Sunday, February 17, 2019

Streaming Video Power Rankings #149: Special Pre-Presidents Day Edition

1) Amazon Prime Video: It continues quietly adding good stuff. This week alone, it unveiled 80s shows Wiseguy, Crime Story, and The Greatest American Hero. I have a nice routine of watching Corner Gas, and Amazon started teasing its upcoming Lord of the Rings series.

But I don't care HOW good it is, I ain't watching this Lorena Bobbitt docuseries. Uh-uh, nohow, no way.

2) Netflix:  It was another eclectic week of adds, with a documentary about flat-earthers, a Studio 54 doc, The Umbrella Academy, and more. I didn't watch any of that, mind you, but I got my money's worth elsewhere on the service this week.

3) DC Universe: A big week for DCU with the premiere of Doom Patrol, its second original live-action series and the recipient of some good reviews. Plus Wonder Woman thwarted an effort to revive Nazi world domination plans! Granted, she actually did that 40 years ago, but I watched it this week.

4) YouTube/YouTube TV: One of my favorite YT channels is Highlight Heaven, which finds compelling ways to compile sports clips. A recent example is this collection of "Knowing the rules" plays. You'll understand when you see it:



5) HBO: The service debuted Deadpool 2 and continued to psyche people up for Game of Thrones. Meanwhile, I watched the just-premiered Nick Buonoconti documentary (typically classy HBO Sports-type production) and Battle of the Sexes (I was disappointed and felt it didn't really capture the excitement of the Billie Jean King/Bobby Riggs spectacle).

6) Hulu: Last week I declared it time for a personal Hulu Appreciation Week!

Well, that didn't happen. But Hulu added Dharma and Greg, which will not be part of my appreciation week, which will start tomorrow. More interesting is the announcement of a series of connected (everything has to be "shared" and "connected" these days) Marvel Comics animated shows coming to Hulu. That one surprised everyone, I think.

7) NewsNet: Here's a refreshing new channel on Roku (and other platforms). It aims to be like the old Headline News--straight news every half-hour without talking heads and opinion. I saw 8 minutes of it, and I can't imagine the kind of kook who would think this was liberally or conservatively slanted. It's being done on the cheap, but it's being done.

8) Slacker Radio: I prefer the oldies on TuneIn, but my kids like Slacker. They also seem to like skipping the songs I like, but I don't think they are doing it on purpose. Not totally.

9) Curiosity Stream: It announced it raised $140 million in new funding, which bodes well for its short-term viability. It seems committed to continuing and spending money on new programming.

10) CBS All Access: They offered me another free month, which I graciously declined (by ignoring the email), but I appreciated the offer and would gladly take it in the near future. They sure do want to keep those sub #s up there.