#i was actually really about to cancel my amc subscription | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

jeanvaljean24601 · 4 years

Text

How to Watch Mad Men and More Great Shows for Free Right Now

Another day, another brand new streaming platform out there begging you to subscribe to its service so you can ignore your family members and binge-watch a bunch of TV shows and movies in the name of entertainment. This time, it's NBCUniversal's Peacock, which offers a free tier as well as two premium options (one with ads and one without). The service features a number of programs for free, including Friday Night Lights and even Parks and Recreation, but Peacock isn't the only place you can stream great shows without breaking the bank.

Below, we've gathered up a number of shows that don't require you to shell out money for Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, Disney+, Apple TV+, HBO Max, Peacock, and/or whatever other streaming service subscriptions are out there. Sometimes you just need a simple freebie. And you know what? You deserve it. So check out the list below and take comfort in knowing it won't cost you a thing.

Watch it on: IMDb TV

Until recently you had to have a Netflix subscription to watch Mad Men, AMC's Emmy-award winning period drama from Matthew Weiner that was dedicated as much to style as it was to substance. The 1960s-set series, which traced the rise and fall of flawed Madison Avenue advertising executive Don Draper (Jon Hamm) through his own complicated relationship with identity, was a pointed commentary on the toxic masculinity, sexism, and racism of the era. It also changed the way we watch and talk about TV. If you haven't seen it yet, now's the perfect time to do so.

The Dick Van Dyke Show

Watch it on: Tubi (complete series), Pluto TV (complete series)

Realizing The Dick Van Dyke Show is streaming for free feels a bit like winning a secret lottery or viewing an exceptional piece of art without paying the museum admission fee. The popular comedy, which ran for five seasons, was created by Carl Reiner and starred Dick Van Dyke as the head writer of a TV show, while Mary Tyler Moore portrayed his wife. It's a timeless classic — one that took home 15 Emmys during its run, and if you've yet to experience it, you literally have no excuse at this point.

The Dick Van Dyke Show Photo: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

Watch it on: ABC app (complete series)

Felicity is best known as the show in which Keri Russell cut her hair (not to be confused with the show in which Keri Russell wore a lot of great wigs, aka The Americans). Depicting Felicity Porter's (Russell) college years and the struggles that accompany trying to figure out who you're supposed to be, the show is also famous for Scott Speedman's whisper-talking and the ongoing battle of Ben (Speedman) vs. Noel (Scott Foley). Although the WB series was previously streaming on Hulu, you can now watch it for free on the ABC app.

A reimagining of the kitschy original series, Syfy's Battlestar Galacticastarred Edward James Olmos, Mary McDonnell, Katee Sackhoff, Tricia Helfer, Michael Hogan, James Callis, and Jamie Bamber and explored the aftermath of a nuclear attack by the Cylons, cybernetic creatures invented by man who evolved and rebelled against their creators. The show was critically acclaimed for the way it tackled the subjects of science, religion, and politics, and for the way it explored the deeply complicated notion of what makes us human. Everything from the miniseries to the two BSG films (Razor and The Plan) is currently available to stream for free on Syfy's website, so there's no better time to watch it. So say we all!

Watch it on: IMDb TV (complete series), Tubi (complete series), Pluto TV (first 13 seasons), YouTube (first 13 seasons)

For many millennials, the fourth series in the Degrassi franchise, Degrassi: The Next Generation, is the defining iteration of the long-running Canadian series. The drama series, which was sometimes so overly dramatic it was actually funny, tackled everything from date rape and suicide to sexual orientation and teen pregnancy. The series, which launched the careers of Drake (then known as Aubrey Graham) and Nina Dobrev, is streaming on multiple free platforms.

Watch it on: ABC app (complete series)

Eli Stone really had it all, which is to say it had Victor Garber singing George Michael songs, Loretta Devine singing George Michael songs, and George Michael singing George Michael songs. What else is there? ABC's offbeat two-season comedy-drama starred a pre-Elementary Jonny Lee Miller as Eli Stone, a high-powered San Francisco lawyer whose brain aneurysm gave him prophetic visions — which usually involved his friends, family, and colleagues breaking into song. Aside from a couple of ill-advised plotlines (the pilot, which suggests vaccines cause autism, is best forgotten), the show was a blast: a weird but memorable cocktail that should have stuck around for more seasons because, as I mentioned, Victor Garber sang George Michael songs. Also, Sigourney Weaver played God?! -Kelly Connolly

Watch it on: YouTube (nearly every episode)

A true Canadian treasure, The Red Green Show was a long-running comedy starring Steve Smith as Red Green, a handyman who constantly tried to cut corners using duct tape and who had his own cable TV show. It was a parody of home improvement shows and outdoor programs and featured segments like Handyman Corner, Adventures with Bill, and The Possum Lodge Word Game. The show ran for 15 seasons, airing on PBS in the States.

TV Premiere Date Calendar: Find Out When Your Favorite Shows Are Back

Watch it on: IMDb TV (complete series), ABC app (complete series)

Critically beloved but struck down before its time, My So-Called Life has been praised for its realistic and honest portrayal of teenage life, not just via Angela Chase (Claire Danes), but through the show's young supporting cast as well. Now considered to be one of the best shows of all time, it tackled topics like homophobia, homelessness, drug use, and more without ever feeling preachy or like an after-school special. Also, Jordan Catalano (Jared Leto) could lean.

Watch it on: CW Seed (first five seasons), IMDb TV (first five seasons)

If you don't have Netflix but still want to watch Schitt's Creek, you'll be happy to know you can watch the first five seasons of the heartwarming, Emmy-nominated comedy series, about a wealthy family who loses everything they own except the town of the show's title, for free on CW Seed and IMDb TV.

Dan Levy and Catherine O'Hara, Schitt's Creek Photo: Pop TV

Watch it on: Peacock (complete series); IMDb TV (complete series)

You may never know what it feels like to have Coach Taylor (Kyle Chandler) be proud of you, but you can pretend by watching all five seasons of Friday Night Lights, a series that was as much about a Texas community as it was about the sport that united it. By the end of the show, you'll be asking yourself "What Would Riggins Do?" and tattooing "Clear eyes, full hearts, can't lose" on your body, all while chanting "Texas forever!" Trust me, it happens to everybody.

Watch it on: CW Seed (complete series)

It is relatively easy to forget that The CW series The Carrie Diaries was a prequel to Sex and the City, because the charming show, which lasted just two seasons, was able to stand on its own. The coming-of-age series that followed a teenaged Carrie Bradshaw (AnnaSophia Robb) was relatively innocent compared to the original series. The show's 1980s setting made it easier for the writers to focus on more harmless family storylines and teenage heartbreaks, but the show never shied away from the heartstring-tugging drama of young adulthood either. It's a shame the show never got the kind of ratings it deserved and wasn't able to exist beyond Carrie's high school years, but the Season 2 finale works well as a series finale, so viewers won't feel as if the story was left incomplete. android tv box

Watch it on: CW Seed (complete series)

It's a shame Bryan Fuller's saturated dramedy Pushing Daisies, about a pie-maker (Lee Pace) with the ability to bring the dead back to life, couldn't bring itself back to life after becoming a casualty of the 2007-08 writers' strike. A whimsical delight, the show featured the pie-maker teaming up with a local private eye (Chi McBride) to solve murders by reviving the victims for a brief time. Known for its quirky characters, eccentric visual style, and Jim Dale's pitch-perfect narration, it remains must-see TV.

Watch it on: IMDb TV (first seven seasons); Peacock

Columbo kicked off nearly every episode by revealing the crime and its perpetrator to the audience, which means unlike most crime dramas, the show was less about whodunnit and more about Peter Falk's iconic raincoat-wearing homicide detective catching them and getting them to confess. Oh, and just one more thing: it's great.

Watch it on: CW Seed (complete series)

The charming and playful Forever, which starred Ioan Gruffudd as an immortal medical examiner, was the one show that could have saved ABC's Tuesday at 10 p.m. death slot. But the network still canceled the series anyway, enraging the show's fans, who have never let the sting of its death go. Luckily, it now lives on, ahem, forever (aka until the content license expires) on CW Seed.

Watch it on: IMDb TV (complete series)

It sounds odd to say The Middle, which ran for nine seasons on ABC, was unfairly overlooked, but it always felt like the series, which followed the middle class Midwestern Heck family, was a bit of a hidden gem. It wasn't as popular with Emmy voters as, say, Modern Family, and critics also failed to give it its due, but it was a real, heartfelt, reliable family comedy with mass appeal, and you can stream it on IMDb TV for free. h96 tv box

Watch it on: ABC app (complete series)

Trophy Wife's short life — it was canceled after just one season — can probably be chalked up to its unfortunate title, which was meant to be ironic but ultimately kept viewers from tuning in and experiencing the warmth of the show and the relationships at its center. Malin Akerman starred as the young wife of Bradley Whitford's middle-aged lawyer, and the comedy explored the dynamics between the two, his children, and his two ex-wives, who were played by Marcia Gay Harden and Michaela Watkins. h96 max x3

Watch it on: NBC app (complete series)

Loosely based on the Biblical story of King David, Kings was a compelling drama before its time. Rudely cut down after just one season by NBC, the show starred Ian McShane as the king of the fictional kingdom of Gilboa, while Christopher Egan portrayed an idealistic young soldier whose counterpart is David. The show also starred Sebastian Stan, which is reason enough to want to check it out.

Watch it on: ABC app (complete series)

Ray Wise portrays Satan in Reaper, a supernatural dramedy about a slacker (Bret Harrison) who reluctantly becomes a reaper tasked with capturing escaped souls from hell after it's revealed his parents made a deal with the devil many, many years before. The fact the show only lasted two seasons is a crime against humanity. Luckily, you can watch it in its entirety for free on the ABC app. h96 max x3

Watch it on: IMDb TV (complete series)

A team of experts led by a kooky old scientist (John Noble), his son (Joshua Jackson), and an FBI agent (Anna Torv) investigate strange occurrences around the country, X-Files style, in the J.J. Abrams-produced Fringe. The series is one of the best broadcast science-fiction shows of all time, particularly in its first three seasons, and perfected the art of the serialized procedural by weaving the show's deep mythology and excellent character work into weekly standalone stories, making it easy to binge or watch in spurts. And by the time the end of Season 1 starts, you'll have a hard time stopping. -Tim Surette

Watch it on: Tubi (complete series), Vudu (complete series)

Although American TV producers would eventually adapt Being Human, the original British version, which followed three supernatural beings trying to live amongst humans, is far superior. The show, which ran for five seasons, starred Aidan Turner, Russell Tovey, and Lenora Crichlow as a vampire, werewolf, and ghost, respectively. So skip the U.S. version entirely and watch the U.K. series for free.

Watch it on: Pluto TV (complete series), Vudu (complete series), Tubi (complete series)

The Australian young adult-oriented series Dance Academy is not exactly what you'd call "great television," but it is great fun. Brimming with teen angst and melodrama, the series, which ran for three seasons and even had a follow-up movie, followed a handful of dancers at Sydney's National Academy of Dance as they trained in the sport they loved while also falling in and out of love with each other. The acting was sometimes questionable, but the series itself was addictive, not to mention one of the easiest binges you'll ever encounter. h96 max tv box

3rd Rock From the Sun

Watch it on: Tubi (complete series), Pluto TV (complete series), Crackle (all six seasons), Vudu (all six seasons)

You might think a show about a group of socially awkward, 1,000-year-old aliens in human skin suits who are trying (badly) to pose as a human family and blend into an ordinary Midwest town might sound ridiculous, and, well, that's fair. But 3rd Rock From the Sun was still charming in even its most bizarre moments and gave its cast a lot of room to play up their roles and create an ensemble of weirdos that, at some point or another, start to tap into their newfound humanity and relish their new home here on Earth. -Amanda Bell.

3 notes · View notes

ahouseoflies · 6 years

Text

The Best Films of 2018, Part I

I’ll associate my moviegoing this year with two things: subscription models and superhero films. Realizing that I was the target audience, I signed up for Moviepass in March, then canceled just before they started extorting people in July. (I’ll remember you all semi-fondly, conniving alarmists in the Moviepass Reddit thread.) Thanks to Moviepass, I took full advantage of my free time over the summer, and I found some nice surprises that I wouldn’t have checked out otherwise. From there I joined AMC A-List, which is the rare corporate service that I cannot complain about in any way. Moviepass always felt like some kind of drug deal, whereas A-List is as easy and inviting an experience as possible. I get to seek out Dolby, IMAX, or 3-D showings instead of getting locked out of them, and the electronic ticketing helps with my last-minute availability. (I’ve mastered the art of lovingly putting my daughter to bed, only to desert her and my wife five minutes later. “You know, there’s an 8:10 showing of The Predator, which means 8:30 after previews...”) My overall viewing was up 11% this year, which I have to attribute to these subscriptions. Perhaps I saw too much though. After a self-righteous five-year ban on superhero movies, I caught up in 2019 like the madman completist that I am. On the plus side, I enjoyed Wonder Woman and Guardians of the Galaxy, and I vaguely feel more connected with the culture-at-large. But I could have been more selective. The diligence required to watch X-Men: Apocalypse late on a Thursday night took away from, say, my Orson Welles project or...reading books. To get some of the business out of the way, I haven’t seen Burning, Shoplifters, Destroyer, Cold War, The Sisters Brothers, Tomb Raider, The Wife, or The House That Jack Built. Not all of us get screeners or care about seeing The Wife. Mostly for argument purposes, I list everything I saw and divide the movies into the categories of Garbage, Admirable Failures, Endearing Curiosities with Big Flaws, Pretty Good Movies, Good Movies, Great Movies, and Instant Classics. Hey, speaking of superheroes: GARBAGE

123. Venom (Ruben Fleischer)- Venom was first announced as an R-rated film until it was neutered into PG-13 at some point in the development road. That was the right choice because this is a movie, in all of its broad, careless storytelling, for children. "So he's going to get married to her but then he looks at her email and then he interviews the guy and he gets fired so then she leaves him and he drinks now?" This is a dummy's version of what a journalist is or what a scientist is, and it never shades into more subtlety than exactly what is on the expected surface. I guess that Tom Hardy gets to jump into a lobster tank if that floats your boat, but the story is stuck on fast-forward for the whole movie, never relenting to develop character or do anything other than communicate information that we don't really need.

Venom is almost--almost--interesting as a new branch in the superhero economy. Why shouldn't Tom Hardy and National Treasure Michelle Williams trade the equity they've built for caring about their work into this trash? I don't begrudge them that for a second. I hope they make more money for the sloppy sequels. 122. The Equalizer 2 (Antoine Fuqua)- The first Equalizer was flat and pointlessly long with pedantic dialogue too, but at least it had the Home Depot sequence. This one makes very basic stuff incoherent and dawdles all the way to the end. Your boy is now an expert hacker too? I guess it's too late for Fuqua to start caring about scripts.

121. Mandy (Panos Cosmatos)- I need somebody to explain to me why, dramatically, this is good without something like, "It's so metal! What a midnight movie! Chainsaw fight lol!" If you want to talk about the visuals that are stylized within an inch of reality, then I'll listen. But there's nothing to hold onto dramatically. I think I've developed an overall irritation with revenge films, but this filthy dirge of a movie felt empty and endless by any standard. 120. Fifty Shades Freed (James Foley)- Its intentions are too guileless to upset me, but Fifty Shades Freed uses up the goodwill I sort of had for the first two by tugging the viewer relentlessly through conflict that always seems temporary. Part of the fun has always been how bizarre basic human interactions seem in this universe. (Has anyone ever returned from a vacation to be surprise-promoted?) But this entry expects way too much from its viewer's loyalty. 119. On Chesil Beach (Dominic Cooke)- There's supposed to be a disconnect to the behavior of the couple in On Chesil Beach, a movie that asks us to harken back to a time when newlyweds were so sexually innocent that they had trouble figuring out how to consummate a marriage. Their fumbling seems foreign to us, which is the point. But what's the excuse for none of the behavior in the movie ringing true to any human experience?

I'm talking about Florence refusing to tell her string quartet that she's engaged because she thinks they'll assume that her marriage will break up the group even though she's sure that it won't. I'm talking about her father, who feels the need to humiliate his son-in-law in tennis because that would prove that he's dominant over the boy in some way that being his employer does not already prove. I'm talking about a plot that literally would not exist if the characters had just engaged in one conversation that it seems like they would have had in the flashbacks, which frame them as a kind of open, reasonably affectionate, easy-going couple. But by all means, McEwan, change that whenever it suits you. 118. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (J.A. Bayona)- I reject the whole premise of this deliberate lowering of stakes that never rises above obligation. To paraphrase a Griffin Newman joke, it makes Jurassic Park 4 look like Jurassic Park 1.

While we're here though: Can I have a movie about the guy who compiled the guest list for the dino auction? I want to see a guy looking at a spreadsheet--or is it an Access file?--and getting to, like, Mark Cuban and weighing the options: "He probably has the $27 million to spare on weaponized recombinant DNA. He would definitely appreciate the wow factor of having his own Indoraptor. But is he more of a neutral evil or a chaotic evil? I guess I'll reserve a seat for him and send the invitation. If he says no, then he says no. Okay, we're still in the C's..."

117. Tag (Jeff Tomsic)- Tag is going to show up on a lot of "worst movies to ever win an Oscar" lists when Jeremy Renner wins an Oscar for it. 116. A-X-L (Oliver Daly)- This is a melodramatic movie about a weaponized robotic dog and the dirtbike kid who befriends it. Nothing wrong with that; a ten-year-old boy might like it, and there aren't enough movies specifically for that audience. But what's weird is how nonchalant the main character is about the whole thing. He immediately starts training this one-of-a-kind "war dog" android and imprints it with his DNA like this is a regular Tuesday. It's one of many things that is just kind of off in this picture.

This being a cheap genre film, you do get treated to those L.A. locations that have been around the block. I think the nondescript complex that houses Craine Industries is also the one from Sneakers and The Lawnmower Man. You know, Craine Industries, the company that is working on a $70 million prototype for the military but, because this is a cheap genre film, seems to have two employees.

I do think there's an interesting movie to be made about motocross. The movie kind of works when it's just about an underdog father and son fixing bikes, before it gets into all of the robot stuff. ADMIRABLE FAILURES

115. The Little Stranger (Lenny Abrahamson)- Dr. Faraday: "Wanna marry me?" Caroline: "Maybe. Do you actually love me?" Dr. Faraday: "Probably not." Caroline: "Hmm, I think I would marry you only as an excuse to go to London to get away from my dying mother and this crumbling house that probably has a ghost." Dr. Faraday: "Oh. Well, glad we're discussing it now because I want to marry you specifically to give me a reason to stay in this crumbling house that probably has a ghost. I'm drawn to it for some reason." Caroline: "Is it because you grew up poor?" Dr. Faraday: "Yes. All dry, cold British stuff ultimately comes down to that.

114. Damsel (David Zellner and Nathan Zellner)- Had I done my research, I wouldn't have watched this Zellner Brothers follow-up to Kumiko the Treasure Hunter, one of my least favorite films of that year. Like that movie, Damsel is a story of two halves, punctuated by a shocking moment that happens halfway through. Unfortunately nothing interesting happens before, and nothing interesting happens after. 113. Suspiria (Luca Guadignino)- This is a movie about duality that gets extended. English, German, and just a sprinkle of French. Six parts and an epilogue. A dual role (and a bit part). Personalities that clash until one pulls ahead. There are ideas here. But, especially considering I don't like the original Suspiria, I didn't find much to hold onto as a visceral experience. It's a long, foreboding sit. Guadagnino knows how to end his movies, but he still doesn't have much to say for the long middle parts. Shout-out to Amazon; I hope that, in some circuitous way, betting on maximalist Italians helps them to sell paper towels or whatever.

112. Early Man (Nick Park)- I still love the Aardman aesthetic, but this material was thin. It's too juvenile for adults and too adult for juveniles. 111. Beirut (Brad Anderson)- The screenplay takes an hour to set up what should have taken twenty minutes. Some of that time is dedicated to developing Hamm's burnt-out alcoholic wheeler-dealer, but he's a character we've seen a hundred times before anyway. Some shorthand would have done some good. Once the plot gets going, it's serviceable, but I was bored by that point. Pike and Hamm need to fire their managers. 110. Upgrade (Leigh Whannell)- I'll admit that I owed the film more attention than I gave it since I was nodding off the whole time, but nothing in the gloomy programmer interested me enough to want to go back.

109. Red Sparrow (Francis Lawrence)- Good as a steamy blank check provocation from the director and star--not much else. I'm sure people will take down the easy target of Jen Larry's Russian accent, but they're ignoring just how much she tries in something like this. She is a gargantuan Movie Star who commands the screen, and a lot of that presence comes from the commitment of, say, learning how to ballet dance for what must have been months. She hasn't slept through a performance yet.

I didn't think this endless movie made much sense, especially near its conclusion. Perhaps it's my personal distaste for the way that spy movies introduce major plot points without so much as a music sting to guide you. As soon as anyone says the term "double agent," my brain turns off.

108. Hot Summer Nights (Elijah Bynum)- If you want to direct a music video, just direct a music video. I like all of the actors in this, but the filmmaker has nothing to say. 107. The First Purge (Gerard McMurray)- Even James DeMonaco seems to be admitting that the bloom is off the rose a bit, since he only wrote this entry in the franchise--and his direction is missed in the action scenes. Just enough of the political subtext remains, (The New Founding Fathers get funding from the NRA, and a character uses "pussy-grabbing" as an insult. Thankfully, a Black church getting shot up by men with Iron Cross flags happens off-screen.)

But there are more characters I didn't care about than characters I did care about. Since its prequel setting doesn't reveal much about the world that we didn't already know, the film needed to do a bit more with the survive-the-night scenario that we already saw in the second film.

106. Vox Lux (Brady Corbet)- A movie that, up to and including the last minute, keeps promising something better than it actually is. Everyone here is making...choices… 105. Madeline’s Madeline (Josephine Decker)- I'm glad David Ehrlich liked this as much as he did. There are some intriguing ideas, most notably the suggestion that a mentally unstable person would be better suited for acting than a healthy person. What a debut for Helena Howard as well. But for it to add up to something by the end, I think I needed it to have more dramatic structure--the sort of fall of the Molly Parker character feels invented and insincere--or go all the way into experiment. 104. Shirkers (Sandi Tan)- One of those "you won't believe what happens next" documentaries that positions itself as an example of truth being stranger than fiction. But removed from a festival context, does it ever rise above its logline? Is it really even that odd?

#film #lists #movie reviews

2 notes · View notes

jordoalejandro · 3 years

Text

The Fifth Annual List of TV Shows I Saw the Past Year

This is another weird year for the list.

For one, a handful of shows are still on some kind of COVID related delay or hiatus.

Two, I dropped quite a few shows. Some I just bailed on because I had no patience to watch another season of them. Some shows I never got around to because I had an Apple TV+ free subscription that came with my iPhone and that ran out and I didn’t pay to renew it. (Here’s my quick review of Apple TV+: the quality of the shows is good but the quantity leaves a lot to be desired. You could probably pay for a month and binge through everything you have any interest in.)

Three, a lot of shows that I’m reviewing here have seasons that aren’t finished. They’re still going. Most are at least close to finishing. Some that have just started I’m going to wait on and review on next year’s list. But a handful of shows on this list are chugging along. I’m trying to factor that into my reviews but it's obviously a bit unfair to the shows. On the other hand, who cares?

So it’ll be a list with fewer entries, comprised of full seasons of shows and shows I watched most of. The list must happen, though. However it has to happen, it must happen.

Here’s the list of shows I’ve watched since the last Emmy Awards.

41. The Equalizer (Season 1 - 2021, CBS) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) - The Equalizer is a fascinating show. You know how with some shows people will say the show is fully realized from the pilot? It’s usually presented as a good thing -- a show that knew what it was from the start and executed that vision. The Equalizer is that but in a bad way. It’s a show that from the pilot has felt like it was already in its tired ninth season, trudging along, writers and actors and everyone just going through the motions because they’re trapped in their contracts. There’s nothing fresh about this. No life to it. Uninteresting plots. Weak dialogue. Characters -- both heroes and villains -- that you’ve seen a thousand times (the nerdy IT expert, the troublesome teenage child of the main character, the generic good looking older white guy boss figure, blah blah blah). A show that’s already in late-stage syndication mode.

40. The Flash (Season 7 - 2021, CW) (Last year’s ranking: 49) - Speaking of late-stage syndication mode, The Flash has been in a creative tailspin for several years now. A big part of the problem is they just have no ideas left in the tank for villains on this show. This leads to them either reusing old ones (which doesn’t have a ton of dramatic impact -- we’ve seen The Flash beat all these people before), or digging through comic canon for the ones they have left (they’ve been unused this long for a reason). The other problem is it turns out running fast as a solution to every issue gets old very quickly. The producers must have felt this, and having gotten tired of telling Barry he has to run faster than he’s ever run before, they’ve switched it up and are now telling him to love people harder than he’s ever loved them before. Beyond the structural problems, the show is just not working on a very basic level. The writing has gotten super corny. The acting seems off. They’ve introduced new characters that are not working. The Flash had my worst rated episode this year and the weird thing was, it wasn’t even a mess of an episode. Like, functionally, it worked. It went from point A to point B and all that fine. But the problem was the titular Flash took off in the first few minutes of the episode to have sex with his wife on an island (not a joke) and didn’t return until the last few minutes of the episode. In between, viewers received a very boring, very boilerplate episode of The Flash, starring one of the new side characters it’s incredibly hard to care about. And she interacted with some even more to-the-side side characters and had some relationship issues with them and on and on until they inevitably saved the day in the end and it was so dull and so pointless that it made me say out loud, “What is this? Why am I watching this? Who could possibly care about anything that is happening on screen right now?” I felt that a lot during this season of The Flash. That was the only time I felt compelled to articulate it, but I felt it a lot. And that’s not a great place to be with a show.

39. Riverdale (Season 5 - 2021, CW) (Last year’s ranking: 50) - Here’s a little insight as to how stupid Riverdale can be. Between episodes three and four of this season (episode three was what would’ve been the season finale of season 4, which was cut short by COVID so at least it's not wholly random, in fairness), Riverdale did a seven year time jump. This seven year time jump landed them in the year… 2021. They shifted everything that happened in the first four seasons of their show, including dozens upon dozens of current day pop culture references, about a decade into the past. And why did they do this? So they could change a few things and then basically keep telling the same exact stories they were telling the first four years of this show. Just stupid nonsense. Stupid nonsense all around. Which, to be fair, I actually used to look forward to from this show. I’ve argued here that it’s at its best when it’s being as stupid as possible, but this year the nonsense just doesn’t seem inspired. They’re recycling some plots. The actors seem checked out. Maybe all the years of nonsense have finally taken their toll on them.

38. Batwoman (Season 2 - 2021, CW) (Last year’s ranking: 43) - Batwoman lost its main actress in between seasons, which obviously put it at a difficult crossroads. In my opinion, the wise thing to do would have probably been to recast as best as possible and carry on. Instead, the show chose to go a different direction and cast a new person to play an entirely new character. There was maybe a way this could work, but you likely have to retool the entire show to get there. Instead, they changed nothing but the main character and inserted her into the middle of the old character’s world, forcing her to have the same supporting characters and deal with some of the same storylines the old character was dealing with. This led to a lot of story beats where new Batwoman had to interact with old Batwoman’s family. What was in season one drama between Batwoman and her sister, or her father, became drama between the new Batwoman and this crazy lady she just met, or this guy she barely knows. As you might be able to guess, this added an air of “who cares?” to the proceedings. Also, the whole season essentially became an origin story for new Batwoman, which was a problem because that’s basically what season one of the show was. It wasn't super engrossing. That said, let me put aside the issues raised there. Having to recast your main actress is obviously a tough situation. They didn’t handle it well, but it was tough. Here’s why this show is still all the way down here on the list: bad execution. Week in, week out: bad plots, bad dialogue, dumb subplots, forgettable villains. A lot of the same issues that are plaguing The Flash. The show is simply not executing. It’s like these superhero CW shows don’t know how to do writers’ rooms over Zoom.

37. Everything’s Gonna Be Okay (Season 2 - 2021, Freeform) (Last year’s ranking: 47) - I said last year I didn’t know if I liked this show or not. I think the fact that I’ve put it near the bottom of my list for two years in a row has answered that for me. It’s a kind of fascinating show in how, I guess… aimless it is. Floating from one scene to the next, one plot to the next, one episode to the next, no real driving force. A comedy that’s not really funny. A drama that isn’t very strong. A few good moments in a season of ten half-hour episodes. Would I have watched a third season? Yeah, probably. Not in a hate-watch way, but also not in a like-watch way. I’m glad it got canceled because it means I’m free of it. Would I recommend to other people any of the shows I’ve seen from Josh Thomas? No. Definitely not. Will I watch whatever Josh Thomas writes next? Yeah, probably. Though I can’t say why.

36. Soulmates (Season 1 - 2020, AMC) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) - This was a short Black Mirror-esque anthology series that ran out of interesting stories to tell surprisingly quick. Like, third episode quick. This show’s problem is that, while Black Mirror has freedom to tell lots of different stories, Soulmates is restrained by its premise: a short time into the future a company creates a test that can match you to your soulmate with 100% accuracy. It’s not a bad premise, but you can sort of imagine how it would constrain the storytelling possibilities. The test matches you with someone surprising, the test matches you with the wrong person, etc. etc. The whole thing was only six episodes and it felt repetitive even within that small amount.

35. Debris (Season 1 - 2021, NBC) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) - Debris was created by J. H. Wyman, who did a lot of work on Fringe, one of my favorite sci-fi shows ever. Unfortunately, Debris was just a pale imitation of Fringe. The characters weren’t strong enough. The ideas weren’t intriguing enough. The episodes were often flat. They just didn’t have enough action or drama or horror or twists or whatever you might be hoping for from a show like this. They’d have a lot of walking around and looking at stuff and people talking about the stuff that was happening and then they’d kind of just peter out. A real disappointment.

34. The Walking Dead: World Beyond (Season 1 - 2020, AMC) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) - You know how teenagers can often be the worst characters on a TV show? How they can exist just to act bratty and make really stupid decisions? Well, imagine a whole show of that. I’m half-joking. It’s not that bad. There’s some fun stuff and it works as a companion piece in this series of shows, but for the most part, it’s a lot of watching teenagers make really stupid decisions and almost getting themselves killed.

33. Stargirl (Season 2 - 2021, CW) (Last year’s ranking: 36) - Speaking of teenagers making really stupid decisions and almost getting themselves killed... Stargirl is a bit of a strange show. It’s kind of lighthearted, but also weirdly dark (more children die in this show than died in all the other shows I watched this year combined). It has some interesting characters and some absolutely ridiculous ones. Some fun episodes, but what also feels like quite a bit of filler. It’s not bad, it’s just also not great.

32. Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist (Season 2 - 2021, NBC) (Last year’s ranking: 20) - The first season of this show was about a handful of things, but the big emotional throughline was about Zoey dealing with the impending death of her father, who had been diagnosed with an incurable neurological disease. While the other plotlines in the show could be hit or miss, there was always emotional meat on that bone, so to speak. Well, minor spoiler alert I guess, but her father died at the end of the first season from the aforementioned incurable disease. I didn’t realize it at the time, but the second season of the show really laid bare how important that throughline was to the whole thing. Without it, the show felt rudderless. There were a lot of pieces of plots but nothing really anchoring them the way her father’s storyline did. Plus, there was a lot more love-triangle stuff, which wasn’t the most original, compelling plot the first season and grew even more tiresome in the second. The show sort of became like late-stage Glee for me, where I stopped caring about the plots and just listened for the songs. That more or less worked with Glee because almost all the people on that show were excellent singers. It works much less on this show because maybe (generously) half the performers are good singers.

31. MacGyver (Season 5 - 2020-2021, CBS) (Last year’s ranking: 26) - It was a pretty weak final season for MacGyver. They abandoned some interesting storylines from last season in a disappointing way. In fairness, it’s because last season got shortened by COVID and I guess for whatever reason they couldn’t find a way to pick back up where they left off. But still, they had a tough time regaining the momentum after they lost it. The cancellation was without warning from CBS, too, so there’s no real conclusion to anything. Just an average season finale that suddenly became a series finale. Tough way to go out.

30. Bob's Burgers (Season 11 - 2020-2021, FOX) (Last year’s ranking: 38) - I was looking back at my episode ratings for this show from the last two years and realized they were pretty similar. Both last year and this year, there was only one episode per season that I thought was pretty good. There was also one episode each year I thought was awful. And then, basically, there were 21 episodes each season that were fine. Just fine. A few laughs. Nothing really engrossing. Worked well enough to keep me entertained and not much more.

29. The Walking Dead (Season 10B - 2021, AMC) (Last year’s ranking: 29) - The eleventh season of the show is currently on-going. That’ll be on next year’s list. This is just for a grouping of six episodes that aired earlier this year. They were extremely forgettable with the exception of two episodes. I enjoyed “One More” quite a bit and I really liked the Negan origin story episode: “Here’s Negan”. Probably one of the best episodes they’d done in years.

28. The Blacklist (Season 8 - 2020-2021, NBC) (Last year’s ranking: 39) - A slight improvement for this show from last year. A handful of average episodes, a few very good ones. A really fascinating choice made at the end of the season that makes me interested in seeing what next season will be like.

27. The Moodys (Season 2 - 2021, FOX) (Last year’s ranking: 46) - I described this show last season as “likeable if not particularly funny” and said if it was to come back, the writing would have to get sharper. That remains pretty accurate. The writing was slightly better, though not enough to make this a truly good show.

26. Falcon and the Winter Soldier (Season 1 - 2021, Disney+) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) - This show was way too overstuffed to really work well, which seems a poor choice made in the writing process. It has like a dozen different ideas it wants to touch on and doesn’t really execute any single one of them in a satisfying manner. The real shame of it is there was a good show in here if they just chose to keep things simple. The best episode by far featured Falcon and the Winter Soldier going on a mission with Baron Zemo. That was it. They went to a shady bar of villains and did some spy stuff. Blew some stuff up. Fought some bad guys. That’s the show! Sticking with a core of that and cutting the 20-something unnecessary side characters would’ve gone a long way.

25. Archer (Season 11 - 2020, FXX) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) - The show returned to its spy satire roots and started clicking again. It’s not at the level of its earlier peak seasons, but it’s still reliable for some good laughs.

24. The Great North (Season 1 - 2021, FOX) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) - Solid animated comedy from two of the writers of Bob’s Burgers. It obviously borrows a lot from the style and tone of that show. I do find The Great North a little fresher. The writing is a little sharper, the stories are a little more interesting (but it also isn’t in its 11th season like Bob’s Burgers so it’s not a wholly fair comparison). It slots in nicely with the other FOX Sunday animation shows.

23. The Simpsons (Season 32 - 2020-2021, FOX) (Last year’s ranking: 37) - I essentially write the same thing every year about The Simpsons. Some highs, some lows. I felt the quality of episodes this season, for whatever reason, was generally a little bit higher than last, thus it’s up here.

22. Duncanville (Season 2 - 2021, FOX) (Last year’s ranking: 34) - It didn’t make the huge leap in quality I was hoping for, but it was consistently above average this season, with a couple of flashes of excellence.

21. Snowpiercer (Season 2 - 2021, TNT) (Last year’s ranking: 14) - Decent second season for this show. Started a bit slowly but picked up in the back half. Sean Bean was a good addition to the cast. If it dropped in quality from season one, it might be because I liked this show as my stupid summer show and season two aired during the winter. High possibility this affected my opinion of it.

20. Chad (Season 1 - 2021, TBS) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) - This isn’t a show for people who can’t handle cringe comedy. It lives there. And if the joke isn’t landing, which sometimes it doesn’t on this show, then you’re just trapped in a scene. But! But the jokes often do land, and when they do, they are very good. It’s also occasionally a touching show. The main character is a little dick, but the show also has a lot of sympathy for him -- he’s the son of immigrants trying so hard to fit in in middle school, to be what he perceives to be normal, in a battle with his own identity, in some of the most difficult years in a teen's life. You hate him but you also feel for him and want him to win. It’s a show with a little more depth than I thought it would have coming in.

19. What If…? (Season 1 - 2021, Disney+) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) - You know how it is with anthology shows: you win some, you lose some. The show is better at coming up with concepts than executing them, I think. Episodes feel a little rushed (generally because they’re trying to tell a movie’s worth -- or sometimes multiple movies’ worth -- of story in half an hour) and sometimes they feel like they just end because they've reached their time limit. Overall though, it’s a fun way to just try different things in the Marvel Universe.

18. Family Guy (Season 19 - 2020-2021, FOX) (Last year’s ranking: 24) - I barely even write blurbs about Family Guy on these lists anymore. It’s very consistent. This is around where it ends up on every list.

17. Alex Rider (Season 1 - 2020, IMDbTV) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) - Fun fact: I watched this show as part of an online paid focus group thing. I’ll just tell you what I told the people who ran the focus group. It’s good. It’s sleek and well-made. It moves just a little too slow for a spy thriller but not to the point of being boring. The show does need a little more life though. Some more quips and liveliness. It’s pretty preposterous on a conceptual level. A teenager is recruited into MI6 to be a spy and save the world. Don’t play that too seriously. Everyone understands this is teenage James Bond, so be that. Lean into it.

16. Prodigal Son (Season 2 - 2021, FOX) (Last year’s ranking: 28) - A fun second and final season for Prodigal Son. They only did 13 episodes for this season so they got to do a little more long term storytelling and fewer cases-of-the-week (this show handles those well anyway so not necessarily a bad thing). The bummer is that the show got canceled without much warning so they didn’t get to wrap things up, leaving on not quite a cliffhanger, but a fairly open-ended note.

15. Legends of Tomorrow (Season 6 - 2021, CW) (Last year’s ranking: 11) - The only show on the CW that seems to be in control of what it’s doing. Not as good a season as last season, but still quality work. Good characters, funny, imaginative.

14. Fargo (Season 4 - 2020, FX) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) - First time on a list for Fargo since the very first TV list I wrote in 2017. An impressive hiatus. I will say, I do think this was the weakest of the four seasons of Fargo. It took way too long to get the train rolling, though when it did, it got much better and delivered four really strong episodes at the end of the season. When it’s on, Fargo can fire on cylinders in storytelling and characters and dialogue that very few shows on TV can match up with. This season’s issue was that it took far too long to be on.

13. 9-1-1: Lone Star (Season 2 - 2021, FOX) (Last year’s ranking: 35) - I've really come to enjoy this show. I think this show found a groove in season two, putting out pretty consistently above-average episodes. It still has a lot of over-the-top silliness, but the characters are strong and most of the plots work.

12. Superstore (Season 6 - 2020-2021, NBC) (Last year’s ranking: 25) - Superstore was one of the few shows to incorporate COVID into their storylines in a natural way and manage to find humor in the situation, so bravo for both attempting that and succeeding at it. Behind the scenes, the show lost their main star, America Ferrera, at the start of the season, which should obviously have been a tough blow to take, but the rest of the ensemble stepped up and the show continued on without missing a beat in quality. Then, after filming nine episodes, they learned that this would be their final season, so the producers transitioned really well into endgame mode, crafting a strong backstretch of episodes to wrap everything up. I would guess with all the behind the scenes stuff and shooting this whole thing in the midst of a pandemic, this was the most difficult of the show’s six seasons to create. The fact that they were able to deliver such a satisfying finale through all of it is very impressive.

11. Fear The Walking Dead (Season 6 - 2020-2021, AMC) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) - I’d say this season was not as strong as last, but I still found it very good, and generally more enjoyable in recent years than the original flavor Walking Dead. A fascinating story choice at the end of the season, setting up an intriguing seventh season.

10. Animal Kingdom (Season 5 - 2021, TNT) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) - Not the strongest season Animal Kingdom has had, but the show is still one of my favorites. This season is sort of about the characters searching for their identity in a new world, which is interesting in its own right but perhaps not as much as pulling off daring heists? I get the sense this season is doing some prep work in anticipation of next season, the show’s last. I’m predicting a very good final season.

9. American Dad! (Season 18 - 2021, TBS) (Last year’s ranking: 23) - A return to form for the show. Much improved over last season for me.

8. Love, Victor (Season 2 - 2021, Hulu) (Last year’s ranking: 5) - Just a minor step down in quality from the first season, I think mostly because the show lost a little focus. Season one was about Victor’s journey to self-acceptance and coming out, season two was more about dealing with the fallout from all that. There wasn’t a super-strong throughline. But still a very sweet show. Funny. Romantic. Very enjoyable.

7. Mr. Mayor (Season 1 - 2021, NBC) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) - This show is going to be good. I’m calling it. It already had a very strong first season with one of my favorite comedic episodes of any show this year in 1.6 “Respect in the Workplace”. Tina Fey and Robert Carlock behind the scenes, a very good cast in front of the camera, this show is set up to become one of my favorites.

6. Mythic Quest (Season 2 - 2021, Apple TV+) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) - Mythic Quest is a fascinating show. For 90% of its episodes, it’s just a very good workplace comedy. And then, every now and then, it just uncorks a truly fantastic standalone episode. Season one did this with episode 1.5 “A Dark Quiet Death”. The show also released a quarantine episode called, appropriately, “Quarantine” that was probably my favorite COVID-related TV episode, one that should serve as a nice time capsule for this period at some point down the road. Season two was an improvement in quality overall from season one, and it also featured a tremendous two-part standalone story (episodes 2.6 “Backstory!” and 2.7 “Peter”). It’s a funny show with good characters and a surprising amount of heart.

5. The Other Two (Season 2 - 2021, HBO Max) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) - Great, great satire of the entertainment industry. Excellent characters. Fantastic writing. Often hilarious, but it also has some depth to it when it comes to matters surrounding the core family.

4. Brooklyn Nine-Nine (Season 8 - 2021, NBC) (Last year’s ranking: 7) - It’s only appropriate that this show ends up here in its final season. I once wrote about this show that I was never excited to see it pop up in my DVR, despite really enjoying it when I actually got around to watching the individual episodes. This final season was essentially a bunch of very special episodes. The show felt it was obligated to tackle all kinds of important real world topics instead of just being a goofy sitcom. It didn’t really work and it made me once again unenthused about starting up an episode. And yet, the show’s actually plotting within episodes and joke-writing ability is so incredibly strong that once I started the episode, I found myself really, really enjoying it as always. The series finale is a great example. Super obvious character arcs, things you saw telegraphed from basically the beginning of the season, and yet, the episode was still pitch perfect. Hilarious and moving and exactly how you'd hope for a show to wrap up. Stuck the landing brilliantly. This was a show that always succeeded in spite of itself. In spite of its premise and its core identity. It succeeded because it was always one of the sharpest written shows on television. Its final season was no different.

3. WandaVision (Season 1 - 2021, Disney+) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) - I really enjoyed the early episodes of this show, where they went to great lengths to capture the setting and feel of various past eras of television. They did an incredible job with the sets and costumes, and beyond that, even the writing was very good at aping the styles of the eras being portrayed. But as much as I enjoyed the early episodes, I really loved when the show took a turn and slowly unfolded into a piece about one character’s loss and grief. A tremendous second gear. A fantastic show overall.

2. The Mandalorian (Season 2 - 2020, Disney+) (Last year’s ranking: 2) - A tremendously fun show. Didn’t lose a step from season one.

1. Loki (Season 1 - 2021, Disney+) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) - Loved this show. Not just from a storytelling perspective. On that alone, it’s an excellent show. Some fun mystery stuff, some mind-bending stuff, clever, funny writing, great characters, solid drama. Beyond that though, I was just loving everything I was seeing and hearing on screen. The sets -- everything from the TVA headquarters to alien planets -- look amazing. The costumes are great. The music is superb. The show just had everything firing on all cylinders. It was brilliantly done.

So there we have it. Like I mentioned, some of these shows are still going on and have a few episodes left in their seasons. I might come back and do some light editing on this list if any of those shows do something truly surprising in a good or bad way in those final episodes but the likelihood is they probably won’t do enough to wildly change my opinion of them.

Or, if you’re reading this in the future, maybe I’ve already done that and that adjusted list is the list you’re looking at!

Wow.

Mind. Blown.

- - - - -

Annual Lists of TV Shows I Saw the Past Year

#reviews #Annual Lists of TV Shows I Saw The Past Year

0 notes

anthonyguidetti · 5 years

Text

Tips on Cutting the Cord and Saving Money

Some History and Context

When television was first released to the public, there was only one way to get content: through an antenna. Much like radio, television was received over the air through an antenna, requiring viewers to sometimes have to move the antenna around to get a picture to come in fully. People didn't mind the hassle of the antenna because television was new and exciting. Because over-the-air television can only receive channels that are in the line of sight of the signal source, those who lived in mountainous areas, or were just too far away from the signal, couldn't get television. This is where cable TV began, as those who lived too far could now pay a company to receive the signals, and then send it over the lines of cable to the person's house. As cable gained more channels than those with an antenna could receive, like SuperStation WTBS, more and more people wanted access to it. They didn't mind the convenience fee of paying for cable when it offered more value than fussing with an antenna could provide. Cut to the early 2010s, where services like Netflix and Hulu started their streaming services, adding shows and movies people wanted to watch, and could watch anytime they wanted. With prices far cheaper than cable, people began to cut the cord. Why pay cable over $100 to be forced to receive channels you don't watch when you can pay $20 a month for Netflix and Hulu to receive the content you do?

This all started the mess we are in now, where the companies that own the content are now starting their own streaming services. Those who liked to watch Marvel movies, Friends, and The Office on Netflix now need to subscribe to three different streaming services just to continue to watch them. Here's a list of some of the current and upcoming streaming services: Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, HBO Now, HBO Max, Comcast's Unnamed Service, Disney+, CBS All Access, and the list goes on. When you consider the total cost to subscribe to all these services, you might as well resubscribe to cable TV, where you can just DVR the content you want to watch. Marathons of The Office and Friends air constantly on channels like Comedy Central, Nick at Nite, and TBS, with Marvel movies airing constantly across cable.

So, if you're looking for some tips to cut the cord without spending an arm and a leg, and want to do so fully legally, here are some ideas to keep in mind:

1) Do Your Research

Cutting the cord requires some homework. If you have traditional cable TV and are considering cutting the cord, I definitely recommend you take the time to fully utilize all that it has to offer. Most people are probably unaware that cable TV offers an on-demand option. Even if you do not have a DVR, most if not all channels offer an on-demand portal through your cable subscription that allow you to often not only watch the first-run shows a cable channel produces, but also syndicated shows and movies. Comedy Central's on-demand portal has all 9 seasons of The Office available, and AMC offers plenty of movies on-demand as well. It doesn't hurt to use the search function on your cable box, which should pull up all is available on-demand.

You may find the shows and movies you want to watch are right there in your cable subscription, but if they are not, or if you still want to cut the cord, take the time to find out who owns the shows you want to watch. The Office is a show that aired on NBC, and the show is owned by Comcast, who owns NBC. Knowing this, you can infer that The Office will be on Comcast's streaming service. However, with Friends, that show also aired on NBC, but the show is owned by WarnerMedia, so it will be on WarnerMedia's streaming service. Just because a show airs on a channel, doesn't mean the channel owns that show, so taking the time to find out who owns the show you want to watch is important. The Wikipedia entry for the show you want to watch will often list this information in the right-hand box on the page under "Production Companies" or "Distributor". If the show aired on a network like ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, or The CW, there's a chance they don't own the show. Take some of the most popular shows on the networks: Big Bang Theory airs on CBS, but is owned by WarnerMedia. Modern Family airs on ABC is owned by 20th Century Fox (at one point, not owned by Disney). America's Got Talent airs on NBC, but is owned by Fremantle. Keeping this in mind will at least reassure you that this is all more complicated than you think, but hopefully it will help you figure out where your favorite shows will inevitably go.

Not to mention all the over-the-top online cable services like YouTube TV, Sling, Philo, AT&T TV Now, and so on. Philo offers a sports-free service for $20 a month. Why so cheap? Because sports-related channels drive up the cost of cable. ESPN is the reason you pay so much for traditional cable, as ESPN charges the most in carriage fees. Cable companies pay cable channels a fee per subscriber. Because sports channels charge so much, the only way to get the cost down is to get rid of sports channels. However, if you need sports, Sling offers different tiers of packages depending on what channels you want.

I'd also like to take some time to discuss how odd television is. The most popular channels, you know, the ones everyone wants, can be had for free. CBS, NBC, ABC, and other networks regularly beat out pay cable channels, yet viewers pay for cable channels. The basic cable package has the most popular cable channels, and you pay more to get access to the lesser watched cable channels. It's the same with terrestrial and satellite radio. Odd. Anyway...

Lastly, research all the possible streaming services. There are plenty of free services out there that are completely legal to use. Pluto TV, Sony Crackle, and Tubi are just some of the services that you can use for free. These free services are ad-supported, and along with on-demand through your cable provider, this brings me to my next tip:

2) Learn to Live with Ads

Netflix has spoiled us with ad-free viewings. Just like Veruca Salt, "don't care how, I want it now!" I've fallen victim to this as well, as I pay extra for Hulu with no ads, and YouTube Premium. I'm not saying we need to love advertisements, but if you want to save some money, you have to tolerate them. Pluto TV offers an experience just like cable, but is completely free. You just have to live with about two minutes of advertisement breaks. Sony Crackle and Tubi, as well as others, offer a Netflix-like experience, just with commercial breaks, which are great opportunities to use the restroom. If you check around, you just might find that the content you want to watch can be had for free. If you can spare some time to sit through a few commercial breaks, you can save a lot of money.

3) Only Subscribe to What You Regularly Watch

Game of Thrones is a great example how how to subscribe only when you need to. HBO makes a lot of great shows, and broadcasts a lot of great movies, but how many of them do you actually care about? Take some time to evaluate what content you really care about. Now that Game of Thrones has ended, are there any other shows on HBO that you care about? If the answer is no, then cancel your HBO Now subscription. The same goes for Netflix: how much time do you spend watching something on Netflix? If the answer is low, get rid of Netflix. Then, when something airs that you care about, resubscribe. The great part about streaming services is they have no contracts. You can come and go as you please. Take advantage of this, and only subscribe to things you actively use often. Netflix is doing all they can to hook you into their service when Disney, The Office, and Friends leave their service. They know these shows are incredibly important to their business, and they are releasing as much content as they can to keep you subscribed. This may pay off in Netflix's favor, and you may find value in the service. But if you pay for a service continually when you only use it once in a while, that's a lot of money being wasted.

4) Visit Your Local Library or Thrift Store

Every time I drive past my local library, I simultaneously remember and forget it as I pass it, however last week I took the time to walk in and see what they have to offer. Every time I walk in, I'm always pleasantly surprised at what they have to offer. Of course, you'll find books, but you'll also find new release DVDs and CDs. The same can be said for your local thrift store, however, that may take some patience to find exactly what you're looking for. Your local library at least has an online database, so you know exactly what to expect. Part of the convenience of Netflix is the instant search and play, but with the popularity of the online streaming service came the loss of the brick-and-mortar video rental store. While your local library may not have the same quantity of DVDs you expected from a Blockbuster, at least it's "free." You might as well take the time to visit your library, that is something you're paying for anyway.

5) Buy A La Carte, or Buy Physical

Or at least price out this option. You may find that the amount of content you'd want to watch may not equal how much it would cost to just buy them as you want to watch them. Sure, some new release movies and TV shows may be $3.99 for a rental, and that sounds pricey, but Netflix costs some $13 a month. Some rentals may even be 99 cents, so you really have to see how much the content you want to watch costs. Or, visit your local brick-and-mortar stores to see what Redbox has to offer, or Target or Walmart's entertainment section has. Buying the DVD may be pricey, but if you really like the content, you'll get a ton of great special features, and the content doesn't expire like on Netflix: you keep your copy as long as your DVD survives.

The good news about the future of entertainment is we have a lot of choices in what we want to use to watch. It's always a good idea to be aware of what kinds of choices you have, and to understand that you may not even need to spend all that much. Just get yourself a TV antenna, and get used to a service like Pluto TV if you don't want a monthly fee. Or, there are plenty of cheap plans you can find. Or you may find that cable works for you. Do what you want, but understand that you have options.

#cable #comcast #cord cutting #disney #media #netflix #opinions #over the top #ott #philo #sling tv #pluto tv #sling #television #tv #viacom #viacomcbs #video

0 notes

thrifttreasures · 7 years

Text

I’m back at it again with MoviePass. I cancelled my account the other year after their price hike and movie limitations. I am back. They are back in the game and it is so much better than before! Click the following link to join!

Guys, jump on it. I don’t know how long they will be able to keep up with this price but it is really $9.95 per month and you can cancel at any time if you change your mind.

In the past, you had to commit for a year and if you cancelled before the contract ends...you had to pay THEM depending how many months are left in the contract.

There’s no contract now.

Previously, you were able to watch a movie every 24 hours. This was annoying because you would check in and purchase a ticket at 7PM but if you wanted to watch a movie tomorrow, you would have to wait until 7PM or later. Most of the time it ended up being LATER because the clock was not accurate.

Now it is one movie per calendar day. So you can catch a movie at 5PM on Friday and catch an early showing on Saturday!

Another thing they improved on is...you can watch the same movie more than once. So if you need to go back to soak in a movie you really liked...you can do just that!

Keep in mind that this is for 2D movies. I have read you can ask the movie theater to charge the card a 2D movie and you pay the different if you want to watch a movie in IMAX or 3D.

I loved using MoviePass in the past because I was able to watch movies that I would otherwise not see. I also earned loyalty points at respective movie theaters(Regal/AMC).

It is even sweeter now that the price is at $9.95 a month. Seeing one movie pretty much makes it even. Actually, the matinee price for the theater near my house is actually...$12.04.

I am sure you’ve heard about their poor customer service but you guys have to understand...they dropped the prices to $9.95 in August and a lot of people signed up. They were unable to deal with the huge influx and their card distributor had a snafu and cards were being sent out of order. I am not going to lie. It is frustrating but it seems they have solved the issue.

So this is the best time to join while you can!

I personally signed up on August 16th(I was trying to sign up earlier but due to the influx, their website kept going down.) I received the card on 9/21. So yes, it seemed like it would never arrive. There are still folks out there that ordered early and have not received their cards. I have also read that people that signed up a second time in September received their card a week later and to this day, their original card has not arrived.

I’ve thrown a lot of information at you. Let me backtrack a little.

MoviePass is a movie subscription that is $9.95 per month. You are essentially able to watch a movie every calendar day. You sign up and they send you a MasterCard Debit Card. You will download the MoviePass APP on your phone and once you receive your MasterCard, you will activate the card by checking in a movie for the first time(You have to be near the movie theater to “check in”. The APP prompt will ask for the last four digits of the MasterCard. After you have successfully checked in, you have 30 minutes to purchase your ticket. Go the movie theater counter or a kiosk and purchase your ticket with the MoviePass Master Card as if it is like a credit/debit card! If you have any Studio Movie Grills around your area, you may even watch movies before you receive the card through their e-ticketing.

See? It’s really $9.95 per month!

#moviepass #referral #referral but i don't think i get anything because I tried clicking links and it didn't indicate anything special

0 notes

snakecolumn95 · 6 years

Text

21 People Tell Us How Much They Spend On Monthly Subscriptions (& Which Ones Are Worth It)

I was recently taking a deep dive into my credit card statement (which, admittedly, I need to do a lot more than I should) and I realized something: my partner and I spend a lot on monthly subscriptions and memberships. Between Blue Apron deliveries and streaming services alone, we spend about $300. And that’s not including other monthly services — my yoga studio pass, his gym membership, AMC A-List (RIP MoviePass), newspapers and magazines…I could go on…

The point is, I’ve started to really consider whether these things are adding value to my life. (And, admittedly, it’s easier to stomach some of these when we divide and conquer the costs.) Sure, I’m more than happy to pay $95 a month so I actually get my butt into a yoga class a few times a week — it’s definitely more cost-effective than paying $15+ for a single class multiple times a week. But do I also need to supplement that with another $10 monthly subscription to stream classes online? YouTube exists for free, so the answer is no.

We decided to reach out to TFD followers on Twitter to see how much people are generally spending on subscriptions and memberships each month, and whether they think they’re actually getting their money’s worth. Here’s what they had to say!

1. “I happily spent around $35-40 every month on Spotify and two Patreon accounts, including a local news website because supporting local journalism is important. Yearly, I pay for a Headspace subscription, because reading the news is exhausting.” – Santana

2. “I make a $30 sacrifice to the Adobe gods every month. It’s necessary for me as a photographer and for video editing, so I consider it worth it.” – Sarah

3. “$26.98, and they’re all worth every penny! I have Spotify (still the student account, with Hulu added on — I consider this one subscription), NYT (again, student — for the crossword, which I do every day), Netflix, and Medium. I use most of these daily. So worth!!” – Jennelle

4. “$15 Family Spotify

$11 Netflix

$45 Gym

I’ve pared down my expenses a lot already & these are the ones left that really add value to my life, so yes they are worth it!” – Jaymee

5. “I spend $12.50 a month on Dollar Shave Club razors and shave butter, totally worth it IMO! I like it for the convenience, value, and like, not just carving myself like a Christmas ham with a blunt razor because I’m too lazy to go out and buy more.” – Boo

6. “$41.95 — most of them are worth it. There’s one particular one (audiobook credit) that I contemplate canceling because I rarely use it, but manage to convince myself I’ll actually use it that month (I’ve accumulated five months worth of credit, so that’s clearly gone well).” – Lourdes

7. “$85 a year for a WordPress domain and it’s worth it, because I love how I can customize my website. I’ve canceled all my other subscriptions. My fiancé has Netflix so I get my fix from that haha.” – Keri

8. “$5 for Spotify student — totally worth it since I can’t access a free account while abroad (which I am). $20 for Adobe creative cloud student — totally worth it for Premiere Pro alone as a YouTuber + I get the freedom to play in photoshop when I feel like it.” – Kristin

9. “$60 a month total, $20 for online camera storage for security then $40 for streaming services, half of that is for my dad who is retired. I also cover the cost for increasing his Medicare coverage. Yes, very much worth the cost, I cannot argue with the benefits it provides.” – Sean

10. “About $58 on Amazon Prime, Adobe, Netflix, iCloud storage, and Patreon! First two are work expenses, so I can justify them.” – Erica

11. “Around $30 for Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime. The only one I’ve been thinking about dropping is Amazon because it went up, and I don’t use it as often as the other two. However, I find it to — mostly — be worth it.” – Lindsey

12. “Netflix – $11

Amazon – ~$12

Gym – $22

Spotify – $10

YouTubeTV – $35

Total: $90/mo

The only one I don’t care for is the gym because I got more than I need (black card at Planet Fitness) and I use it less than I’d like. I’ve only ever cancelled NYT and WaPo (never read them).” – Steph

13. “I only use Dollar Shave Club, and it’s totally worth it. $9 every other month! I really think the razors last longer than other razors.” – Mrs. Savastano

14. “Spotify (family plan): $3.00. Netflix (family plan): $2.80. Amazon Prime (student plan, account shared with family): $0.83. Library Card: Priceless. Seeing as my entertainment (and free shipping) needs are met for less than the cost of a discounted movie ticket, I’d say I’m happy.” – Ashley

15. “Spotify $10 — worth it. Gym $50 — worth it.” – Katie

16. “Netflix: $11

PBS Passport app to stream their programs: $5

Amazon Prime: $119/year ($9.92/month— SO WORTH IT; I’m saving so much money at Whole Foods!!!)

Fabletics $49 (unless you skip the month, which costs nothing. You can skip unlimited months; I set a reminder on my calendar)” – Carissa

17. “Netflix: RM42 (~$10); iCloud Storage 50GB: RM3.90 (~$1); Adobe Creative Cloud: RM133 (~$32). It’s in Malaysian Ringgit 🙂 I pay for iCloud Storage just in case I lose my phone — though 50GB is not enough, and I might need to upgrade. Adobe is expensive but worth it, as I edit videos and photos a lot.” – Marion

18. “£4.99 on Spotify and that’s all!” -Aisla

19. “Do the gym and an annual Disney pass count as subscriptions? If so, gym is $20 and Disney is $45 a month. Very much worth it, even if the food at Disney is pricey!” – Lead a Healthy Lifestyle

20. “VRV: $10

Spotify: $15 for family plan

Twitch: $5

Patreon: $7

I’d say most of these aren’t necessary to have, but I like the small perks that come with a Twitch and Patreon sub. The rest basically prevent going insane from ads.” – Michi

21. “YouTube: $10

Dropbox: $13

Website: $21

May open an eBay account soon, too.” – Kevin

Image via Unsplash

Like this story? Follow The Financial Diet on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter for weekly tips and inspiration, and sign up for our email newsletter here.

Source: https://thefinancialdiet.com/21-people-tell-us-how-much-they-spend-on-monthly-subscriptions-which-ones-are-worth-it/

0 notes

njawaidofficial · 7 years

Text

YouTube Grows Up: Inside the Plan to Take on Netflix and Hulu

http://styleveryday.com/2017/10/09/youtube-grows-up-inside-the-plan-to-take-on-netflix-and-hulu/

YouTube Grows Up: Inside the Plan to Take on Netflix and Hulu

With a veteran television exec, talent like Demi Lovato and Google’s $86 billion in cash, the platform known for skateboarding videos and tween vloggers wants to join the battle to become a prestige TV player. “I want our shows to resonate in a big way with audiences,” says content head Susanne Daniels. “And once that happens, we’ll be on that list — like it or not.”

Days before Morgan Spurlock debuted his anticipated Super Size Me sequel at the Toronto Film Festival, the documentary already was drawing buyer interest. Netflix made a play for Spurlock’s poultry industry exposé, per sources. Hulu and CNN also were said to be in the mix, but a surprising distributor quickly rose to the top: YouTube. The lights had just dimmed on Super Size Me 2: Holy Chicken‘s Sept. 8 world premiere when THR reported that the streamer would pay $3.5 million for the documentary, committing to a theatrical release and a hefty marketing spend. “YouTube made the most sense for what I wanted to accomplish with this film,” says Spurlock, who is said to have left millions on the table to work with the Google-owned video hub and its 1.5 billion monthly viewers. “You don’t make movies to sit on a shelf and collect dust. You want them to actually be enjoyed by as many people as you can. And their plan is to make this a noisy partnership.”

Indeed, when Super Size Me 2 debuts on YouTube Red, the company’s $10-a-month streaming service, in 2018 after a run in theaters (a distribution partner hasn’t been chosen yet), it will front a small but growing slate of films — among them a documentary from rapper Warren G and a special starring Katy Perry — that YouTube global head of original content Susanne Daniels is hoping will help turn the world’s biggest repository for web video into an arbiter of taste and culture, a player in both the Oscar and Emmy races. “I want the movies that we’re buying to be buzzy and have something provocative to say,” says Daniels, a career television executive who joined YouTube in 2015 to lead its original content push. “It’s easier to support films the right way when they have a really loud and strong point of view.”

That YouTube execs were trolling Toronto for the next big indie hit says a lot about the rise of streaming video services over the past few years. An arms race among cash-rich new players — led by Netflix and Amazon and now including Hulu, Apple, Facebook and, yes, YouTube — has electrified the content business as legacy distribution models continue to fracture (see the 25-year low in box-office attendance this summer). The shift is redrawing the hierarchy of the television industry, where all five broadcast networks saw a decline in total viewers last season while the streamers committed about $20 billion to programming delivered without a cable subscription. This summer, Apple poached Sony TV’s top execs Zack Van Amburg and Jamie Erlicht to help it spend $1 billion making the kinds of shows (The Crown, Breaking Bad) that they once sold to networks. Netflix snapped up uber-producer Shonda Rhimes from ABC with an estimated $100 million deal. And Facebook announced its new video destination along with deals with dozens of production and publishing companies.

If there’s one thing that Netflix’s House of Cards, Amazon’s Transparent and Hulu’s drama series Emmy winner The Handmaid’s Tale have shown, it’s that it only takes one big hit to earn Hollywood’s respect and, in many cases, a subscriber’s credit card information. “If you can offer talent the same level of fame and exposure and pay them the same — if not more — than they get elsewhere, you can get access to anybody,” says BTIG media analyst Richard Greenfield. “There are no barriers anymore.”

Perhaps, but for every Netflix or Hulu, there is an Xbox Entertainment Studios or a Yahoo Screen or an Intel Media, all of which were scrapped after pricey launches. Even YouTube has been here before with its short-lived initiative to offer as much as $5 million up front to everyone from Ashton Kutcher to Jay Z to create their own “channels.” But the latest investments have the Hollywood talent community salivating. “The commitment of resources seems to indicate that this is a long-term game,” says Joe Cohen, co-head of CAA’s TV department. “It’s the most exciting time we’ve been in because of how much opportunity there is.”

There’s certainly not room for half-hearted programming plays in 2017. With nearly 500 scripted series expected this year, breaking through all that clutter isn’t easy. A common refrain as these new buyers take meetings is that each is looking for its Game of Thrones — an all-audience, brand-defining megahit. What that means for each platform is starting to come into focus. While Apple has been on the hunt for a big-budget drama from the likes of A-list creators Ryan Murphy or Vince Gilligan, Facebook is taking a more measured approach — saving Nicole Byers’ MTV comedy *Loosely Exactly Nicole from cancellation and ordering low-budget series from such longtime partners as BuzzFeed and Refinery29.

Where does all this leave YouTube, the site that launched the streaming age in 2005 with user-generated cat videos but now wants to be taken seriously as a prestige subscription destination? During a recent visit with THR at Google’s Mountain View campus in Northern California, YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki laid out her multipronged offensive: a slate of ad-supported unscripted originals from such names as Demi Lovato (see sidebar), Ryan Seacrest and Ellen DeGeneres, coupled with a scripted push for YouTube Red that combines existing IP (including Step Up: High Water, an offshoot of the dance movie franchise, and The Karate Kid spinoff Cobra Kai) with projects fronted by its homegrown digital stars. Among the shows in the works are a musical comedy with Rudy Mancuso (3 million YouTube subscribers) executive produced by Avengers: Infinity War directors Joe and Anthony Russo, an Anna Akana (1.9 million) drama executive produced by Mark Gordon and a Liza Koshy (11.7 million) vehicle. It even launched its own version of a skinny bundle, YouTube TV, offering access to channels including FX and ESPN over the internet for $35 a month. “Television is changing a lot, and there are opportunities to reinvent parts of it,” says Wojcicki. “We’re going to continue to invest more in it.”

YouTube and Hollywood haven’t always been so chummy, of course. As the original digital video disrupter, the site was a pariah during its early years when uploaded clips made up the bulk of its database. Viacom sued for $1 billion over copyright infringement of footage from The Daily Show and South Park (it was settled in 2014), and the company still regularly wars with the music industry over royalties. So three years ago, when chief business officer (and Netflix alum) Robert Kyncl began to plot the launch of a service that would give users the best of YouTube without the advertising, he knew how important it would be to get Hollywood on board. “YouTube Red was something the creative industry always wanted us to do,” says Kyncl. “I’d been on the receiving end of those calls pretty much every week.”

Enter Daniels, who had spent years tapping into the minds of teens at WB Network and later MTV. Early YouTube Red offerings starring the platform’s biggest stars (think a reality series with PewDiePie) drew eyeballs but not much notoriety. Now that strategy has changed. This summer, YouTube Red went head-to-head with Netflix, Hulu, AMC and Amazon to land Sony TV’s Karate Kid reboot, set 30 years after the coming-of-age classic, with Ralph Macchio and William Zabka reprising their roles. Most involved expected the half-hour Cobra Kai — from Harold & Kumar duo Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg and Hot Tub Time Machine writer Josh Heald — to land at Netflix. But Daniels’ aggressive 10-episode straight-to-series offer sealed the deal. Why? “Netflix is breaking a show every other week,” says Macchio. “With the passion that YouTube and Susanne Daniels have, this show is not going to get lost. They want it to be that first big show that puts them on the original content map.”

YouTube isn’t really part of the prestige TV conversation yet, and Kyncl declines to disclose how much the company is willing to spend on its originals business. But sources indicate it’s more likely in the hundreds of millions annually, nowhere near the $6 billion that Netflix pledges. (EMarketer estimates that YouTube ad revenue, which Google doesn’t break out in its earnings reports, will be about $3.5 billion this year, and Google had $86 billion in cash on hand in 2016.) While YouTube is willing to spend like any cable outlet (around $2 million an episode for dramas), say people familiar with its deals, it’s not quite ready to stretch beyond the $5 million an episode of some premium dramas, except for a handful of marquee projects.

YouTube also is said to have beat out others to land the Mancuso project, which has Pitch Perfect‘s Jason Moore attached to direct the pilot. But for other pickups, Daniels and her 30-person staff in the company’s Playa Vista office have had to get more creative. She landed the series reboot of Step Up after running into Lionsgate’s Erik Feig at a New Year’s Eve party. “Whatever was in the champagne that night, the call came in Monday, and it was like, ‘Let’s figure out how to do this,’ ” recalls Lionsgate Television chairman Kevin Beggs. Meanwhile, she piloted the Doug Liman-produced Impulse, based on a novel in Steven Gould’s Jumper series, before ordering it to series. “It’s my preference always to do a pilot,” says Daniels. “But in this crazy, competitive environment — more competitive than I’ve ever seen it before, ever — I don’t always have a choice.”

That competition will only become fiercer as Apple, Facebook and perhaps someday soon Snapchat or Twitter or Instagram get into the premium video game. While a meeting with Netflix, Amazon or Apple may be a creator’s goal among the streamers, persuading a top writer or producer to make the trek to Playa Vista — YouTube’s Hollywood outpost — isn’t as easy. But Daniels hopes that’s changing as she starts to make more high-profile pickups. Agents say the streamer’s hybrid approach of working with both YouTube celebrities and more traditional TV talents has led to some confusion over what the outlet is looking for. However, developing a “brand” of shows is a notion that Daniels pooh-poohs: “Short of choosing a really specific lane to play in, how do you really define ‘brand’? How is Amazon’s brand different than Netflix’s brand different than HBO’s brand different than Showtime’s brand?” She does acknowledge that she is focusing on the 18-to-34 demographic with youthful but edgy fare. On her wish list is a family show with religious overtones (she recently met with Touched by an Angel scribe Martha Williamson), and sources say she also is looking for a broad, multicamera comedy, a female ensemble in the vein of Girls and an action drama that would appeal to YouTube’s large gaming community — in other words, something for each of YouTube’s core demos.

While nearly all of the streamers are competing for awards recognition and prestige, only Facebook, with its 2 billion monthly users worldwide, and YouTube truly can duke it out over sheer audience scale. For now, YouTube has a clear head start on video, with more than 1 billion hours watched daily throughout the world. But through Watch (which currently is only available in the U.S.), Facebook is gunning for a larger slice of the $11.7 billion in ad dollars expected to flow into the digital video business this year.

Already, the two have gone head-to-head on programming. Facebook also considered working with Katy Perry on her 96-hour live stream, but YouTube ultimately landed the ambitious project, which drew more than 50 million views in 190 countries. (Per sources, MTV also bid, but the show would have aired only in the U.S.) “I’m so glad we swung for the fences on that and tried it,” says Daniels. “We need to be thinking about community and interactivity and live and international and all the things that we are that a TV network isn’t.” Witness was the first in a small slate of unscripted originals that YouTube has developed separately from its Red programming and will release outside the paywall in the hope of attracting blue-chip advertisers. “One of the things that I grew uncomfortable with was the fact that we were not creating original content for our biggest partners,” says Kyncl, noting that he’s hoping to tap into the demand that has been created by the nearly 20 percentage point drop in ad-supported originals in the traditional TV business over the past five years as subscription streaming services have flourished.

Plus, there’s the assurance that an ad on a Kevin Hart or Ryan Seacrest show won’t run alongside anti-Semitic, violent or other controversial videos often found on YouTube (and that prompted an advertiser revolt dubbed the “ad-pocalypse” earlier this year). So far, L.L. Bean and STX Entertainment have signed on for DeGeneres’ behind-the-scenes series Show Me More Show. The rate card for the series, which has averaged around 500,000 views per video since its Sept. 19 launch, is said to range from $500,000 to $1.5 million, though other shows have packages that are more expensive. Ulta Beauty is on board for Lovato’s Simply Complicated (Oct. 17), and Johnson & Johnson is the exclusive sponsor of the Seacrest-produced singing competition Best.Cover.Ever.

Talent, meanwhile, has been lured by the potential to reach fans no matter what country they live in. “YouTube is the O.G. of video content on the internet,” says Lovato, the 25-year-old pop star (for those over 40, she’s referring to the “original gangster”). “When they came to me with the idea, I just couldn’t say no.”

But as YouTube sets its sights on higher-profile projects, it risks alienating the community of digital talent who came to fame on its platform (and subsequently helped raise production values and CPMs), especially because projects like the Logan Paul-fronted sci-fi film The Thinning and Joey Graceffa’s reality series Escape the Night are said to be some of the most popular on Red.

Creators are watching YouTube’s moves closely. “It makes sense for them to do both,” says Rhett McLaughlin, one half of hosting duo Rhett & Link, who have both a YouTube Red series (Buddy System) and an ad-supported show (Good Mythical Morning). “This is ultimately a battle for people’s eyeballs.”

Facebook already is exploiting the tension, offering upfront deals to digital influencers to post their videos on Watch, though the social network says it eventually wants to stop funding content altogether in favor of a revenue-share arrangement (the split is the same as YouTube’s, with 55 percent of ad revenue going to the creator). YouTube execs, however, say they won’t abandon the site’s homegrown stars. “We focus on both YouTube native talent and Hollywood talent,” says Kyncl.

Of course, there are quirks to working with a technology company. At YouTube, the main challenge is its uniquely annoying platform architecture, in which each original series must live on a designated YouTube channel. For Step Up, for instance, YouTube is creating a whole new channel, which it will fill out by licensing the original films and offering collections of dance videos. “Some of these things are really new to us and require a whole different approach,” says Lionsgate’s Beggs. “A lot of people who are not normally in the same room together have met multiple times over at YouTube to compare notes.”

One benefit of having all those engineers working behind the scenes, though, can be the troves of data about the intimate viewing habits of billions of people. Daniels came to the Cobra Kai pitch armed with the knowledge that Karate Kid videos had yielded more than a billion views on YouTube. And platforms that rely on advertising typically aren’t as precious about data as Netflix or Amazon. Although YouTube doesn’t release subscriber figures or ratings for Red (the only number that executives have shared is that its first 37 originals have been viewed 250 million times — or an average of about 6.7 million views per show), creators with channels on Red receive monthly reports detailing how long people have watched their videos (important since YouTube shares subscription revenue with its creator partners) and other performance metrics.

In the subscription space, no one seems poised to catch Netflix, which has a five-year head start and series slate that included 43 scripted originals in 2016. But as Netflix and others look to own more of their shows, YouTube (and Apple) could get a boost. “Netflix wasn’t even in the original programming game four years ago,” says BTIG’s Greenfield. “If Apple wants to be a major player, if Google wants to be a major player, this is the beginning.”

Sitting in her Playa Vista office in August after her weekly production update meeting, Daniels contemplates just what it will take to turn YouTube into the kind of platform that gets mentioned in the same breath with Netflix, Amazon and Hulu. “I want our shows to resonate in a big way with audiences,” she says with a gleam in her eye. “And once that happens, we’ll be on that list — like it or not.”

This story first appeared in the Oct. 4 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe.

0 notes

viralhottopics · 7 years

Text

YouTube TV review: Live TV streaming has never looked so good

The YouTube TV app for iOS and Android is modern-looking and intuitive to use.

Image: lili sams/mashable

You already go to YouTube to watch funny cat videos, the latest music videos, and movie trailers, so why wouldn’t you go there to watch live TV?

For $35 a month, YouTube TV bundles together over 40 live broadcast and cable channels, YouTube Red Originals content, and, perhaps best of all, gives you cloud DVR with unlimited storage.

It’s a hell of a bundle compared to similar live TV streaming services like Sling TV, DirecTV Now or PlayStation Vue. But does YouTube TV offer enough to convince you to switch from one of those or cancel your cable subscription?

SEE ALSO: Soon you’ll be able to watch TV on YouTube for $35 a month

I’ve been testing YouTube TV and its Android app on a Google Pixel phone (it’s also available for iOS) to find out if I should switch from my $20 monthly Sling TV subscription, and my early verdict is yes.

YouTube TV launches today in five major U.S. cities (New York, San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Philadelphia). YouTube’s offering a free 30-day trial, and you can also score a free Chromecast after your first month’s payment (while supplies last).

The channels you get

All of the content you get with YouTube TV.

Image: youtube

Deciding whether YouTube TV is right for you ultimately comes down to which channels you care about.

At launch, YouTube TV includes five major broadcast channels: ABC, NBC, CBS, The CW, and Fox.

You also get 35 cable channels: ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPNews, SEC Network, Disney Channel, Disney Junior, Disney XD, Freeform, Bravo, Chiller, CNBC, E!, Golf Channel, MSNBC, NBCSN, Oxygen, Sprout, Syfy, Universal HD, USA, Comcast Regional Sports Networks, NECN, CBS Sports Network, FS1, FS2, BTN, FX, FXX, FXM, Nat Geo, Nat Geo Wild, Fox News, Fox Business, and Fox Regional Sports Networks.

Ten additional channels (ESPN3, Telemundo Universo, AMC, BBC America, BBC World News, WE tv, IFC, Sundance TV, and The Weather Channel’s Local Now) will be added later (YouTube didn’t say when) at no extra cost.

Additionally, there will be “add-on” channels. For instance, Showtime will cost you an extra $11 and Fox Soccer Plus will cost $15 per month. Other add-on channels are coming, including Shudder and Sundance Now, but they have yet to announce pricing.

To flip through channels, tap on the “Live” tab and swipe up or down. It’s fast and it’s easy.

Image: LILI SAMS/MASHABLE

It’s a good mix of channels that form a “basic” TV package, but it might not be enough for everyone.

For Sling TV subscribers like me, it sucks that I’d have to give up go-to channels like CNN, Comedy Central, TBS and Adult Swim, but at least I’d get Syfy and the five major broadcast channels.

At the end of the day, only you can decide which service has the content you’ll actually watch.

One super-slick app

The app’s divided into three main sections: Library, Home, and Live.

Image: lili sams/mashable

If you need any proof that cable TV needs to be reinvented, look no further than a cable box’s confusing remote control and its spreadsheet-like programming guide.

These two components of cable TV haven’t changed in decades, and it’s embarrassing. I’m a tech guy and I get frustrated just looking at all the buttons on a cable remote control. How is this still acceptable in 2017?

It’s not, which is why YouTube throws both of these archaic interfaces right into the trash and replaces it all with an elegant app for iOS or Android. (You can also go to tv.youtube.com on a computer, but I didn’t get to test it.)

The YouTube TV app is split into three main sections: Library, Home, and Live. Your Library displays all of your recorded video content, neatly organized into sub-sections like Shows, Movies, Sports and Events. It also displays content you’ve scheduled to record.

To start recording a show or movie just tap the + icon, and that’s it.

Image: lili sams/mashable

YouTube TV gives you unlimited cloud DVR. Shows are stored for up to 9 months before they deleted. So go crazy and record EVERYTHANG.

Image: LILI SAMS/MASHABLE

The Home section is where you can discover personalized content based on your own interests and watching patterns. You’ll find things like what’s popular on live TV, new shows and movies you might be interested in recording, YouTube Red Originals programming, and trending videos from YouTube.

Lastly, the Library section is where you’ll go to channel surf; to switch between channels, just swipe up or down. It’s fast and ridiculously smooth, and definitely the fastest experience I’ve ever used to flip between 40 live channels.

Finding new content is simple and organized.

Image: youtube

Channel surfing has never been so beautiful or easy.

Image: youtube

Not only is content organized logically, but the app’s also smartly designed in other ways. Recording content is as simple as pressing the “+” button, and tapping the “…” menu icon opens up options to go to specific content or channel pages that contain more info like a synopsis, cast details, related YouTube videos, and similar content.

The YouTube TV includes powerful search to make content discover as easy as possible.

Image: LILI SAMS/MASHABLE

It’s all very YouTube-like. But the thing that really puts the YouTube in YouTube TV is search. It’s powerful and will get better over time. You can search by the usual title, genre, actor/actress, or fine-tune things to show content for things likes “puppies” or “coffee.”

Image: lili sams/mashable

Even on a strong Wi-Fi connection, I still have buffering and connection issues every now and then with Sling TV. I had no such problems while trying out YouTube TV over Wi-Fi and LTE at work and at home, but that could have been because of YouTube’s superior video infrastructure or the fact that I was testing the service before it was live, so it was presumably less congested.

Live TV channels load instantly and scale up quickly to whatever their native broadcast resolution is (you can adjust the resolution to save on data just like in the regular YouTube app). Best of all, you can connect up to six accounts (so everyone in your family can have their own personalized YouTube TV experience) and stream three concurrent sessions simultaneously.

Live TV channels load instantly and scale up quickly to whatever their native broadcast resolution is.

By now you’ve probably noticed that YouTube TV is designed for mobile (phones and tablets and computers through the browser). But what about watching YouTube TV on an actual TV? You can still do that by casting content from the app to a Chromecast dongle that’s connected to your TV or a TV with Google Cast support, but YouTube TV’s target demographic (millennials and younger) will likely stick to watching stuff on their own personal devices because that’s where they’re already spending most of their time consuming video content.

A 2015 Nielsen study revealed the obvious: smartphones and tablets have begun eating into traditional TV viewing. In other words, more people are now watching video content on their mobile devices than on TVs.

The TV’s still important and Google’s aware that many people still watch live content on big black rectangles in their living rooms (a YouTube TV app tailored for TV is said to be in the works), but the larger portion of the pie is increasingly elsewhere on other screens.

To borrow an overused Wayne Gretzky quote, Google’s skating to where the puck is going (mobile) instead of where it has been (TV).

One size doesn’t fit all

Image: lili sams/mashable

As a service, YouTube TV is as robust as live TV streaming gets. The app is modern-looking and very easy to use.

But like Sling TV and any of the other live TV streaming options available, YouTube TV isn’t a one-size-fits all streaming service. Whether you decide to sign up will come down to the channels and content offered.

For most customers, however, it offers more than enough content spread across its 40-something channels, YouTube Red Originals, and trending YouTube content.

Personally, I think the most attractive thing about YouTube TV is its unlimited cloud DVR feature. Watching live TV on your phone, or tablet or laptop from anywhere you want is great, but that’s just not how I watch TV anymore; I prefer binging on content after work or on weekends. And for me, that’s worth the $15 extra over the basic $20 Sling TV subscription I currently pay for.

The only other thing that I can think of that would have made YouTube TV an easy recommendation would be if Google rolled in YouTube (all of it) including YouTube Music into the monthly cost as well. But that might be expecting a little too much for $35 a month.

YouTube TV

The Good

Over 40 channels, including the five major broadcast networks Unlimited cloud DVR Smart, simple UI YouTube Red Originals content included

The Bad

Only available in five U.S. cities at launch Kinda pricey compared to other basic channel bundles from competitors

The Bottom Line

YouTube TV offers a robust and modern way to watch live TV, but like all live TV streaming services, whether it’s right for you comes down to the content offered.

WATCH: Samsung’s Galaxy S8 and S8+ are gorgeousbut far from perfect