It's a mixed bag, but more positive than the phrase implies. The great ones are great, even if they are just infotainment, but there are some deeper ones as well. At the very least it's a great way to sample different creative fields and find out more about them.
My two main observations are:
1. There's a reason most of them say "So-and-so teaching <vague phrase>". You're not going to learn scales from any musicians, how to make jokes from any comedians, or how to write good from any writers. The craft part is up to you; they'll teach concepts, ideas, abstractions, etc relevant to their field, and ways to apply that craft effectively.
2. They all have elements of "Strong educational content" (EDU) and "infotainment / autobiography / motivational speaking" (TAIN), but some of them swing much harder in one direction than the other.
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Here's some hand-wavy opinions of the ones I've watched. (Obviously the TAIN value will be higher if you're already interested in that person) -
- Aaron Sorkin teaches Screenwriting (Strong EDU and TAIN)
- Tom Morello teaches Electric Guitar (Strong EDU and TAIN)
- Tony Hawk teaches Skateboarding (Strong EDU and TAIN)
- Daniel Negreanu teaches Poker (Strong EDU and TAIN)
- Niki Nakayama teaches Modern Japanese Cooking (Strong EDU, Medium TAIN)
- Bob Iger teaches Business Strategy and Leadership (Read his book)
- Dan Brown teaches Writing Thrillers (Strong EDU, Medium TAIN)
- Hans Zimmer teaches Film Scoring (Medium EDU, Strong TAIN)
- Neil Gaiman teaches the Art of Storytelling (Medium EDU, Strong TAIN)
- St Vincent teaches Creativity (Medium EDU, Strong TAIN)
- Danny Elfman teaches Music for Film (Medium EDU and TAIN)
- Itzhak Perlman teaches Violin (Medium EDU and TAIN)
- Steve Martin teaches Comedy (Read his book)
- Billy Collins teaches Poetry (Medium EDU, Low TAIN)
- Herbie Hancock teaches Jazz (Low EDU, Medium TAIN)
- Yo-Yo Ma teaches Music and Connection (Low EDU, Medium TAIN)
I've really enjoyed it but as it's already been said it's a lot better to approach the class as an extended interview and reflections from a world-class practitioner about their craft and career. Directing was an especially relevant discipline for the Masterclass formula as it is a mix of hard and soft skills, and there are a lot of resources for the hard skills, especially at an indie level. Ron Howard instead focused more on the soft skills and I gained something from it, especially as some of it is just plain old project management that I could also apply at my (engineering) work.
There was also a long, uncut practical session where Howard directed a scene on a set with an entire team of actors and crew, and I found it really interesting to watch them all work together like I was a fly on the wall.
So if you view Masterclass as a way to pick the brain of a celebrity practitioner you genuinely admire, I think it is 100% worthwhile. If you're instead looking for a regular tutorial about a discipline without having any interest in the instructor themselves, I'm less sure.
It's totally worthwhile, but it depends on your interests.
I originally subbed, for all things, to see Penn & Teller teach the basics of magic. I've since moved on to learning about cooking and how movies are made from the best in the business.
You can get a feel for what is offered here: https://www.masterclass.com/categories
I'm not affiliated with them in any way.