Saturday, August 19, 2017

Streaming Video Power Rankings #73 (Special "73-0 is still the single most famous game score in NFL history" edition)

1) Netflix: A new Mission Control documentary is getting raves, and tons of Marvel-ness finally leads to The Defenders. Excuse me, Marvel's The Defenders (not to be confused with Jim Belushi's The Defenders). A Brad Paisely comedy special is a thing (he is hosting, not doing an hourlong set),

The news was a lot better for Netflix this week after the Disney brouhaha. Getting Shonda Rimes away from ABC is the kind of move that excites entertainment journalists. It's also the kind of move that distresses someone who pays each month for stuff besides the kind of stuff Shonda Rimes perpetrates at ABC. I'm trying to be somewhat objective, though. The Chuck Lorre announcement (new show with Alan Arkin and Michael Douglas) is interesting, too. And Ozark got a renewal.

2) MLB.TV: I hate to say it, but I'm kind of glad I was watching Red Sox games this week and not seeing the Pirates put the nail in the coffin of the season. Why, in the same game, I got to see a triple play, plus a batter hitting himself in the junk with a foul ball!

3)  Hulu: Better Things joins the service just ahead of its season 2 premiere on FX. Now can we get Atlanta, Legion, and season 3 of Fargo...and, like, now, and not before their next seasons?

Hulu is also going forward with an intriguing pilot for Locke & Key, and it generated some buzz with casting news for upcoming series Runaways, Castle Rock, and Crash and Burn.

4) YouTube: Notice that when some entity like Rolling Stone posts a video of Eddie Vedder singing "Better Man" in 1989, it's embedding a YT video. Every day offers a reminder of what a great resource YT is.

5) Pub-D-Hub: Solid update last weekend, with new episodes of programs like Richard Diamond.

6) TuneIn: There are other stations on here besides Deep Oldies, but if Deep Oldies is around, I'm not sure I really need them. This week's "hadn't heard it, now can't get it out of my head" song = "Nothing Succeeds Like Success" by Bill Deal and the Rhondels.

7) Nosey: Likely to drop out of the top 10 next week unless I can find more "troubled teens" episodes of Sally.

8) Shout! Factory TV: I checked out Rifftrax's Hillbillies in a Haunted House this week, and it wasn't their best work, but it was free and made me smile. I like that Shout! has all this Rifftrax material now, but it's kind of funny that it just lumps it all in with the MST3K section.

9) PIX 11: Makes a return to the list on the strength of its Son of Sam featurette, but the "digital documentary" is all too short at 7 minutes and should have been supplemented with more vintage news clips from the era.

10) HBO: Terrible circumstances, but the Vice News documentary on Charlottesville got a lot of praise, and kudos to HBO and Vice for streaming it for free. Also, and there's no smooth segue, if I had HBO, I would totally want to see the debuting Nocturnal Animals. Sucks that it got hacked, but I don't think it has done anything to diminish anticipation for new Curb or for Game of Thrones.

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