Netflix vs. Hulu Plus

After spending the full trial amount of time with both Netflix and Hulu Plus (to be fair, Netflix gives you 1 month free trial, whilst Hulu Plus only gives you 7 days, so I had no time to use Netflix), I have to say that the winner is clearly Netflix.

First of all, there was more of what I wanted to see on Netflix, such as the first three seasons of the BBC show Merlin. The regular version of Hulu only has the first two seasons, and the shocker is Hulu Plus doesn't have any. That's right, the version of Hulu that you have to pay for has less content than the free version. Not only that, but the paid version has just as many commercials. One thing Hulu Plus promises is fewer commercials than the free version, and I found that to be untrue.

The only benefit of Hulu Plus is the ability to watch it on tablets and smartphones. Being able to watch it on TV via devices such as Apple TV, Roku, and game consoles is not a benefit because you can just connect a computer to your TV and watch Hulu for free on hulu.com

So why pay for Hulu Plus to watch on your TV instead of just connecting a computer to the TV and watching Hulu for free? Well I don't really know. You get less content and the same amount of commercials.

When searching for shows from the BBC on Hulu Plus, I only found three: Coupling, The Office, and Little Britain. But on Netflix there are dozens more, including Doctor Who, Torchwood, Sherlock, Robin Hood, Miss Marple, Poirot, Rosemary and Thyme, and many others.

As for other countries, there is a lot more anime and foreign films. Not to focus on just shows from other countries, there are a lot more American shows too. More stand-up comedy, and more movies.

Now granted, I always assumed Netflix was better for movies, and Hulu Plus was better for TV shows. But I was wrong, Netflix is better for both. There were a ton more TV Shows available for Netflix that I actually wanted to see. I only discovered Robin Hood (the BBC show) the last day of my Netflix trial, and was disappointed to discover Hulu Plus doesn't have it.

So to summarize, if you're deciding which one to pay for, Netflix wins by a mile!

Why I love the BBC show Torchwood

Torchwood is a great show for many reasons, most of which is the shows exploration of human sexuality. Too often people fear what they can't categorize, so they put labels on things. Nothing was born with a label, it is people that decided to call dogs "dog" and cats "cat" and it was people that invented the words heterosexual, homosexual, and bisexual. Torchwood doesn't use labels; Ianto doesn’t call himself bisexual, he just is who he is. No one on the show uses such labeles because it’s not natural. These labels weren't used until recently in human history. If you were to go back in time to the ancient Greek and ancient Roman empires, homosexual behavior is commonplace. No where in the ancient texts is that label used though, instead it's called "love." Man on man love, or man on boy love, are two terms often used in those texts to describe the actions. The only rule regarding this act in ancient Greece was that once you were married all other actions had to stop. This is something that should still be practiced, once you're married stop having affairs. In these days you hear all too often about married men and women cheating on each other. And they call this being civilized? I don't even know why people get into relationships if they want more than one partner, just stay single.

Torchwood recognizes that sexual attractions can’t have rules; you can't tell someone "don’t be attracted to that person, they are the same gender as you." The show breaks down the artificial barriers that the fearful put up around human sexuality, and reinforces that this kind of behavior is normal; just as it has been for thousands of years before a group of hateful narrow-minded people decided to put a taboo on it.

FOX movies now stream on iCloud

I noticed today something new on my Apple TV, FOX movies that I previously purchased via iTunes. So now the last of the hold outs is finally on board with iCloud movie streaming. Unfortunately, one of my movies from FOX isn't visible Family Guy Presents Blue Harvest – the first of three Family Guy Star Wars parodies.