Binge Watching


When it comes to binge-watching, I barely have enough time for one episode or movie at a time; let alone several. If I did, I wouldn’t go on a long binge mostly because I hate the feeling of wanting more. So, I try to schedule one or two shows a week to help build anticipation and keep interest. With that being said, I am a dedicated cinephile and love having an almost infinite library of movies and television shows at my disposal. Of course, I’ll never get to them all, and the risk of some shows or movies being rotated out is very real; so I have to watch what I can when I can. To feed my cinephile tendencies, I bought a Roku device so I could have all of the streaming services that I subscribe to integrated conveniently into one simple device; and have access to hundreds of free applications as well.

Old and New
            Normally, I tend to generate towards older movies and sometimes television shows. If I plan to watch something released in the past 30 years, I usually gravitate towards the “big three,” streaming services; the three I refer to are Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime. It may come as a shock that Netflix is probably my least favorite of the popular streaming apps. Though Netflix does have the best “newer,” shows with their original productions such as F is for Family, Castlevania and Five Came Back; as well as revival shows of classics such as Mystery Science Theater 3000. Personally, Hulu is the app that is always open on any given device; especially when I’m working on an assignment of class. The show I normally have on is South Park or Rick and Morty. Obviously, I am a fan of adult animation. When it comes to bingeing older content, Amazon Prime is the best of the “big three,” in my personal opinion. Amazon has a huge library of Shaw Brothers Kung-Fu Movies as well as Italian westerns such as Death Rides A Horse and The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly as well as countless other movies in this Genre. A free application that I have access to on my Roku device called, “Tubi TV,” has a vast library of films that are available for a limited time. Tubi TV has a huge collection of over 200 classic films that aren’t available on any other streaming service. Such as One Eyed Jacks, Night of the Living Dead, and a personal childhood favorite Jack, the Giant Killer.

Domestic and Global
            When it comes to Global movies, no app and service are better than FilmStruck. I mentioned FilmStruck in a previous blog post and how they’re a new streaming service developed by The Criterion Collection and Turner Classic Movies. Though it is called FilmStruck, it is actually, “FilmStruck + The Criterion Channel,” because you can pay for both, or one or the other. The FilmStruck side deals with mostly old Hollywood movies with some foreign films, similar to the format of Turner Classic Movies. The Criterion Channel has a vast library of arthouse, genre, and cult films from all over the world. From Orson Welles to Akira Kurosawa; The Criterion Collection has enough films in their library to start their own service without FilmStruck. Personally, I have been watching the Lone Wolf and Cub movies on FilmStruck + The Criterion Channel; starting with the first movie (out of six) called Sword of Vengence. For streaming global television shows, I personally have been watching the Super Senti series’ available on  Shout Factory TV. Shout Factoy is a nostalgia merchant company that specializes in liscencing cult movies and television shows, both foreign and domestic. They have a website (not an app) that one can go to and watch the shows that they have the streaming lisence to, such as five of the Super Sentai Series.

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