and shows still contain ads. Peacock has published that warning on its Premium Plus plan. This is also the case with Hulu Ad-Free, where some titles must run commercials due to rights issues that I do not understand.

This is a major advantage of Netflix and HBO Max. On the other hand, these two services are more expensive than Hulu and Peacock's top-of-the-line, almost ad-free plans.

Like many people, I can't afford to subscribe to all streaming services, so I pick and choose. So I've decided to put up with commercials on regular Hulu, and I signed up for an annual subscription to Peacock Premium over the holiday season to watch the Saved by the Bell reboot (which, by the way, is excellent). But for this article I upgraded to Premium Plus. I'll take a well-timed bathroom break and deal with the ads the old-fashioned way.