Streaming Video Power Rankings #115

A shocking fall is the big story of this week's rankings, but before we get to that, happy Father's Day to all the dads out there. Sit on your dad butt and watch some dad stuff, and do it without shame!

Oh, yeah, spend some time with your families, too, of course.

1) Prime Video: Amazon gave me a great Father's Day gift by adding the two Adam West/But Ward modern animated Batman features. I saw and enjoyed Return of the Caped Crusaders already but I have been waiting for the rental price of the sequel, with William Shatner as Two-Face, to drop. Well, now, I can stream it as a Prime member. MWAH HA HA HA!

(Really, I'm a law-abiding citizen. I regret the maniacal laugh.)

Also new this week: Yellow Submarine, and while many Beatlemaniacs have it on DVD or even Blu-Ray, I say...so what? It's still the Beatles. I love seeing the Fab Four and Apple getting involved with streaming the catalog, and who knows, maybe they can unveil some unreleased material in this format someday.

Amazon gives us the 3 great B's from the sixties this week: Batman, Beatles, and...Billy Bob! Yes, Billy Bob Thornton (who was actually born in 1955)  returns in Goliath, season two, and maybe soon I will check out season 1.  (In case you're wondering, Prime Video already streams many of the James Bond flicks.)

2) HBO: Seriously, folks, I ask again, does Silicon Valley just totally start to stink at some point? I ask because I finished buzzing through season 2 this week and thought it was as funny as anything on TV in recent years. This and a few movies made it a big HBO week for me.

3) WWE Network: The least exciting thing to me is the Money in the Bank special event airing tonight. There's also an NXT Takeover and a nice Hidden Gems drop on Thursday. What better way to celebrate Father's Day than to sit around with your kids and watch a 1980s match pitting the Road Warriors against the father/son combination of Curt and Larry Hennig? Answer: There is no better way.

4) MLB.TV: The red-hot Pittsburgh Pirates come roaring into this great baseball-ish holiday. MLB has been giving big discounts on this service in honor of the occasion--the holiday, not the Pirates beating the Reds a few times--so take note if you aren't on board.

5) YouTube: Oh, there is some great stuff on here. My favorite this week was finding an old "Reading Is Fundamental" PSA with Ed Asner while I was putting together the YouTube playlist for our Lou Grant episode of Battle the Network Shows. Oh, did I plug the podcast again? Shame on me! But a lot of you clearly enjoyed my linking to the Tom Snyder movie monsters episode (thanks again, Fuzzy Memories TV) earlier this week, and well you should: It was a great hour of retro fun.

6) Hulu: It reportedly lost $436 MILLION in the first quarter of this year. See, Hulu, I told you to put up the rest of The Mary Tyler Moore Show.

7) Pub-D-Hub: I've been enjoying some old variety TV on here, like Dinah Shore and Coke Time with Eddie Fisher, which is surpassed only by Shootin' Up with Sal Mineo.

8) Boomerang: Credit to Boomerang for putting together a curated collection of cartoon dads, though it should have added all the Auggie Doggie episodes or, say. Wait Till Your Father Gets Home.

9) DirectTV Now: This service has been buggy and sluggish since adding the DVR feature for Roku, but it did let me see some World Cup action this week without any problems.

10) Netflix: I can't drop it out of the ratings, as I did enjoy some stuff on it this week, but I have to dock it for rolling out a big Barbara--excuse me, BARBRA Streisand collection. Oh, I'm sure fans will love it. I'm not a fan. If Netflix is gonna spend bucks for this kind of stuff, why can't it do something like this with Carol Burnett? And remember when it added all those Albert Brooks movies, had him record a promo clip, and then dropped most of them months later? I guess I shouldn't be complaining about this, but...I am.