What’s Streaming July 2016

As we expand, it’s time for a few changes. I’ll no longer just be highlighting the goodies coming to Netflix for the month, but will also cover what’s coming to Amazon Instant Video and HBO Go/Now. As they all compete we’re beginning to see a lot of interesting changes, including entire franchises throwing their weight behind one streaming service (like what will happen with Marvel and Disney later this year on Netflix).

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Reaction – Season 6 Game of Thrones

I think my short reaction to the latest season of Game of Thrones is just OH MY GOSH!! This season just blew me away. After season 5 I was slightly disappointed in the series as a whole. They had done some good things, but in season 5 the show just felt a little lost. This season they really took the show and the story to the next level.

Now a couple of my favorite things about this season has been the women in power, and the reveal of some great fan theories. The female characters in this season have owned every episode that they have been in and it has been fantastic.

I think the big issue I have with this season is that they threw out any concept of time continuity and everything happened at the speed of plot. Now this kept the pace really exciting and with a limited number of episodes left in the series it really helped move the story forward, but there were definitely some ridiculous moments as a result. At the same time I am super excited to see where they take this story in the next couple of seasons! (Spoilers for Game of Thrones for season 6 after the jump.)

American Gothic – First Impressions

American Gothic premiered last night on CBS, and after seeing a bit about it I decided to give it a shot. I’ve been watching Parks and Rec and Archer on Netflix a lot lately, and wanted something fresh. It looked intriguing, and so I figured, why not? The worst part would be the commercials, since I haven’t watched a show play live on TV in ages.

American Gothic centers on the well-to-do Hawthorne family, and begins its introduction to the family members in the midst of getting ready for the eldest sister’s family portrait and interview. She is running for office, and is already an established and well-liked city councilor. As the youngest sister, Tess, and her husband are heading to the family home, part of a tunnel collapses behind them on top of a car. As we are introduced to the other family members, we see that in the debris of the tunnel a belt is found, which it is discovered is linked to a notorious serial killer. The Silver Bell Killer, who was never apprehended and who left behind no evidence, except for a silver hand bell, strangled his victims, and it is believed the belt may have been a murder weapon. It is found in concrete supplied by the Hawthorne family.

What if Hulu lost CW?

As I’m sure we’ve mentioned before a few times, we no longer have cable or TV access, and instead watch shows through a combination of Hulu, NetFlix, HBO Now, and season passes through iTunes. It’s a move that a lot of people are making. When we got down to basic cable, we had basic cable plus digital TV box plus DVR so it was a pretty hefty pricetag still.

There’s been a real ebb and flow over time as to what NetFlix and Hulu have available. At this point, it seems like NetFlix is pretty close to the HBO model, of having a movie available for a period of time and then it’s gone. Julia has been keeping up with these changes lately here on the blog. Then they tend to have back-seasons of TV shows, but not the current season.

Hulu, meanwhile, seems to be the place to go for the current season of TV shows. Some networks and shows, they seem to have the whole season; others, they have only the most recent 5 episodes. Sometimes, like during long breaks or once seasons have ended, they seem to start “replaying” episodes and rotating through the season for which 5 are available – we only just caught the last two episodes of Legends of Tomorrow last week by noticing we were about to lose them to this rolling replay of the season.

Voltron Legendary Defender Kicks Giant Robot Reboot Ass

Last week, Netflix released the latest iteration of the Voltron franchise. I’ve been cautiously optimistic about the new series, Voltron: Legendary Defender, since I heard about the project. The more I saw animation clips from Dreamworks and interviews with showrunners Joaquim Dos Santos and Lauren Montgomery, the more torn I became. Legendary Defenders looked amazing. It sounded like the folks involved were on the money and trying to create a show that both old and new Voltron fans could enjoy. Still, I couldn’t let myself get too excited. I’ve been burned by too many lackluster reboots and updates, and Voltron is important to me. I don’t think I would’ve made it through fourth grade without Voltron. I debated whether I should tune in on June 10, and after much angst, I decided I would watch the first three episodes. I ended up watching the whole series. This post is not so much a review but a reaction. I’ll have reviews and more indepth commentary in upcoming weeks, once Comparative Geeks makes its move to self-hosted.

Editor’s Note: post includes a few excited expletives.