Saturday, January 6, 2018

Streaming Video Power Rankings #94

These ratings actually are a lot harder to create when I have more time to watch this stuff. Generally the rankings are based on a combination of buzz, new additions, what I have been streaming, and of course a heaping teaspoon of cayenne pepper. The holidays and the weather have given me more time to enjoy streaming video, and this weekend is shaping up to be a shelter-in-place kind of deal, too, so look out next week.

Of course, I could also READ more.

NAHHHHHH....

1) YouTube: There is just all kinds of cool stuff on here. Perhaps inspired by my inclusion of his YouTube channel in my 10 Things I Loved post, SeanMc went nuts with the uploads this week. Even better, New Year's Rockin' Eve--1979--helped me celebrate 2018. Chuck Mangione, Rick James, The Village People...Erik Estrada and Lauren Tewes hosting the pretapes...What a time that was.

2) Netflix: Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee has finally premiered, though it irritates me that they are now in "collections" and not seasons. Netflix deserves credit for throwing a bone to people who still  look for catalog content. It added several popular franchises like The Godfather, Lethal Weapon, and Batman. If it could pull that off every month, people like me wouldn't complain about the shrinking library. The conversation about Black Mirror continues. Plus David Letterman's talk show has a premiere date--next week--and an official slate of high-profile guests.

Personally, I am enjoying not only GLOW, which may be my favorite Netflix Original when I catch up, but also One Day at a Time.

3) The CW: Hey, I am all caught up now on my superhero shows. Please, shows, don't give us any new episodes for another few weeks. I still need to catch up on Brooklyn Nine-Nine.

4) Hulu: And when I do catch up, it will be on Hulu! My children taking over the Roku and seemingly trying to maintain a perpetual Teen Titans Go/The Fabulous Thundermans marathon might be enough to rank Hulu pretty high; the 2017 documentary Gilbert only helps its case. In a less competitive week, it would be number one. I plan to boost my Hulu watching this week, so put your Bitcoin on it to be higher next time.

5) Amazon Prime: A new addition is a 1961 series called Almanac which consists entirely of old newsreel footage. It took me about 10 minutes to find out what year it was from, too. Cool! I didn't watch the parody Rose Bowl Parade coverage Amazon streamed on New Year's Day, but I think it's a great idea, and I like that Amazon tried something different there.

6) Warner Archive Instant: Back into the rankings as I dive back into Kildare and Eight Is Enough, but--I'm just saying--still no new content in months and still no activity on the Twitter account since October 22.

7) PBS: Thanks for the memory...of letting me watch the American Masters Bob Hope documentary without a log-in.

8) PBS Kids Go!: Speaking of public broadcasting, I didn't realize until this week that you can enjoy a free livestream of the national PBS Kids channel on the Roku through this app. There are a lot of episodes and clips you can enjoy without a log-in, too, so big ups to PBS Kids. Too bad my kids are rapidly growing out of interest in it...

9) Boomerang: And sadly, my kids aren't OLD enough to appreciate something like Magilla Gorilla  on Boomerang, but I plan to work on it.

10) Up Faith and Family: I like to highlight new SVOD services in the rankings, even if I have no interest in them. In this case, I give Up credit because it shows that even wholesome, family-friendly channels are liable to charge way too much for way too little content if they get the opportunity.

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