I have the Disney/Hulu combo without ads. I want Hulu, and the difference between Hulu w/o Ads and Disney/Hulu w/o Ads is around three bucks. Or it was around three bucks when I signed up. So my whole take is that I am getting Hulu at price and then Disney for three bucks.
Interesting things I am looking forward to with the combo:
I'm going to look into whether this plan is possible for us, because it would be nice to not double up on Hulu, plus not have ads on her Disney plan. Thanks!
And wait, are you saying Noah Hawley has a new show coming up? (Me shaking my head about being so purposefully out of the loop....clearly some downsides)
Have you (or any other readers here) watched the movie Longlegs? I'm usually not a horror genre watcher, but I kept hearing about it, so I gave it a go since I'm on vacation. I'm only 30 min in, but three things have struck me so far: the mood that is established right away, the use of sound, and (most interestingly) the direction (I remember from a previous post you always told your students to ask 'where is the camera and why?'). It's a striking combination of all three components that have created an immersive feel, and it compelled me to (hopefully) get your expert take on what you think about the movie, if you've watched it.
Thanks for all the great posts and contributions from everyone here in the community. I'm an infrequent poster, but an all the time reader, and I appreciate all the great writing and thoughts that I consistently find here (both from Tim and the community)
Hi Jon. Um, Longlegs freaked me the fuck out just seeing the trailer (or part of it, accidentally) but it's not a surprising reaction since I'm really not into scary stuff. KB says she is but she seems to have more jump scares than anyone who actually enjoys the genre, and she didn't go anywhere near it. I wish I could give you a better reaction or review but maybe someone here has seen it -- or post a reply on the next post and see?
Yes the rest of the world had a completely different Disney+ experience than we do here in the U.S. Sounds like it's more robust for sure, or just a more efficient package because to my knowledge you can't get Hulu as a standalone in many countries
MHz used to have a series on a local public TV station (it wasn't on KQED, but one of its satellite channels) called MHz WorldView which showed foreign mysteries. I remember watching some incredibly violent Nordic noir show, and at one point, the detective was running past a marble sculpture depicting a partially-clad woman, and the breasts were blurred. I haven't tried the MHz streamer, but I hope it was the public TV station, and not MHz itself, which had such an oddly prudish approach to censorship!
It's less bad. I do like the foreign language shows in the curated Walter Presents collection. They're not all killers, but there's some gems there. And they tend to be interesting.
I haven't really dived into the documentary archives but there's a ton of that too. Pretty decent value at $5/month (which also counts as a PBS donation).
I'm probably the only one this applies to, but if the criteria for Kanopy and Hoopla is having a US library card, I can't do it because I live outside the US. I would say that's a shame except there are not nearly enough hours in the day to watch everything that's interesting on the platforms that I can and do use: Hulu, Apple, Netflix, Max and MUBI. (recently ditched Prime and Paramount)
Welcome to MUBI. I won't bore you and everyone listing all the films I love that are on MUBI, but I will say two words: Aki Kaurismaki. Almost all of his work is on MUBI, and what a great thing that is.
Ah, well your reasoning is sound and I understand it -- there is SO much to watch and not enough time. And yes, I'm a fan of Kaurismaki so I will dive in! Happy to hear ANY move recs at any time.
Maybe the best thing that I can say about MUBI and Criterion: if I am unsure whether I will put something on my list, if it is on MUBI or Criterion, I will add it because I respect their curation so much. Others like Amazon, often go in the other direction.
Also, each of them have a page listing everything that is leaving, which is so convenient when trying not to miss anything!
Totally agree on the curation thing and also the "leaving soon" heads up. Very helpful! You can tell *immediately* that Criterion and MUBI love the curation part where for most others it's either a bother or an algorithm or sales pitch that falls short. Places that love their product are the best places...
Yay, I love when we all contemplate this stuff! I will start with the bad news. I am worried about Hoopla and Kanopy. Something happened at some obscure library organization on the federal level. Apparently it was responsible for getting apps like Libby and Hoopla going. And now it might be used for propaganda and also drastically cut? Librarians are sounding the alarm but I don’t quite get how it will affect us. So point being: don’t procrastinate. Use these apps!
I just googled and gulp. It says it will negatively affect rural areas more. But maybe someone else knows more:
Now to the good stuff! Yes international streaming services are the best. I currently have Acorn, MHz, and Britbox. We have dipped into Tatort on MHz. We watched a couple episodes from the 80s. Called Tatort: Schimanski. It’s very uh 80s. But it is fun to watch with my husband because he can provide insight. One of his weird “fun facts” is the father of the lead actor (who is excellent) was an actor who eventually made propaganda films for the Nazis. He got captured at the end of the war and died in a Soviet camp. The crazy thing is he was a well renowned actor who played during a more enlightened time in German impressionistic films. We watched him on YouTube (not the Nazi stuff). I have to say that story was perhaps more compelling than the show but it was a good history lesson. I am open to more suggestions so I am looking forward to your deep dive. We will probably watch more Tatort but a different iteration.
I am with you 100% on ads. I just can’t. It’s funny you mention Rakuten. They own Kobo which is a rival to Kindle. It’s Canadian. So I have been using their store lately so I don’t have my eggs in one basket.
As for services, I have most of them but I don’t pay for cable or any cable like streaming service. And for now, I am using them. Plus some family sharing. But you’re right that you have to be careful about password sharing crackdowns. I pay for the biggest ones (Amazon (no ads!), Hulu, Netflix) myself.
Fed gov nazi-ism is sucking the joy out of life across all lines. And now they're coming for the libraries? Yeah, let's keep everyone dumb. That certainly tracks with the agenda.
The password crackdown seems erratic but everyone getting better at it. Every time Spotify tells me my "profile" is unfinished I know what they're seeking and just ignore.
I find the issue with streaming subscriptions the same as subscribing to people's patreon, substacks, youtubes, and so on. I mean I love so many things but if I subscribed to everyone I'd be paying 1000's a month. So many great content creators out there but where do I draw the line...
Now if substack or YouTube had like pay one price and pick 4 or 5 people that would make sense...
Right now you are the only one on Substack I invest my money too. Because it is an investment in my entertainment.
No cable equivalent service such as YouTube TV? I tried to get rid of YTTV but then I missed the local live sports (SF Giants in my case). It’s pretty annoying to have to pay such a premium for local live sports. Can’t wait for this business model to collapse.
I have had YouTubeTV for a long time and also get the NBC Sports Bay Area app or whatever it is for Warriors and Giants (the G-Men looking like they will be watchable this year). I kept mine because I converted it to the Portland area after getting tons of YouTubeTV geo-blocking (they let you have a "vacation" a couple of times but when you set up shop like I do they eventually say no.)
But now I'm just going to drop it since KB and I are duplicating it and it went up in price. I'll take the risk that I can get all the Warriors games. I never watched any other channel so I wish I could get the Bay Area sports thing as a standalone add-on. I think it might be possible to get it for iOS? Maybe then I could just mirror it to the TV.
Not sure yet, but we're definitely canceling one because of the crossover.
If you are going to be in Portland, mlb.tv should allow you access to Giants baseball (and most everything else). If you wanted to be able to stream Giants games locally, there's a new option this year for $19.99/mo: https://www.mlb.com/live-stream-games/subscribe/giants
I mostly want it for Warriors because despite growing up with baseball being the predominant sport I played, I barely watch it on TV anymore. But I'm excited about the Giants this year. Even foolishly have a bunch of them on my NL only fantasy baseball team!
I also loathe commercials and (happily, I suppose) pay the extra fees for Hulu and Prime to be free from commercials. Yet, I will still watch a hard to track down movie on Tubi if there isn’t an alternative.
I recently re-subscribed to MUBI to watch The Substance, and have stayed to watch The Kingdom. There are fascinating films on MUBI, and there is an authentic spirit of real curation rather than algorithmic list compiling. However, there’s also a bit of low grade tyranny in the forced feeding nature, particularly when tastes sometimes diverge. It’s on par with the subtle tyranny experience of PBS or NPR, where in the main you’re on the same page, and yet desiring more reach and less preach. Just preparing your future soft landing. Yet with the new rules of quitting a streamer whenever makes pruning choices easier.
Time for you to ask Jason Snell about getting a cost effective VPN to ward off getting bumped off a streamer while in Portland.
I was going to recommend MHz on the last post while chiding you on the “thousands of such and such programs”, yet while editing an auto correct typo the entire post disappeared in the Substack app, and I needed to get out the door and couldn’t commit to rewriting. I’ll be curious what series on MHz anyone is raving about. (Pro tip - they occasionally offer a deeply discounted annual membership.)
My streaming choices mirror yours, so I’m not financially outsmarting cable either, although the relative quality is exponentially higher.
And I'm sipping my long overdue and much needed coffee this morning when I acknowledged the subtle (?) jab about Jason and the VPN. Noted.
I'm still spending less on streaming than I did on cable by far. And I'm happy to do it even if it were to roughly match up because it's about paying for the channels you never use that bugged me.
I had to stay at a hotel last year while the landlord was painting my apartment and tested out VPN. I was still local. I was not trying to get around geoblocking. I wanted to test VPN. Hulu blocked that laptop for months. I am no fan of people who use VPN to "game" the system
Glad to see you've embraced MHz Choice. I've been a fan for awhile, in part because they have shows from an amazing range of countries. Where else can you watch TV produced everywhere from Lebanon to Estonia?
I suspect this isn't your type of show, but I am a fan of the German series "Miss Merkel," an odd comedy which recasts retired German chancellor Angela Merkel as a "Murder, She Wrote" style detective.
It certainly was giving off huge MSW vibes in the promo. But yeah, it's kind of astonishing how many countries are actually making quality stuff in comparison to even the recent past for some of them. Big upturn.
My husband and I had fun watching Ms. Merkel. However, I thought it was pretty mediocre in terms of some of the plotting. I am hoping it improves with subsequent seasons. I think there’s more to come.
Good to know, Joe. Didn't know this before. I hope you can get one from SF or elsewhere. I know with SF I could fill out it out online but had to go in to get the card. So there was a slight delay. In Portland I just walked in and it was like two minutes. So maybe varies.
But if he plans it right, he can get the SF Library card. Just fill it out online and next time there's a trip to SF, pull into the main library and knock it out.
Now that you've discovered MUBI, here are a couple of prime choices for you to consider, that they seem to have permanently: Park Chan-Wook's latest, Decision To Leave; and Lars Von Trier's classic quirkfest The Kingdom.
I have the Disney/Hulu combo without ads. I want Hulu, and the difference between Hulu w/o Ads and Disney/Hulu w/o Ads is around three bucks. Or it was around three bucks when I signed up. So my whole take is that I am getting Hulu at price and then Disney for three bucks.
Interesting things I am looking forward to with the combo:
1) Alien from the Fargo/Legion guy on Hulu
2) Andor Season 2 on Disney.
I'm going to look into whether this plan is possible for us, because it would be nice to not double up on Hulu, plus not have ads on her Disney plan. Thanks!
And wait, are you saying Noah Hawley has a new show coming up? (Me shaking my head about being so purposefully out of the loop....clearly some downsides)
Tim,
Have you (or any other readers here) watched the movie Longlegs? I'm usually not a horror genre watcher, but I kept hearing about it, so I gave it a go since I'm on vacation. I'm only 30 min in, but three things have struck me so far: the mood that is established right away, the use of sound, and (most interestingly) the direction (I remember from a previous post you always told your students to ask 'where is the camera and why?'). It's a striking combination of all three components that have created an immersive feel, and it compelled me to (hopefully) get your expert take on what you think about the movie, if you've watched it.
Thanks for all the great posts and contributions from everyone here in the community. I'm an infrequent poster, but an all the time reader, and I appreciate all the great writing and thoughts that I consistently find here (both from Tim and the community)
Cheers!
Hi Jon. Um, Longlegs freaked me the fuck out just seeing the trailer (or part of it, accidentally) but it's not a surprising reaction since I'm really not into scary stuff. KB says she is but she seems to have more jump scares than anyone who actually enjoys the genre, and she didn't go anywhere near it. I wish I could give you a better reaction or review but maybe someone here has seen it -- or post a reply on the next post and see?
Disney+ is far superior in Canada as they provide quite recent FX and Hulu content.
Yes the rest of the world had a completely different Disney+ experience than we do here in the U.S. Sounds like it's more robust for sure, or just a more efficient package because to my knowledge you can't get Hulu as a standalone in many countries
MHz used to have a series on a local public TV station (it wasn't on KQED, but one of its satellite channels) called MHz WorldView which showed foreign mysteries. I remember watching some incredibly violent Nordic noir show, and at one point, the detective was running past a marble sculpture depicting a partially-clad woman, and the breasts were blurred. I haven't tried the MHz streamer, but I hope it was the public TV station, and not MHz itself, which had such an oddly prudish approach to censorship!
Have you looked at PBS Passport? Everything from some long-running series, plus many MHZ and BBC series.
I once tried to get this and was left shaking my head about how difficult PBS seemed to make it. Maybe that's changed.
It's less bad. I do like the foreign language shows in the curated Walter Presents collection. They're not all killers, but there's some gems there. And they tend to be interesting.
I haven't really dived into the documentary archives but there's a ton of that too. Pretty decent value at $5/month (which also counts as a PBS donation).
448176
adding that AppleTv is also expecting the new series from Vince Gilligan ❤️
It seems like they front loaded a bunch of stuff this year so it will be interesting if they have enough new shows to seed the rest of the months...
I'm probably the only one this applies to, but if the criteria for Kanopy and Hoopla is having a US library card, I can't do it because I live outside the US. I would say that's a shame except there are not nearly enough hours in the day to watch everything that's interesting on the platforms that I can and do use: Hulu, Apple, Netflix, Max and MUBI. (recently ditched Prime and Paramount)
Welcome to MUBI. I won't bore you and everyone listing all the films I love that are on MUBI, but I will say two words: Aki Kaurismaki. Almost all of his work is on MUBI, and what a great thing that is.
Ah, well your reasoning is sound and I understand it -- there is SO much to watch and not enough time. And yes, I'm a fan of Kaurismaki so I will dive in! Happy to hear ANY move recs at any time.
Ok, you asked. A partial list and no doubt you’ve seen some of them:
Aftersun
How to Have Sex
First Cow
The Humans
Songs My Brothers Taught Me
An Angel At My Table
Swimming Pool
EO
I’ve watched many things on your recommendation over many years so hoping I can return the favor.
Love this. Have only seen Aftersun, EO, so you already helped (as expected!)
+1 on the non-US audience of Tim. You're not alone in this :D
MUBI's catalog is very thin around here unless I use a fast VPN which is not cheap. And AppleTv is not available at all without VPN.
Where do you live?
Bucharest, Romania
Did not know that! Expanding the international audience here. Woot.
Apple doesn't have a big vault but has had a good run of shows recently. I hope you can get MUBI connection better...
Maybe the best thing that I can say about MUBI and Criterion: if I am unsure whether I will put something on my list, if it is on MUBI or Criterion, I will add it because I respect their curation so much. Others like Amazon, often go in the other direction.
Also, each of them have a page listing everything that is leaving, which is so convenient when trying not to miss anything!
Totally agree on the curation thing and also the "leaving soon" heads up. Very helpful! You can tell *immediately* that Criterion and MUBI love the curation part where for most others it's either a bother or an algorithm or sales pitch that falls short. Places that love their product are the best places...
Yay, I love when we all contemplate this stuff! I will start with the bad news. I am worried about Hoopla and Kanopy. Something happened at some obscure library organization on the federal level. Apparently it was responsible for getting apps like Libby and Hoopla going. And now it might be used for propaganda and also drastically cut? Librarians are sounding the alarm but I don’t quite get how it will affect us. So point being: don’t procrastinate. Use these apps!
I just googled and gulp. It says it will negatively affect rural areas more. But maybe someone else knows more:
https://www.npr.org/2025/03/31/nx-s1-5334415/doge-institute-of-museum-and-library-services
Now to the good stuff! Yes international streaming services are the best. I currently have Acorn, MHz, and Britbox. We have dipped into Tatort on MHz. We watched a couple episodes from the 80s. Called Tatort: Schimanski. It’s very uh 80s. But it is fun to watch with my husband because he can provide insight. One of his weird “fun facts” is the father of the lead actor (who is excellent) was an actor who eventually made propaganda films for the Nazis. He got captured at the end of the war and died in a Soviet camp. The crazy thing is he was a well renowned actor who played during a more enlightened time in German impressionistic films. We watched him on YouTube (not the Nazi stuff). I have to say that story was perhaps more compelling than the show but it was a good history lesson. I am open to more suggestions so I am looking forward to your deep dive. We will probably watch more Tatort but a different iteration.
I am with you 100% on ads. I just can’t. It’s funny you mention Rakuten. They own Kobo which is a rival to Kindle. It’s Canadian. So I have been using their store lately so I don’t have my eggs in one basket.
As for services, I have most of them but I don’t pay for cable or any cable like streaming service. And for now, I am using them. Plus some family sharing. But you’re right that you have to be careful about password sharing crackdowns. I pay for the biggest ones (Amazon (no ads!), Hulu, Netflix) myself.
Fed gov nazi-ism is sucking the joy out of life across all lines. And now they're coming for the libraries? Yeah, let's keep everyone dumb. That certainly tracks with the agenda.
The password crackdown seems erratic but everyone getting better at it. Every time Spotify tells me my "profile" is unfinished I know what they're seeking and just ignore.
Spotify did it a long time ago and, sadly, are very good at it.
I find the issue with streaming subscriptions the same as subscribing to people's patreon, substacks, youtubes, and so on. I mean I love so many things but if I subscribed to everyone I'd be paying 1000's a month. So many great content creators out there but where do I draw the line...
Now if substack or YouTube had like pay one price and pick 4 or 5 people that would make sense...
Right now you are the only one on Substack I invest my money too. Because it is an investment in my entertainment.
I applaud and appreciate this decision and it moved me to type my reply IN MY PHONE and without enough coffee which means thank you!
I'm honored I got a before enough coffee reply from your phone!!!
No cable equivalent service such as YouTube TV? I tried to get rid of YTTV but then I missed the local live sports (SF Giants in my case). It’s pretty annoying to have to pay such a premium for local live sports. Can’t wait for this business model to collapse.
I have had YouTubeTV for a long time and also get the NBC Sports Bay Area app or whatever it is for Warriors and Giants (the G-Men looking like they will be watchable this year). I kept mine because I converted it to the Portland area after getting tons of YouTubeTV geo-blocking (they let you have a "vacation" a couple of times but when you set up shop like I do they eventually say no.)
But now I'm just going to drop it since KB and I are duplicating it and it went up in price. I'll take the risk that I can get all the Warriors games. I never watched any other channel so I wish I could get the Bay Area sports thing as a standalone add-on. I think it might be possible to get it for iOS? Maybe then I could just mirror it to the TV.
Not sure yet, but we're definitely canceling one because of the crossover.
If you are going to be in Portland, mlb.tv should allow you access to Giants baseball (and most everything else). If you wanted to be able to stream Giants games locally, there's a new option this year for $19.99/mo: https://www.mlb.com/live-stream-games/subscribe/giants
I mostly want it for Warriors because despite growing up with baseball being the predominant sport I played, I barely watch it on TV anymore. But I'm excited about the Giants this year. Even foolishly have a bunch of them on my NL only fantasy baseball team!
I also loathe commercials and (happily, I suppose) pay the extra fees for Hulu and Prime to be free from commercials. Yet, I will still watch a hard to track down movie on Tubi if there isn’t an alternative.
I recently re-subscribed to MUBI to watch The Substance, and have stayed to watch The Kingdom. There are fascinating films on MUBI, and there is an authentic spirit of real curation rather than algorithmic list compiling. However, there’s also a bit of low grade tyranny in the forced feeding nature, particularly when tastes sometimes diverge. It’s on par with the subtle tyranny experience of PBS or NPR, where in the main you’re on the same page, and yet desiring more reach and less preach. Just preparing your future soft landing. Yet with the new rules of quitting a streamer whenever makes pruning choices easier.
Time for you to ask Jason Snell about getting a cost effective VPN to ward off getting bumped off a streamer while in Portland.
I was going to recommend MHz on the last post while chiding you on the “thousands of such and such programs”, yet while editing an auto correct typo the entire post disappeared in the Substack app, and I needed to get out the door and couldn’t commit to rewriting. I’ll be curious what series on MHz anyone is raving about. (Pro tip - they occasionally offer a deeply discounted annual membership.)
My streaming choices mirror yours, so I’m not financially outsmarting cable either, although the relative quality is exponentially higher.
"Low grade tyranny"!! Ha.
And I'm sipping my long overdue and much needed coffee this morning when I acknowledged the subtle (?) jab about Jason and the VPN. Noted.
I'm still spending less on streaming than I did on cable by far. And I'm happy to do it even if it were to roughly match up because it's about paying for the channels you never use that bugged me.
Hulu will block you if they detect a VPN, and the block will stick even after you are back at your main address not using VPN.
WHA? Really? Holy shit.
I had to stay at a hotel last year while the landlord was painting my apartment and tested out VPN. I was still local. I was not trying to get around geoblocking. I wanted to test VPN. Hulu blocked that laptop for months. I am no fan of people who use VPN to "game" the system
Glad to see you've embraced MHz Choice. I've been a fan for awhile, in part because they have shows from an amazing range of countries. Where else can you watch TV produced everywhere from Lebanon to Estonia?
I suspect this isn't your type of show, but I am a fan of the German series "Miss Merkel," an odd comedy which recasts retired German chancellor Angela Merkel as a "Murder, She Wrote" style detective.
It certainly was giving off huge MSW vibes in the promo. But yeah, it's kind of astonishing how many countries are actually making quality stuff in comparison to even the recent past for some of them. Big upturn.
My husband and I had fun watching Ms. Merkel. However, I thought it was pretty mediocre in terms of some of the plotting. I am hoping it improves with subsequent seasons. I think there’s more to come.
You have to have the right library card to get Kanopy or Hoopla. My local library doesn't but they noted that I can have more than one library card.
Good to know, Joe. Didn't know this before. I hope you can get one from SF or elsewhere. I know with SF I could fill out it out online but had to go in to get the card. So there was a slight delay. In Portland I just walked in and it was like two minutes. So maybe varies.
I'll probably stop by the Sacramento library next time I'm nearby. I don't get down to SF very often.
Sacramento is probably a good set up, yeah. Apparently some libraries give you a little more access.
Per my brother, the San Jose library gives you lousy Hoopla options and maybe doesn't even have Kanopy
Let's go kick San Jose's ass!
But if he plans it right, he can get the SF Library card. Just fill it out online and next time there's a trip to SF, pull into the main library and knock it out.
Yes, I finally got him to do that about a year ago
If you’re a CA resident, you qualify for a San Francisco Library card.
Thanks
Now that you've discovered MUBI, here are a couple of prime choices for you to consider, that they seem to have permanently: Park Chan-Wook's latest, Decision To Leave; and Lars Von Trier's classic quirkfest The Kingdom.
Good suggestions -- on it. And feel free to keep them coming if you're so inclined.