Streaming Video Power Rankings #134

Hope everyone had a happy, safe, and stream-friendly Halloween. Is it time to get away from Scaretober and Boostreamflix and all that (I am just making all that up)? Perhaps, but I still give credit where it's due to the streamers who came through with seasonal content. Let's start gearing up for Streamsgiving in a few weeks.

1) Hulu: It gets the top spot purely because of the glorious news (verified by me and my own personal Roku) that it now offers all 250+ episodes of King of the Hill, which I consider one of the most underrated comedies of all time. All I have to say to that is..."Yep."

2) Filmstruck: Everyone loves this more than they did when it wasn't on death row, but bless the curators for adding more programming, like a ton of Kate Hepburn films.

3) Prime Video: New series Homecoming debuts this weekend, but, eh, Julia Roberts isn't the big deal she used to be, and I don't have time to watch the series I am already watching, and...

[Rick learns each episode is only 30 minutes]

Hmm...

Perhaps more importantly, Amazon continues adding content from MPI Home Video--in this case, two rare 1970s honeymooners specials. It's not peak 'Mooners, but it's still 'Mooners, and it saves me plunking down $ for the DVDs as I have thought about doing for years.

All this, and Amazon is quietly adding a whole lot of classic Warner Brothers movies like Deliverance and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.

4) Netflix: Competitive week keeps Netflix at #4 as horror stories about "the terrible corporate culture" continue to dominate even as the service offers the final season of House of Cards (remember when that was a thing), a new Orson Welles movie (! but I am more interested in the accompanying documentary) and a doc about Johnny Cash and Richard Nixon.

5) YouTube/YouTube TV: YTTV is threatening to get me back into watching non-baseball sports. On YouTube proper, my kids are still fascinated by the ongoing Project Zorgo storyline involving many prominent "YouTubers." The main thing that stands out to me is that YT must have really changed how it distributes ad revenue, because I see a lot of shilling for "merch."

I realize many of you will have no idea what that last paragraph was all about. Let's just move on to number 6.

6) Pub-D-Hub: I believe celebrating Halloween by watching themed 1950s episodes of Red Skelton's and Lawrence Welk's TV shows, as I did, should be as traditional as trick-or-treating with totally dark costumes, handing out unsealed candy, and Necco wafers. Hmm, wait a minute.

7) Starz: Outlander is back, and though I am not in the target demo, its return is such a big deal that Hulu is intruding on my normal home screens to suggest I add Starz to get it.

Hey, wait a minute, that's actually really annoying. I am gonna move on before I dock Hulu and Starz for that.

8) Pluto TV: Adding Buzzr, the OTA classic game show network, to its motley assortment of free ad-supported channels. I just wish it could be more customizable. It's adding a lot of stuff, which is good, but it would be nice to be able to filter out things I am never going to watch.

9) Kanopy: This free library-supported service hosts tons of movies, many of which are classics, and many tout it as a great option for those who will miss Filmstruck. Well, sure it is, if you have it. My two local liberry systems do not participate, and I don't live in the sticks.

10) Boomerang: It's sad that with all this talk about the injustice of At&T killing Filmstruck, I see virtually no one worrying about the fate of Boomerang. That's a testament to how weakly the company has built it. Yet it's still around, I think it is still adding content, and I would be sorry to see it go...though unlike Filmstruck, it has a long way to go to justify its sub price.