Streaming Service Part 2: November Rankings

[Mercurius]

Netflix is a solid A-, which makes it the best overall streaming service. I've been deep-diving into European dramas, thrillers, and Nordic Noir, which has been a lot of fun. Not an A because the content quality is uneven, and there's so much filler.

HBOMax is a B, but falling fast. It used to be an A. My girlfriend has a cheap subscription, so we keep it, but not finding a lot to watch these days, other than House of the Dragon and a show here and there (Barbarian was terrific).

Hulu is a B-. It comes up with surprises: The Bear was really good, and I often find something I didn't realize existed, or old shows I forgot about.

Apple is a B-. Could be higher if it had more. I subscribed for a few months but ran out of content I wanted to watch. Will probably re-subscribe in another year or two.

Amazon Prime a C+. There are some gems (Peripheral, Outer Range, etc), but both big fantasy series have disappointed.

Disney is a C. If you love MCU, cartoons, and Star Wars, it's great. But haven't we all watched (most of) these already, and frankly I'm sick of both the MCU and SW.

Paramount is a D. I got it for awhile to catch up on Trek shows. Lost interest in Discovery early in season 3, loved Strange New Worlds but was trekked out so didn't finish it. Might re-subscribe to finish it in a month or two, once I get a hankering for more Trek. I'm avoiding Picard based on reviews. I don't like this new vision of a darker Federation...the whole point was a more utopian future, not just re-framing contemporary social issues that are done to death elsewhere.

Anyhow, I find myself veering towards streaming streaming services. Keeping Netflix all the time, but then rotating a secondary general service, and adding a more specialty service. So three services at one time, with two rotating every few months. Am thinking of trying out some more obscure stuff.

 

[Morrus]

I watch very little on Netflix these days. For me it's all about the big genre shows -- Star Trek, Star Wars, Marvel, Got, LotR. etc. So DIsney and Paramount are up there. Amazon and Apple less often, but they still have great shows (The Boys, Severance, LotR, etc).

 

[Cadence]

Asked the 13yo...

Netflix (Solid 1st): Bunk'd, Transformers, Pokemon, Power Rangers, Ninjago, Voltron, Avatar, Dragon Prince, How to Train your Dragon

Disney+: (Distant Second) Duck Tails, Chip'N Dale, Darkwing Duck, Albert Lin on Nat Geo, Andor, Marvel Stuff

Amazon (Inconsequential 3rd): Occasional Fireman Sam for sake of nostalgia

 

[Aeson]

Paramount has Evil. If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it. As for Captain Pike's hair, I'm indifferent, but my mom hates it. The only streamer on your list I don't watch is Apple TV. I would like to, but have to set limits somewhere.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

I can't fathom how someone could rank all eight of these services. Are you subscribing to all of them? How much time to you have to watch shows?

It's not hard.
I'm currently getting Paramount+, Peacock, and Apple+ for free.
Prime is "free" with the shipping component.
I received a deal a while back (I wrote about it) for D+, Hulu, and ESPN+ that makes them close to free for the year.
I did a deal for HBO Max to get it close to free.
....and I've had a Netflix subscription for a long time. Back when you got it for free with monster cables and they would send you DVDs in the mail only. Fun fact- my first request was Alphaville.

In short, through various offers from the streamers when they were trying to pump up their subscriber numbers, I am currently paying less for all of these services than I would pay for two Netflix subscriptions.

... this will end at some point, but I'll worry about it then.

 

[payn]

It's not hard.
I'm currently getting Paramount+, Peacock, and Apple+ for free.
Prime is "free" with the shipping component.
I received a deal a while back (I wrote about it) for D+, Hulu, and ESPN+ that makes them close to free for the year.
I did a deal for HBO Max to get it close to free.
....and I've had a Netflix subscription for a long time. Back when you got it for free with monster cables and they would send you DVDs in the mail only. Fun fact- my first request was Alphaville.

In short, through various offers from the streamers when they were trying to pump up their subscriber numbers, I am currently paying less for all of these services than I would pay for two Netflix subscriptions.

... this will end at some point, but I'll worry about it then.

Yeap, and the timing on this thread and question is great. Last year for black Friday Amazon offered great deals on streaming packages for premo TV and other services. I was able to get P+, Starz, and Showtime for 2 months each for a total of 6 dollars.

 

[Alzrius]

No entry for Crunchyroll at all? Boo! Boo I say! Not enough anime fans on this forum!

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

No entry for Crunchyroll at all? Boo! Boo I say! Not enough anime fans on this forum!

Second, feel free to discuss any and all of the 10,984 streaming services that you want! ESPN+? Sure. Shudder? Love the horror. FuboTV? FUBO! That said, for purposes of power rankings, I will be looking at only the following services {...}

Weirdly, I was just thinking that the mainstream services have done a good job of increasing their anime offerings. Netflix has some excellent selections (and is ramping up the originals) and Hulu has a surprisingly good selection.

It's like Shudder. If you like horror, you can easily be sated by the mainstream service. But if you are a hardcore horror lover, you gotta get Shudder. If you're ... um ... really into anime*, you want crunchyroll.


*Not that there's anything wrong with that.

 

[payn]

No entry for Crunchyroll at all? Boo! Boo I say! Not enough anime fans on this forum!

So, lemme ask you about Crunchyroll. Are there lots of stuff like Cowboy Bebop, Trigun, Ninja Scroll, etc..? A lot of anime I have seen over the years is oddly sexual. Like teens at highschool perving on girls with storylines about panty drawers. Im not saying thats all anime, but its a lot of anime.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

So, lemme ask you about Crunchyroll. Are there lots of stuff like Cowboy Bebop, Trigun, Ninja Scroll, etc..? A lot of anime I have seen over the years is oddly sexual. Like teens at highschool perving on girls with storylines about panty drawers. Im not saying thats all anime, but its a lot of anime.

I mentioned this on another thread, but I've been trying to watch B******!!!! (think of the sword in AD&D) on Netflix.

It's actually got a lot of great D&D and heavy metal references, but it's also .... really really skeevy. Like ... I want to take a shower afterwards skeevy.

And that's the issue- way too much "fan service" is just super creepy. Good anime is great, but then you'll see something and wish you could bleach your eyes because WHY IS THIS IN THE SHOW?????