Streaming Video Power Rankings #86

1) Hulu: Hulu debuts another pop culture documentary this weekend, a profile of artist Shepherd Fairly, and the occasion prompted me to watch the recent original doc Too Funny to Fail, which tells the story of the short-lived The Dana Carvey Show.

OK, that's not entirely true. I have been meaning to watch it for weeks, but I was motivated more by a nagging fear that Hulu would pull it because of the prominent role (though only in archival footage and the accounts of others) of then-castmember/writer Louis CK. Don't get me wrong, this is in no way an endorsement of his behavior, but I DID want to see the story of The Dana Carvey Show. It's an excellent piece of work. Plus the original series itself is on Hulu, and while that sounds like a no-brainer, we've seen it's not always the case that a streaming service secures rights to the source material when it produces such a documentary.

Also premiering this week is Allied, which flopped but which was sort of described as being sort of like Casablanca. So I sort of feel compelled to give it a watch.

2) Acorn TV: I am enjoying the heck out of the free week I got without meaning to--I signed up a different way for it this time--and am sure to enjoy at least a month. Yes, I am disappointed at the lack of several series I enjoyed on Acorn in the past, but I have already seen several episodes of the new series of Doc Martin and found several other entertaining new-to-me shows.

The site is easy enough to navigate, though I wish there were more control over the watchlist. Acorn does get basic things right, though, like resume playing functionality and transparency about when shows are coming and going. I feel that there is enough here to deserve 5 bucks for at least a month. Expect to see Acorn very high on this list for a while.

3) Netflix: New season of Lady Dynamite and a few other things, but I dove back into Cheers. The shrinking catalog is an obvious turnoff, but as long as the CBS stuff is there (Trek, Cheers, Frasier, Twilight Zone...) there is still good catalog value.

What interests me is that my kids started to watch Project MC2, which debuted its sixth season this week, then got distracted and eventually stopped in favor of watching YouTube videos. Are they going through a phase (as happens), or is this part of the trend of the youth of America shunning anything over 10 minutes long? Stay tuned.

4) The CW:  Earns a high slot on the basis of me seeing the season's best episodes yet of Flash and Supergirl. I'm a little behind on each show, but I thought the winning appearance of Hilary Swank's Husband on the latter show helped it regain some gravity, and Ralph Dibny is a welcome addition to the former. The characterization of the hero once known in the comics as Elongated Man isn't the way I remember it, but it is a refreshing change of pace, and the poor man's Will Forte in the role is putting a compelling spin on it.

5) Disney Now: My kids flocked to it despite my not having cable authorization anymore to watch all the stuff. It's irritating to me, but they shrugged it off and found one of the free/no log-in episodes.

Disney head honcho Bob Iger revealed some details about the upcoming Disney SVOD. good news: No ads. Bad news: Not coming until late 2019. Nowhere near the entire Disney catalog will be available, which is not surprising but is disappointing. At least they confirm they will price it cheaper than Netflix.

Who knows what they will be saying come 2019, though? No matter, though, because I suspect even an adequate level of content at a semi-decent price will be a big smash for Disney when it launches this thing.

6) YouTube: I think I'm finally ready to take the plunge and start digging into old Memphis wrestling on a regular basis.

7) Filmstruck: I have never subscribed, but I thought it was time to check in again with the boutique, rather pricy art film streaming service from Criterion and Turner. You know what? It looks pretty cool. The main screens are striking, and there is a heavy emphasis on "curation," with many groups of small movies. I thought the "Directed by Phil Karlson" section was cool, a nice reminder that Filmstruck did offer material from the classic Hollywood studio era (including a few Charlie Chan flicks in that case).

Maybe someday soon I will give it a shot. Yet I looked at the recently added section and saw a group of Werner Herzog films. That's all well and good, but shouldn't those have already been on such a service? Honestly, I thought they were.

8) Warner Archive Instant: I enjoyed a couple of Dr. Kildare episodes this week, but I STILL think it's weird that the official Twitter account has been quiet since October 22--nearly 3 weeks!

9) CBS All Access: I notice this service is slowly gaining some momentum, and this week's announcement of a forthcoming Twilight Zone reboot is an interesting one, though personally I wish they'd just let that one die. I still think it's overpriced. At the very least, at that pricepoint, they should really open up the vaults to increase the amount of content.

10) HBO Now: I must tip my hat to Home Box Office for running a documentary I'd like to see about Rolling Stone magazine and for premiering what I think is the best movie of 2017: The Lego Batman Movie. Granted, it's the only 2017 movie I've seen so far, but it is excellent!