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Date: 3/20/2020
What I’m watching: a whole lot of streaming services.
Looking for new streaming services as you sit at home waiting the green light for normal life to resume?
I have a few recommendations.
Streaming is the new “narrow-casting.” There are channels that offer very focused kinds of programming. You want a 24-7 yoga channel? There’s a bunch of those. Want a channel to leave on for your dogs? That’s right, programming for your pooch. Vegan recipes? Yes, there’s a channel for that. A fan of the state of Wisconsin? There’s a Wisconsin channel. Aspire to make better cocktails? There’s the Mixology Channel.
Perhaps the best-known services are Netflix, Hulu and Disney+, all three are premium services. If you have a Roku or another similar device, you know that world of streaming is huge and the irony is it’s easy to pay more than you expected if you keep signing up for premium services.
Those $8, $9, or $10 a month fees can add up and it’s a good idea to eliminate those services you’ve found them to not to be as entertaining as they should be.
For instance, I recently subscribed and then later dropped the DC Universe service. This is the channel featuring movies, TV shows and other content with the characters of DC Comics – Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, etc.
My problem is the service didn’t have enough choice and its original series were not always satisfying. The service was also slow to offer any new content and used the strategy of presenting one new show at a time.
So, despite the fact that the very first comics I read were DC books and have been a DC fan since age five, I got rid of it.
My wife did the same thing with Acorn, a paid service that presents British TV programming. She literally watched everything she wanted to see and realized Acorn was not adding enough new programming. She switched to BritBox, another paid service that has a greater variety.
I recently subscribed to Shudder, a streaming service featuring horror films and I’m quite happy with it. It has and interesting variety of films, although there are not enough classic Universal or Hammer films for my taste. Still, so far I’ve watched two solid documentaries and the absolutely crazy Larry Cohen film “God Told Me To.” It’s a good start.
Sometimes a single program justifies subscribing to a service. When CBS All Access announced it was producing a new “Star Trek” series, we subscribed. We kept it when the network announced another “Star Trek” series “Picard.” So far, “Picard” has been a very satisfying show and I’m sure we’ll keep the service.
There are a fair number of good free streaming services, which make their money by presenting their content with commercials. If you don’t object to a commercial or two, there is a huge number of programming available to you.
The following are some of my favorites:
• Roku has is own channel featuring some very good movies and TV shows.
• Shout Factory is the streaming world’s home for 1970s and ‘80s exploitation films and generally delightfully odd movies and TV shows.
• Adult Swim offers adult animation, including the very popular “Rick and Morty.”
• Tubi and Popcornflix are also two more movie channels with some obscure and interesting films.
• Pluto has an amazing assortment of programming: news, sports, movies and TV shows. Some of its channels are played “live” like broadcast TV while others are on demand.
So, if you’re bored with what you’re seeing on TV, consider cutting the cord and move into the wild world of streaming.