Streaming Video Power Rankings #97

The previous week, I had a lot of time to watch streaming video, but this week, not so much. How will it affect the rankings? Well, I guess I should really know already since I am the one doing them, huh? Here goes:

1) Netflix: I think the worst thing I can say about Netflix this week is that I'm really ticked that The Toys That Made Us A) won't return with its second half of the season for a few weeks and B) hasn't yet been given a second season.

Otherwise, Netflix is doing just enough to justify its price increase, and that's saying something coming from me. It is proud of its Oscar nominations (though no Best Picture nod yet), and it seems to be getting good pub generally, though it's not thrilling to see the first umpteen seasons of Family Guy are leaving in February. Its latest subscriber numbers bested projections.

In the meantime, this week we got a well-regarded second season of One Day at a Time, an Alex Gibney miniseries called Dirty Money that is surely going to depress us all by proving yet again how the system is rigged agin' us, another season of Puss in Boots (we need to make this a thing), and A Futile and Stupid Gesture about the history of National Lampoon. Personally, I'm still getting caught up on a lot of the originals...but I will make time as soon as more The Toys That Made Us appear.

2) Hulu: I am assuming those Family Guy episodes migrate here, like everything else Netflix is ditching (or is it the other way around). Ever since my kids discovered Fabulous Thundermans and Teen Titans Go! on here, it's almost like they forgot all about Netflix.

I only saw a few odds and ends on Hulu this week, but despite a few embarrassing outages last week, Hulu continues to have real momentum that will only increase now that broadcast TV shows return with new episodes.

3) YouTube: The Museum of Classic Chicago Television has really been bringing it lately, though it's a shame that it apparently abandoned its Roku channel. There are a lot of cool old national ads here in addition to the great Chi-centric vintage material.

4) Warner Archive Instant: Several people asked me where I was watching Eight Is Enough, and I told them WAI. Yep, I am doing more to promote the service than its own Twitter account (still dormant since October 22).

5) Boomerang: There is just something really cool about calling Huckleberry Hound "Huck Hound," though I don't really understand what it is.

6) The CW: What's going to happen to all the DC Comics animated shows, like Vixen, when that DC streaming service starts? Those are actually on CW Seed right now, but I didn't watch anything on CW Seed, so I'm asking here.

7) Roku Channel: I enjoyed A Very Brady Sequel here last week, and I must say the interface is decent. This channel should add watchlist and other features as it grows, and the commercial load is a bit obnoxious, but it's free, and Gary Cole is an unrecognized national treasure.

8) WWE Network: The Royal Rumble, an NXT Takeover and more this weekend, but the big deal for me is the story that is adding a ton of old-school Coliseum Video releases in a week and a half or so. I'm so happy about that, I'm not even going to complain about the fact that they announced that at launch but it has taken years to deliver it.

9) Amazon Prime: Not so much Oscar success as it had last year, and in fact, Amazon may be wishing Manchester by the Sea star Casey Affleck would just go away (as he is as it relates to this year's ceremony). Yet I still enjoy finding bizarre content on here, and the Shaw Brothers martial arts catalog looks pretty good on Prime.

10) Stadium: New free (though every time it loads, it asks me if I want to log in) sports channel with some odd content, like Frisbee (excuse me, Ultimate Disc) competitions and Mountain West conference volleyball. It's hard to see what this is all about, and I don't know what the paid site gets you, but it's sports, and it's free. I think. Note: The main Stadium channel is also available, more easily accessible in fact, on Pluto TV.