5 Things I Learned from the Showtime Free Weekend
When I was younger, premium movie channels would occasionally have a free weekend. It was so exciting, you wanted to cancel all your plans and watch every movie they showed before the free weekend was gone forever. It was the 1990s version of binge watching!
This weekend Hulu Plus brought back those old memories with a weekend of free Showtime. Which seemed like it would be a weekend of this:
Only one look at the Showtime lineup and I knew it would be a weekend of this:
The last thing I wanted was to get caught up in a "Showtime-only" TV series I'd never be able to watch again, so I headed straight for the movies section. Which is when I learned a few essential things about Hulu's Free Showtime Weekend.
1. Showtime's movies suck.
No offense to Showtime. We have HBO, though, and the selection of recent movies that I've actually heard of is much greater. Showtime was a selection of, "What's that?" and "Why have I never heard of any of these movies?"
2. I trust actors' judgment.
Meryl Streep would never choose a bad movie. Neither would Julia Roberts. So a Meryl Streep-Julia Roberts movie has to be a win. Only August: Osage County was not only depressing, but it was pointless and blah.
3. Sometimes it pays to stay with a movie until the end.
Okay, I was going to give up on this one at several points...but the ending made it worth it. The ending of a movie (or a book) can make a so-so movie phenomenal. Interesting how that works.
4. Sometimes it doesn't.
Just as I'll toss a book aside if it isn't catching my interest, I'll exit out of a movie if it's headed for nowheresville. How do I know it's headed that way? Wikipedia will give you a summary of most plots. If you're thinking about parachuting out of a movie, you can just read ahead a little and see if anything interesting starts happening soon.
5. TV shows are better than movies.
Okay, I know this is a blanket statement...but unless you're into dark independent films or films based on comic books, often TV shows are better. They have better writing and they're attracting some of the most talented actors. The only problem is--if you want to watch a Showtime/HBO/Netflix original, you have to pay an individual subscription. And none of those outlets specializes in one type of series. My only request would be that each network pick a demographic. Showtime could have the middle-aged women while HBO could take the young guys who like all that superhero-actiony stuff. I'm not going to pay $8-10 to 15 different networks to access two TV series I like on each.
Are you a binge watcher?
This weekend Hulu Plus brought back those old memories with a weekend of free Showtime. Which seemed like it would be a weekend of this:
Only one look at the Showtime lineup and I knew it would be a weekend of this:
The last thing I wanted was to get caught up in a "Showtime-only" TV series I'd never be able to watch again, so I headed straight for the movies section. Which is when I learned a few essential things about Hulu's Free Showtime Weekend.
1. Showtime's movies suck.
No offense to Showtime. We have HBO, though, and the selection of recent movies that I've actually heard of is much greater. Showtime was a selection of, "What's that?" and "Why have I never heard of any of these movies?"
2. I trust actors' judgment.
Meryl Streep would never choose a bad movie. Neither would Julia Roberts. So a Meryl Streep-Julia Roberts movie has to be a win. Only August: Osage County was not only depressing, but it was pointless and blah.
3. Sometimes it pays to stay with a movie until the end.
Okay, I was going to give up on this one at several points...but the ending made it worth it. The ending of a movie (or a book) can make a so-so movie phenomenal. Interesting how that works.
4. Sometimes it doesn't.
Just as I'll toss a book aside if it isn't catching my interest, I'll exit out of a movie if it's headed for nowheresville. How do I know it's headed that way? Wikipedia will give you a summary of most plots. If you're thinking about parachuting out of a movie, you can just read ahead a little and see if anything interesting starts happening soon.
5. TV shows are better than movies.
Okay, I know this is a blanket statement...but unless you're into dark independent films or films based on comic books, often TV shows are better. They have better writing and they're attracting some of the most talented actors. The only problem is--if you want to watch a Showtime/HBO/Netflix original, you have to pay an individual subscription. And none of those outlets specializes in one type of series. My only request would be that each network pick a demographic. Showtime could have the middle-aged women while HBO could take the young guys who like all that superhero-actiony stuff. I'm not going to pay $8-10 to 15 different networks to access two TV series I like on each.
Are you a binge watcher?
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