This Week in Instant Watching

Yesterday we ran out of time, folks (our apologies to Joan Embry; we'll try and have her back on soon), but we're back with a look at what was new to streaming video in the past week. A lot was new, and much of it was interesting!

Netflix had several high-profile titles, plus its monthly (mostly MGM) batch of catalog title adds and re-adds. First, let me point out my personal highlight of the week: New Columbo episodes! I dare say it looks like the whole series is now up--a big step up from about half or whatever it was before. It's about time! This happened without fanfare, but with much appreciation from me. If you have a show you're following on Netflix and waiting for more episodes, keep the faith.

Also new to Instant Watching are Olympus Has Fallen, which just came out on DVD this week. No, wait, that was White House Down. But this one came out, uh, not too long ago, I can tell you that.

Robert Zemeckis and Denzel Washington team up in Flight. Don't you love how we always say a director and an actor "team up"? Do you think that at the beginning of a shoot they sit down and come up with a team name, a motto, and a team jacket with a kick-ass logo?

In addition, there's an Aziz Ansari stand-up special which is new and exclusive to Netflix, another indication that the company is serious about standup comedy. HA! See what I did there? Really, though, much like HBO in its early days, Netflix seems to be looking at comedy specials as a big asset, yet we don't hear a whole lot about them compared to the original series.

Colin Farrell stars in Dead Man Down, and at some point I went from Colin Farrell fatigue to thinking if he's in a crime movie, then that crime movie might well be intriguing. Speaking of fatigue, I don't know if you're sick of zombies yet, but 2013's Zombie Massacre is here if you're not. Let me also tell you about The Host (2013) not to be confused with the Korean horror pic from a while back. Not that YOU would confuse them, natch, but I did just yesterday. This is some kind of sci-fi whatever thing from the author of "Twilight." Hmm, maybe it IS a horror of sorts.

I totally forgot that Empire State ever even existed, but it stars The Rock and at least one Hemsworth, so it must be a fairly big deal. Another new add is Twixt, and I don;t know much about it, but it's from Francis Ford Coppola, so it must be worth mentioning, right? And there's something called Slightly Single in L.A., about which I know even less, but it stars Lacey Chabert, so it must be worth mentioning, right? Have you seen the new Maxim?

Hey, have Francis Ford Coppola and Lacey Chabert ever collaborated?

As a big fan of the TV show, I have an interest in checking out Top Cat: The Movie, a Mexico/Argentina production from 2011. Fun fact: This is the English-language version that came out in the UK last year, but an American version with voices redubbed by Rob Schneider came out here a few months ago. I love my country, but there are times I do NOT want to buy American.

Christmas flicks like The Polar Express and National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation are popping up now, and it may seem a bit early, but it beats last year. I think "Vacation" showed up like a day after Christmas and disappeared in January. I'm always pleased to see real classics like High Noon, and modern prestige pictures like Broadcast News are always welcome, too.

It was also a big week for TV, what with That 70's Show, Leverage, Dexter, and Chuck all joining Instant Watching. "Dexter" interests me because I didn't think we'd see any Showtime shows on Netflix anymore. Maybe this deal predates Showtime realizing, "Hey, people are gonna stop paying for us." "Chuck" was a fun show for a while, but I got tried of it after a few seasons, and more tired of its rabid fans complaining that NBC kept wanting more people to watch it. I wonder if you get a Subway ad each time you click on an episode.

Wow, that's a lot of stuff just on Netflix. What say I stretch this out one more day and talk about other streaming news tomorrow?