Streaming Video Power Rankings #145 (Special MLK Day Weekend Edition)

We all know that there is no better way to honor the late Dr. King than to sit on your duff and watch TV, so here we go:

1) Hulu: Hulu finally got a big victory of sorts over Netflix by surprising everyone and unveiling a competing Fyre Festival documentary days before the premiere of Netflix's original. I like the idea of there being a little one-upsmanship between the two companies. I especially like the idea of Hulu not raising its prices (see #10).

2) YouTube/YouTube TV: Big Cultureshark ups to the person who started uploading Misfits of Science last week.

3) Amazon Prime Video: I am going to fold IMDB Freeview into here until/unless it does more to establish itself independently (like create a stand-alone Roku channel).  I see it as significant added value for now. Speaking of that, we get another streaming surprise--there are always items that never show up on the "Here's what's coming to __" lists that circulate--the 9 non-Hawaii seasons (the "classic years"?) of Baywatch. It's supposedly remastered for high-def, which means stripped of all the original music...as if that matters. Public service announcement: Yasmine Bleeth joins as a regular in season 5.

In other news, Car 54, Where Are You? is now on Prime. Joe E. Ross is no Yasmine Bleeth, but this show is a welcome addition.

4) The CW: Hey, remember the CW app? I'm sure glad I did because my recording of the third part of the Arrowverse Elseworlds crossover inexplicably disappeared from my DVR library, forcing me to head here to see it.

5) HBO: I just can't get excited about the likes of Crashing and High Maintenance, but this upcoming documentary about Jimmy Breslin and Pete Hamill sounds good, and all the Sopranos nostalgia flying around lately reminds us that

6) Showtime: HBO's perpetual neglected sibling returns with new episodes of SMILF and Shameless plus the debut of Don Cheadle's Wall Street period comedy Black Monday and a big (bigger 5 years ago, I guess) fight between Manny Pacquiao and Adrian Broner. I hear Emmy Rossum's Shameless character "continues her downward spiral." Hasn't she been on a downward spiral ever since the series began?

7) CBS All Access: Star Trek: Discovery returns, and I bet a significant percentage of this channel's subscriber base does, too.

8) ESPN Plus: The UFC/ESPN relationship officially began with a big card that unfortunately featured known scumbag Greg Hardy.

9) FilmRise: A lot of the content here is available on other platforms, but it's here in one place (with ads, of course). I haven't tested it yet, but I think it's good to remind everyone that, as an example, Batman (1966) is here and free (with ads, natch).

10) Netflix: Dropping the company out of the ratings altogether would damage the credibility of this prestigious list, so I am not doing that. Netflix deserves punishment, though, for planning its biggest price hike ever, and not all that long after its last one. It's terrible news and, as the industry leader, it may give other outlets "cover" to institute price hikes.

I hate seeing all the apologists say, "Oh, it's still a great deal." So what? It's still a big price hike as a percentage, and it's legitimate to complain about it. "Big deal. There's so much content on there." Yeah, and how much of it do you want to watch? Did they really need to spend so, so much on deals with the Obamas and the Murphys and Shonda Rimes? Maybe they did, long term, but I might not watch any of that stuff. "They have to do this because other companies won't give them their content anymore." Yeah, partly because Netflix is throwing cash at all the original productions. Netflix decided to go this route.

OK, you got me: This mini-rant is really just another excuse to complain about Netflix losing Quincy.