A galaxy of streaming services and nothin' on... (to paraphrase a line from a Springsteen song).
It's crazy that we have so much choice for viewing content (or any entertainment) online, and yet we can still be stymied when it's time to choose something. I've been facing this for at least a year, or closer to two. Back in 2019, and into 2020, I subscribed to both Netflix and Amazon Prime. I'd been a Netflix-only guy for many years prior.
But after a certain number of months of watching the shows and movies I really wanted to see on Prime, I felt like I'd had enough. Sure, it's cheap enough, but I didn't need the special delivery service included in that package, so I gave it the axe. There seemed to be very little in the way of movies that interested me. I spent most of my Prime time with its exclusive shows, like Jack Ryan, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Bosch, and a handful of others. But after x number of seasons and what felt like a long dry spell before new episodes, I grew tired of handing over cash for nothing in particular. So Prime got the boot.
Last summer I finally decided to try out the Shudder streaming service. I've long been a fan of all things horrific and thrilling, so it seemed like a no-brainer. But even this niche resource fell pitifully short. Sure, there were some films of interest, but by and large, Shudder had little more than a bunch of modern-day, sub-par flicks. And more lame documentary/discussion series on the genre than you could shake a stick at. I found the odd thing of interest amid the dreck, but when it came right down to it, Shudder was a disappointment. There were extremely few oldies, whether classics or under-the-radar gems, which are the foundation of the horror genre. And by oldies, I mean anything before 1980. That's like sixty years of cinema history!
The handful of goodies on Shudder were newer movies I had either already seen, or had in my home movie collection. And though there were a number of foreign horrors I had saved to my To Watch list, I almost never found myself in the mood to "read" a movie. There was a time when I was a bigger fan of foreign films with subtitles, but that's changed. I really have to be in the right mindset to multi-task, flicking my eyeballs up and down on the screen, reading the dialogue and taking in what's happening visually. And with horror, it can be distracting, often taking away from an effective, atmospheric scene.
Anyway, as fall approached, I figured the Halloween season, as celebrated on Shudder, would determine the fate of the service. I did latch onto the Wolf Creek series of shows and movies, but not much else grabbed me. I ended up revisiting my home media, watching oldies on Youtube, and renting the odd other thing to fill up my pre-Halloween viewing schedule. And that was it... Shudder was unsuccessful at winning me over. Gone!
When the latest season of The Mandalorian appeared on Disney Plus, I jumped back on board (I'd done this before for previous seasons of the baby Yoda show), but just as quickly dumped it back where it came from. Nothing else of interest on the Disney service.... I've seen (or own) all the animated classics I care about.
All this time, I'd hung onto good ol' trusty Netflix, or at least that's what I kept trying to tell myself. That this pioneer of the big streaming services had more to offer for my money. That is until the fees began to creep up bit by bit, finally landing at about $15 a month. And for what? A whole lot of nothing. Lots of titles (though not as many as there used to be) but very few that appealed to me. My "To Watch" list was lengthy, yet as the months and years wore on, I lost interest in many of my unwatched saved selections. I found myself browsing aimlessly - through the few remaining old hangabouts and the lackluster new arrivals, sometimes doing a deep search through everything, desperately trying to get my money's worth out of this weakening streaming titan.
The weekly new arrivals consisted mostly of crappy-looking reality-TV-type stuff, not at all my cup of tea. Plus weird specialty programs that were so focused on a tiny demographic that there was no way I'd partake of those. And the movies.... oh, don't get me started. Loads of never-heard-of-before, low-budget, straight-to-video garbaaaj (just sound it out as it looks and you'll get the jist of how I say it - with a French inflection), starring nobody I'd ever heard of before. And extremely few better-known flicks, at least ones not made by Seth Rogan and his cast of idiots. The "oldies" selection was/is next to none, as well. What gives?
Then it dawned on me that maybe I was done with Netflix. It was good while it lasted, mostly, until it wasn't. By the end, I was only intermittently catching episodes of two different shows - old Jeopardy and not quite as old Modern Family reruns. Nothing else. Not worth fifteen bucks, I'd say.
So I spent a while doing my research, examining the other streaming services out there, and while The Criterion Channel looked appealing, it wouldn't satisfy my taste for non-"important" films when I was in a less snooty mood. I own a small-ish but carefully chosen collection of Criterion releases on Blu-ray, but as time passes, I feel less of a need to add more to my already bursting media shelves. Some of these classics, and artsy cinema, can be found elsewhere, even on Youtube (sometimes even pristine uploaded Criterion versions). Sooo, I gave that a miss.
Then along came Crave. While the Crave service itself didn't appear to have a lot of stuff aimed at my tastes (but there's Seinfeld!), its partnered HBO package (a bundle "deal") did. HBO is renowned for its television programming, and I've seen a handful of its cool productions over the years thanks to friends who owned the DVDs. It was this way that I got to enjoy amazing shows like Carnivale, The Wire, Westworld, Watchmen, True Detective, Deadwood, and some of Game of Thrones. Oh, and can't forget Curb Your Enthusiasm, though my mania for that show drove me to purchase all ten seasons on DVD. Just in case the internet fails.
Some newer Crave/HBO shows that caught my eye were Your Honor, Perry Mason, Generation Kill, The Flight Attendant, Veep, The Undoing, and Lovecraft Country, among others. So I figured even if the movie count wasn't very impressive on Crave/HBO, I could bide my time (until this COVID mess allows the movie studios to get moving again) with high quality shows. Fingers crossed. It's going well so far. And once I had signed up for Crave, I gave Netflix the heave-ho, never looking back. It's possible I'll go back to it someday if I hear about new seasons of favourite shows. But no promises.
How are other viewers out there faring? Are you finding what you are looking for in satisfying content? Content... that's what it's all about now. Any ol' stuff on the interweb with which to waste our precious moments upon this Earth. Ah well, I am often one of those drones... when I'm not reading a book or spinning a record (Gasp! Such quaint past-times!). Well, it's fun, fun, fun, til your daddy takes the modem away.
Click!
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