The Prestige TV Podcast - Power Ranking Streaming Services' Performances in February

Episode Date: March 1, 2021

Chris Ryan and Juliet Litman rank their favorite streaming services for February. Hosts: Chris Ryan and Juliet Litman Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Watch is the latest and the greatest in pop culture from best friends Chris Ryan and Andy Greenwald. Join them as they discuss TV, movies, music, and much more. Check out The Watch on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Hello and welcome to TV concierge, your guide to the ever-crowding TV landscape. I'm Chris Ryan. I'm an editor-thringer.com. I'm joined by Juliette Libman. What's up, Juliette? Hello. How are you? It's that time of the month again, where we talk about the streaming service powering.

Kings. Juliet, have you, like, you ranked them last time. I'm going to rank them this time. But I just want to find out what you say. But I just wanted to ask you, like, did you, has any new service just jumped into your life with abandon? Well, it's not. Have you embraced a new lifestyle? Not yet, but there's two on my radar. One is Paramount Plus launching this week. And yes, we've had ads for that across the podcast network. But for me, they will be having some new real world content. The original cast reunited to go back to the loft from the season one, which was in 92. So obviously, you're going to be watching that. I'm going to cover on Bachelor Party. And then they're doing a challenge. Oh, geez. And then I don't know, I'm just like kind of intrigued because I feel like they're really playing to my personal interest. So there's that.

And then I got to get involved in Discovery Plus. Like I know I'm just missing out on content I'm going to like. I just, I need to get involved. I'm sure Paramount Plus will show up late in another streaming ranking maybe in March since it launches in early March. But for this month, should we start from one to go to five? How about that? Oh, sure. Yeah, because I have a little bit of a philosophical quandary here. Okay. I have Disney Plus at number one. Okay, understandable.

Wanda Vision's great. I am of mixed emotions when it comes to Wanda Vision in terms of how much I like it. But I think that it's pretty clear that it is the monoculture show that people have been looking for for a while, as Disney seems only capable of delivering shows that absolutely dominate the space. First, it was Mandalorian. Now it's Wanda Vision. it'll probably be Falcon and the Winter Soldier. I only really go to Disney to watch Wanda Vision.

That being said, at some point over the last month or so, as Wanda Vision was starting to pick up, I started going back and watching old Marvel movies, older Marvel movies. So it was very convenient. The way they have it laid out there where you can watch them either in order of release or in the chronological way they should be seen

over the course of the years is really convenient. And so I just want to kind of give them credit for creating a show that everybody is talking about. So Disney plus at number one. Yeah, I mean, Wanda Vision, I think is like the most important TV event of the year so far. I love it. Although I didn't like this past week that much because I'm just like, this is way too marvely for me. I'm more interested in like a meditation on television and grief. Right. But I do really enjoy it. I'm going to be sad when it's over. I have a hard time believing I'll be as in to Falcon and the Winter Soldier. But I do think it's really cool that they're using these TV shows to

like try on different genres. Basically, I heard that, um, Falcon and the Winter Soldier will have like a bad boys feeling to it. It definitely seems that way since there's a lot of slow motion shots of the club from overhead. So like I'm intrigued by that. I think I'll watch. I don't know. I mean, also you and I really disagree on this, but I do not like a binge watch.

I only leave a binge watch with like negative feelings that are related to my own psyche and like not really about television. But I just like, you know, we'll probably get to Netflix. I'll delve more into that. But like I do not like a binge watch. So I really enjoy. So the number two that I have is the service that I have watched the most of over the last month.

These are obviously ranking these services over the course of the month. So we're ranking for February right now, right? Yes, exactly. HBO Max is coming through, man. Oh, man. Let's go over HBO Max's offerings this month. I've watched The Head, which is a truly global to the extent that you can sometimes not even tell what language it's really supposed to be in show about an, Antarctic science expedition gone terribly wrong. And it has elements of who done it, elements of

sci-fi, elements of thriller. Really, really, really fun show. Only six episodes. How about it? I don't watch this. I love the terror so much. Yeah, you would like this, I think. It's pretty cheesy in places, but it's basically like this Scandinavian English show. The best part about it, you'll love this, is that, so it's at an Antarctic base, they shot the interiors in Tenerife. I don't know if it was for tax purposes, but there's the head. There's a show called Vita Perfecto,

which is kind of a Spanish version of Fleabag, which is very, really funny. They have my favorite movie of the year, or one of my favorite movies of the year, Judas and the Black Messiah, which came out. I heard that's really good. I'm embarrassed who have not watched yet,

but obviously Daniel Kaluas' big Golden Globes win has given me even more reason to do so. They put out another really good crime show called The Investigation, which has a bunch of people, who used to be in Borgon in it, which you should check out if you haven't. Borgon Hive, stand up.

Kind of have all the headlines with this Allen versus Farrow documentary, at least in terms of like grabbing people by the scruff of the neck and shaking them a little bit. And then finally, they have the best show of the year so far to my mind,

which is it's a sin, the Russell Davies show about AIDS hitting London in the early 80s. So HBO Max kind of just flooded the block at a time when they also are probably fighting with one hand behind their back.

Because this is a point in the year where there would probably be a couple of more shows had they had a smooth production pipeline last year. Right. And I think that also everything you just described, like, each of those shows hit a different point on the emotional register, which I think is really smart because there's something for everyone. And also, maybe you don't only want to watch one kind of show and so you can like bounce around. But that's like, that's a lot of variety. So the thing that I always liked about HBO is the feeling like somebody was curating your experience for you. like they were picking the best of the best, and that's why some of the other shows that they used to run on Sunday night became such conversation flashpoints.

I actually feel like Max is doing a pretty good job picking at least the international stuff that they're showing, because on Netflix sometimes, it gets a little confusing where you're like, God, there's so much, like, which Israeli crime drama should I choose of the 10 that they're offering me? And I feel like Max is like, here it is.

Here's the best Scandinavian crime drama. Just go with this one. So that's number two. I'm going to show. I got to watch the hat. that sounds great for me. I think you'd enjoy it. I'm excited.

Okay. Juliet, let's talk about your beloved Netflix. Okay. Number three. This is their month that they just had. Ginny and Georgia. To all the boys, the third movie. Firefly Lane with Catherine Hegel.

Behind her eyes and Malcolm and Marie. Just like every time you think you get to the bottom, they're just like, no, there's another floor, man. There's another VIP room. Okay. I have a lot to say here. Like a lot. Number one, I watch.

Ginny and Georgia in one sitting after texting with your wife about it, Chris. I was, like, filled with so much, like, self-hatred afterwards. I was like, I cannot believe I just did that. But, like, I also stayed up really late to finish it. I was just like, what the fuck? And one thing I've been enjoying since is watching the following counts go up for the young cast. But, like, it's so predictable, like, the, like, hot, white heartthrob and, like, the show

that's, like, very socially conscious trying to, um, represent as many people as possible. It's like running away with all the followers again, right? Yes, exactly. His name was Felix. He's Australian. He's got good hair. He also, this was filmed in the fall 2019, which I think it brings a real pre-COVID energy to it.

Sure. But anyway, after I do that, I'm just like so mad at myself. Like, first of all, now what are you going to watch? You just ruined it. And I'm also just like, how do I just waste so much time? Like, I mean, it's not a waste. I'm happy to watch it, I guess. But like, I was also just like, this show is fucking crazy.

And I just committed eight and a half hours to it. Like, what am I doing? My wife also was like that and was like a junkie. She was just like, so what's next? And I was like, I don't know. I mean, like, I don't know if I can find you another crazy take on Gilmore girls that you can watch in two days. Do you know what I did as a response? I read Beach Read, a romance novel the next day.

I was like, I can't stop. I need more content. And I literally sat down and I read it like in all one sitting. Ginny and Georgia, I wouldn't say is good. I am really curious how teens are responding to it. but it's clearly going to be a sensation with like a whole matter of stars. They are now, they are now like they have figured out and I don't like it. And like I'm not also trying to disparage anybody's creativity.

But if you're telling me that this isn't Gilmore Girls meets Euphoria meets a Shonda show, that's, that is definitely what they said that it was. They're just like, if you like scandal, kids being naughty and also a young mom with a teenage daughter so that they're kind of friends as well. as well as mom and daughter. And QB1. Yeah. And QB1.

Streets in it. He's playing the same character. He played in Heart of Dixie. This brings up something really important, though, that I actually was kind of like circling on yesterday in relation to Firefly Lane, which also sucks. A lot of these shows, I mean, this, Jenny and Georgia are so much about than Firefly Lane. Firefly and Lane is like a crime. But.

But didn't she like Firefly Lane? No, I did not. I had, like, forced myself to watch it. I did not enjoy it at all. But you watched all of it. No, I watched half. Okay. And like that was in multiple sittings.

I had to really force myself to do it. Here's a thing that's like happening, I think predominantly on Netflix. And it's like partially because it's adapting a lot of books. But there's this weird like genre on Netflix and on streaming. But it's really Netflix where it's like a woman has had some horrible abuse. And it's told to you through flashbacks and the present time is like played for laughs. So it becomes like this joke. about trauma for, for women and then how it like manifests later in their life.

This happens a lot in many mass market books for women too, like this book, it's Eleanor or something. I can't remember any of it. But anyway, I think this is like a little disturbing to me. Like this is the kind of the market is traumatized woman has kind of funny, but mostly like a lot of problems when she's an adult. And that's kind of, that's what Ginny and Georgia is too. Well, I think when you combine that with the awareness that Netflix is basically an acupuncturist,

and they're like pushing needles down on your pressure points and they're like, oh, did we find something? Here's three shows just like about that. That's like a little bit creepy. It's just, it's a weird phenomenon that's developing. I'm curious about Ginny and Georgia to see like how long it will last. One thing I'm waiting for though with streaming is the next stranger things. And I don't mean that in terms of like number of streams,

but I mean in terms of like stars that are spawned. I don't know if we're going to get it. I just don't know because I think because there's so much, it's so hard for those kids to pop. I mean, I think the Euphoria kids, like, obviously, Zendaya had, like, a pretty big following going. I mean, she had been in Spider-Man before she was... Yeah.

But, you know, Hunter Schaefer became kind of a star out of that show. I think that it's possible, but I think that the level that the stranger things kids attained is going to be hard to do again. Because there's just too much competition. And that's a problem for Netflix, I think. Because, you know, they don't have event viewing. And like I said, like, I watched Ginny and Georgia in eight and a half hours. and then spent like other two hours, like, researching everyone on Instagram.

And like, now I'm moving on. And it's like full of disgust for myself. So I don't know. It was a weird Netflix month. It's also interesting to me, watch them trying to cater more towards women, which I think is interesting. Yeah. I mean, it's been, it's been quiet because I think everybody thought Netflix was the place

that threw their money around and got all like these superstars. I think they're doing that more for movies now. And then for the shows, it's like they're, they're kind of running a little bit more of a factory. Speaking of fact. They pissed off Taylor Swift. She tweeted about it this morning. What she said?

She is not happy. And she referenced how her documentary, Miss Americana, was also on Netflix. And there is a joke about her in the last episode, episode 10, that I believe Ginny says to her mother, Georgia. And Taylor responded, hey, Ginny and Georgia, 2010 called and wants its lazy, deeply sexist joke back. how about we stop degrading hardworking women by defining this horseshit as funny. Also, Netflix, after Miss Americana, this outfit doesn't look cute on you.

Broken hard emoji. Happy Women's History Month, I guess, and she has a screenshot of the quote, which is, what do you care? You go through men faster than Taylor Swift. Relax, Taylor. Just give it a little bit of a break. Not everything that happens is like a complete and total,

like we need to have a GoFundMe about this. Yeah, there's other problems that show. Anyway. Moot on. Number four. Yeah, number four, I have Peacock. Oh. I am a sitcom guy. So I just, once I get done at the end of an episode of It's a Sin or in the end of an

episode of the investigation and it's just kind of all tense, I need to decompress a little a little bit. And Peacock is many things, but one thing they are sort of reconstructing is the experience of watching NBC sitcoms. So they currently have Mr. Mayor, which is the Tina Faye Robert Carlock show, which I think is hysterical. and Holly Hunter and Ted Danson are really, really funny on that. And then they've just added Young Rock and Keenan, both of which are pretty delightful.

And they have split the rights in one of the more interesting business stories of the streaming era. Peacock has split the rights for Modern Family. And there's a Bloomberg article this week by Lucas Shaw about this, but it looks like modern family is going to have like an office type revival, maybe not to the the full extent the way the office, like, meme cultures pretty much became like the language of Twitter for two years. But in terms of like people searching for it, people watching it and people staying on service, it sounds like it's, it's like a juggernaut. So. Interesting. That's really funny, Chris. You kind of saw that coming. When we first launched TV content the airs, we did an episode

on Modern Family and you were like, it's a great time to check it on Modern Family. Yeah. It was ending. And it's like one of those shows that I think, I personally think it kind of tailed off in its last few seasons and there's way too many times where it's like, why isn't this person on the show this week? And it's like unclear if it's contractual or whatever. And the characters just change a lot. But I still think that the first few seasons of Modern Family are among the best sitcoms of the last like 20 years. So it's kind of nice to be able to just sort of like tool around and like watch that stuff. And, you know, Peacock as a service is still kind of developing where, you know, that and Paramount are going to be really interesting to watch because they're the ones that are also going to try and

mimic the experience of watching television of having that kind of like, I'm going to flip the channels and watch a little bit of MSNBC and then I'll watch some Premier League. And then you can, you can kind of like watch TV within the service. You know, I have to tell you, Pluto TV, a favorite of mine and Bill Simmons does that where it's an app and has a lot of channels. And it's like, there's the Challenge channel. There's the Goode Beach channel. And I'm 2-0 channel. And I love it because it's like stuff that you're familiar with, but you don't have to actively choose an episode. You can just jump in wherever they are. And it's like a perfect combination of streaming and sort of like ambient television. And I think it's a smart strategy. I love Pluto for that reason. So the last one,

the number five, is the streaming service that split the rights with modern family, which is Hulu. So they added modern family to their already robust streaming library. I guess it would be the other reason why I have Hulu on the list here is because of Nomad Land, which just close out and the film itself won best director, best drama at the Golden Globes. You can not care what the Golden Globes mean, but that is probably a pretty good precursor to suggest that they'll be an Oscar favorite. They are probably the movie to beat and the director to beat for the Oscars. And you can watch that movie on Hulu. It just showed up finally in the middle of the month. Chris, I think you're an equal connoisseur of movies and TV. Yeah. What drives your interest

in like a catalog more? The movie offerings or the TV offerings? TV offerings. And that because there's more hours or because you miss the experience of going to the movies? Do you think that this acquiring movies will be drivers of subscribers? Yes, I do. But I think that will probably be more left to HBO Max and Netflix. Because I think those, and Apple, those are the three places. Now, I haven't seen a movie on Apple that I particularly liked yet. But I think Netflix and HBO Max will have like a movie a week, pretty much.

Right. And so that won't be the, that will be like the driver for those. subscriptions. As far as Hulu goes, I'm not really sure what their plan is for movies, but their whole thing is like the streaming library. So if you want to watch Mary Tyler Moore, or if you want to watch Modern Family, or if you want to watch Atlanta, it's all there in Hulu. I just thought I would shout it out because if you've got the best picture, like likely best picture winner on your service already, it means something. Absolutely. It's interesting to see what people will gravitate towards the most. I mean, I think Disney is proof that you need like the

one-two punch of something that's, that's event. viewing, then once you have people on the platform, how do you make them stay? And that's having this incredible catalog. Yeah, the fascinating thing for Disney will be is if there is ever a point where more than one conversation starter show is on the service at once. So, like, when is it that they have a Marvel show and a Star Wars show going at the same time? What day will those come out? Will they come out the same day? Will they just be like, these are both available on Friday morning? We don't care. Or will they spread it out? Will they try and do some sort of event watching where it's like, this goes live at 8 p.m. on Wednesday, which is,

what I'm calling for. That's because it's better for podcasting. I don't know what they're where the Senate parliamentarian is on that, but I'm calling for that to happen. Because it's better for podcasting. You're right. Yeah. Any notes?

Any amendments? No, I think you got it. I mean, it was kind of a weird month. February's always weird because it's short. But, you know,

one thing that just doesn't factor into this right now, we'll have to see in the future are sports. I mean, like, one thing about Paramount and Hulu, they try to, like, promote that they have live sports. and I'm curious how that will ever change the equation.

But we'll have to see in another month down the line. Julia, it's always a pleasure to podcast with you. I hope you enjoyed my rankings. I can't wait for the March rankings done by you. Yes, I look forward to it as well. April 1st. See you then.