Mr. Movie: Streaming services offer options for quarantine viewing

I have always done movies in theaters. Once in awhile a studio will send me a link for a movie and I’ll stream it on my computer or on a TV but outside of some football and a lot of basketball, I rarely watch TV anymore.

If I watch TV at all I do it late at night. A few years ago I had access to some premium channels and got addicted to the Showtime series “Shameless.” I watched it every night for about a month and then quit.

Last year I got hooked on the old, black and white Perry Mason TV series with Raymond Burr and watched seasons one and two from 1957 and 1958. Other than the sports I just mentioned and once in awhile a news program, that’s about it for my TV watching for the last 15 years.

With no choice and nowhere meaningful to go, I’ve watched more TV in the last six weeks than I have watched in the last six years.

By the way, when did we get to the point that we need several HDMI ports on TVs loaded with places to put cables that give us hundreds of TV channels that we never watch?

Worse, remote after remote after remote control has come along with all the devices attached to the HDMI ports. When did it become necessary to have five remote controls to watch television?

Though I never have been a heavy watcher of the medium, when we reached that point a decade ago I pretty much permanently bagged watching television.

Now I’m forced to watch again. Fortunately, I live with people who have access to all kinds of TV watching sources. Best of all, they know how to operate the remotes and get me to where I need to go.

My first TV stop was wading through Netflix. It’s overwhelming. So much to watch that’s — um — not interesting at all.

The people I live with have HBO and all kinds of other premium movie sources, too. I’ve been hanging around there a lot. Same thing. Too much to watch and not much of it that’s all that interesting.

I do — however — have plans to find “Game of Thrones” and do a start to finish binge watch. I’m told it will take me three-weeks to a month. Not sure when I’ll do it but that’s my pandemic plan. In fact, it’s the only plan of any kind that I have at the present time.

An asterisk must to be inserted here. “Game of Thrones” and the binge watch has been on my to-do list for the last month. I haven’t watched one episode yet so it might not happen. It is — however — a goal.

I suspect most of you have some sort of streaming service. Some of you have none, or are like me and don’t have a clue how to access anything. When I got cut off from movies and found I was going to have to review films from streaming services I did some research on who’s offering what.

If you’ve exhausted everything that is interesting on the streaming service you have or if you don’t have one, there are several temporary and free offers that you might want to check out.

This is information that I’ve researched. It comes from a very quick search about what the different services offer. Please do your own research because — as you know — it’s almost impossible these days to actually talk with a customer service person about the details of a service.

Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, CBS All Access and Showtime

When it comes to “free” trials these four are at the top of the heap. They all give you a 30-day free trial, so you can blow through tons of original content and movies.

Netflix has movies and series productions. Many of them are quite good. Some are not so good. One of the most fun things I found when poking around the service is some science stuff on the universe and space. The production value of the shows I saw was superb.

You can also — if you have cable or one of the satellite services — find that kind of programming on the Science Channel.

Probably the most bang for the buck is Amazon. As I understand it you can actually purchase movies through Amazon and you have access to music, shopping on Amazon and the shipping deals the service offers.

CBS All Access has just upped its free trial offer. It went from a week to a month. The service offers you a ton of TV shows including the tempting for me, “Star Trek Picard” and the new Jordan Peele generated Twilight Zone series.

“Star Trek: The Next Generation” and “The Twilight Zone” are my two favorite TV shows ever.

The service — near as I can tell — only offers series created for television by CBS. It includes some old TV and might include “Perry Mason.” That series was CBS generated.

Might be fun.

Amazon Prime Video runs about $13 a month and all of the services mentioned are taxed if sales tax is applicable. Amazon Prime will cost you $119 a year.

Netflix offers three packages: basic, standard and premium and the costs run $8.99, $12.99 and $15.99 per month.

CBS All Access — rounding it off — offers you the service for $6 a month and if you want it to be commercial free it’s about $10.

Showtime

Showtime’s streaming service gives you a 30-day free peek at movies, series, documentaries, etc. It offers great original series like “Homeland,” “Shameless” and “Billions.”

If you decide to purchase Showtime it runs $11.

Hulu and Hulu + Live

I didn’t include Hulu in the 30-day category because the service splits it up. Basic Hulu gives you a 30-day free trial. Hulu Plus Live allows you to look at it for seven-days.

Hulu has some great programs like “The Handmaid’s Tale.” Like YouTube TV and others it gives you access to several television channels. Hulu Plus Live gives you a much deeper access to streaming content.

Hulu has a bunch of different monthly plans ranging from basic at $6 to $70 for Hulu Plus Live.

You can also get access to Hulu from Disney +.

Disney +

Disney offers a bunch of different options. You can do Disney + and Disney +, Hulu and ESPN. You can see all kinds of Star Wars stuff like the new Mandalorian series. Disney also gives you a bunch of Marvel movies to binge watch. If you plan on switching from whatever you have to Verizon’s FiOS you can get Disney + free for a year.

FiOS is about $50 a month and gives you TV channel access.

Disney + is $7 a month.

Disney +, Hulu and ESPN is $13.

Apple TV+

You get the seven-day free trial from Apple TV+. However, if you have recently purchased an Apple device the company will give you a year for free. It runs about $5 a month and gives you access to movies and several series.

HBO Now

HBO Now offers a seven-day free trial and — as you know — HBO has a ton of content from movies to series to documentaries to sports stuff. What seven-days won’t give you — however — is time enough to binge watch “Game of Thrones.”

HBO Now is $15 a month.

Starz

Starz will give you three-months at $5 a month so you can binge-watch “Outlander.” That is if steamy, time-traveling romance is your thing. My mom got hooked on the program. You might like it, too.

Starz also offers lots of movies and series offerings.

How much Starz runs depends on where you pick it up but from satellite TV or one of the cable services it runs about $14 a month.

There are more places to stream video content. I may have missed one or more of the major players. If I did, I apologize. This is all new to me and it’s been fun to actually go to some of them and see what they’re showing.

Here’s my conclusion after spending quite a bit of time these days on TV and on some of the streaming services written about here. I didn’t become a TV watcher as a kid or as an adult because to me the medium has always been a boring wasteland. What’s good is really good but it’s a very small percentage.

It has much in common with the movies I regularly review.

Sadly, in the years between watching some TV to now watching a lot of it, I find nothing much has changed. It’s still — streamed or not — a wasteland.

Next week I’m going to take a look at what movies have been postponed and will see when the studios plan on releasing them. Among those I’m looking at are “A Quiet Place 2” and “Black Widow.”

This story was originally published April 16, 2020 at 4:01 PM with the headline "Mr. Movie: Streaming services offer options for quarantine viewing."