Hidden Feathers of Peacock TV

Well, it’s here. And the “premium” version is free with Comcast’s free Flex box. Peacock TV is NBC Universal’s streaming service, like we needed another one. Getting rid of most ads requires “premium plus,” an additional $5/mo.

It does have some interesting original content, though. For my part, I’m starting with Brave New World.

To clarify the pricing:

  • The Free version is ad-supported but lacks some content.
  • The $5/mo "Premium" version (free for Comcast subscribers) is ad-supported and includes all content, including Peacock original content.
  • For $10/mo ($5/mo for Comcast subscribers), "Premium Plus," you get mostly ad-free viewing and all content. "Mostly" ad-free because like Hulu, a few media licenses don't allow ad-free viewing. Agents of Shield is one example. I'm guessing the reason for that is to encourage digital or Blu-ray sales of that stuff, since that's the only way you'd be able to see it without ads.

Sadly, NBC Universal is not promoting this service with the Katy Perry song.

Haven’t started Brave New World yet, but looking forward to it.

Instead I’ve been watching the greatest show of all time: Below Deck

That 30 Rock special though... Oof. It had its moments, but it was one big commercial for NBC. We stuck it out, but it got painful near the end.

Downloaded it expressly for the Psych movie. Honestly I didn’t even poke around to see what else is available.

Same, though my partner noticed they had Johnny Carson and we spent a couple hours watching that. It was weird and problematic.

An article I saw last week said if you sign up through the Android app you get the $5 version for free through October. So planning to try that.

Looks like Saved by the Bell is delayed. Bah.

ruhk wrote:

Same, though my partner noticed they had Johnny Carson and we spent a couple hours watching that. It was weird and problematic.

You can never go back, can you. I'd be afraid to watch The Honeymooners or I Love Lucy, and they were among the tamest comedies on B&W TV. Well, I guess Leave it to Beaver was probably tamer, but that was cringey even in the 70s.

Those two are great. I would probably watch pretty much anything with them in it.

Did finally sign up for the free few months of premium from Android.

Annoying they are in a fight with both Roku and Amazon, my two main streaming devices. Luckily my PS4 works well enough so I finally watched a little bit tonight.

The live news, sports, and other channels are interesting.

Lots of classic shows. Put 21 Jump Street in the watchlist but we'll see if I get around to it. As usual they seem to be continuing the same dumb network deals with some recent TV. For instance, This Is Us only has the most recent 5 episodes available.

But mostly it looks like a decent amount of shows and movies.

Might watch Howard the Duck because why not?

Brave New World is the only original I think I want to watch so far.

I'll try to check in after the weekend and actually watching something to say how bad the premium commercials are. I know we immediately upgraded Hulu back when we first tried it. After one 30 min episode of TV it was worth it to kill the ads. Hopefully this is a little better but we'll see.

We watched Sit In last night. Fantastic documentary on the week that Johnny Carson let Harry Belafonte host the Tonight Show for a week in Feb 1968. Dr King, RFK, Aretha, and so on... so many great guests.

And of course NBC only has tapes for 2 of the nights saved. They reused tape back then and recorded over. Ugh.

Also we're on the middle plan (free months from Android). It showed a 2 min commercial at the start, then none during the show. So that was nice.

Stele wrote:

And of course NBC only has tapes for 2 of the nights saved. They reused tape back then and recorded over.

That is criminal.

I'll have to check those out!

Larry Wilmore has a political talk show called Wilmore. I really like him and was bummed when his Daily Show “spin-off” got cancelled.

Also, don’t forget that Peacock has every season of Below Deck, the best show of all time.

Looks like they got the Roku mess worked out and is now streaming on those devices.

Is it on the Amazons yet? I wanna watch Wilmore so badly.

Hitmen is a great comedy that is of course a bit dark given the subject matter but also largely goofy.

The Amber Ruffin show premieres tomorrow, Friday, Sep 25, 2020 on Peacock!

WHAT?!

What.

If you don’t know who Amber Ruffin is, just watch. You’ll be glad you did.

Yeah pretty excited. Her skits on Seth Meyers are some of the best.

Saved by the Bell day is finally here!

Looks like they dropped all 10 eps at once. Can get to it this weekend.

My wife and I started watching Sliders the other day.
I never saw more than 3-4 episodes but she is a huge fan so off we go!

I loved loved loved Sliders! For a couple seasons at least

Sliders started airing on the Comet channel, one of those OTA channels I get on the antenna *-3 or whatever. Same channel that shows BSG and Quantum Leap reruns. I watched the pilot and it was pretty good. Then I read about the show a bit. And it seems they had a lot of cast and creative team churn over the seasons, lots of people in and out and back in, and it just sounded like a big mess that wasn't worth my time, especially with commercials. Oh well.

Antichulius wrote:

I loved loved loved Sliders! For a couple seasons at least :)

I know right, those tiny hamburgers are great.

I watched all of Sliders a decade ago after I was bedridden for a week following an accident. It’s pretty good for an older show but it’s definitely formulaic and sharply goes downhill after the first couple seasons.

Just saw this thread existed. I posted on one of the other TV threads earlier this year, but I watched all of Brave New World and loved it (if you're stuck at first, wait until everyone is in the same place, which I think is by the third episode?). I especially was wowed by Alden Ehrenreich's performance, which I thought was really fun and helped me understand why people thought he could play Han Solo.

I also gave a try to Yellowstone, as I have heard it is some surprising hit, but through two or three episodes, I was not especially impressed. It felt very paint-by-numbers anti-hero drama to me. I may go back to it at some point--I can see it working as a show I put on in the background of other stuff and plow through despite not loving--but I hope it gets more fun and/or surprising.

We just binged Girls5eva and enjoyed it. It's about a late 90's girl group that tries to get back together. It's from the same creator as Kimmy Schmidt and produced by Tina Fey. It has a very similar feel as Kimmy Schmidt and even 30 Rock, but we did not enjoy it quite as much as those. Still, it has some sharp writing and some big laughs. I hope it gets a second season.

Also, don’t forget that Peacock has every season of Below Deck, the best show of all time.

I heard really good things about Girls5eva and it's definitely on the list of shows my wife and I will get to together. Looking forward to it!

On a random whim the other day, I decided to watch an episode of Battlestar Galactica, the first episode of the series after the miniseries. Did it always look this bad? The CG is what it is, and mostly looks pretty good, I'm more talking about the lighting and overall look of the show. In particular scenes in the fighter bay area where Starbuck and Apollo are arguing and the Chief and the maintenance crew are working had this weird graininess to it and really bright, washed-out color. I'm genuinely unsure if it was my internet connection (I don't think so, the people at least looked more or less normal?), or an attribute of the version of the show as it exists on Peacock, or if it's just how the show always looked and because it's been, eep, a decade and a half or so, I just hadn't realized how much better stuff looks now than it used to. Still, I loved that show, and am tempted to re-watch it...I saw so many faces that made me go "oh!!! that person!" It's been so long!

The songs in Girl5eva were great too. The lyrics are hilarious.

Short notice, but I just read that the Eurovision finals are on Peacock.

First Semi-Final: Tuesday, 18 May, 2021, 3:00 ET
Second Semi-Final: Thursday, 20 May, 2021, 3:00 ET
Grand Final: Saturday, 22 May, 2021, 3:00 ET

They'll be on demand as well afterward the live broadcast.

I really, really wanted to like Intergalactic.

https://www.peacocktv.com/watch/asse...

The cast is good, the special effects are decent considering the budget. The overall story seems somewhat interesting.

But there are just so, so many really stupid writing decisions that keep stacking up I had to give up halfway through the season.

Not like, a character is dumb, so the character does something stupid (which would be in character). More like, characters sometimes behave inexplicably or end up in situations that make no sense/are silly because they obviously wanted a plot point there and couldn't think of a better option.

I think why I stuck with it for as long as I did is you can see the potential for a much better show beneath all of that.

The type of bad writing that bugs me:

A character is diving (as in underwater) and she gets her leg caught on a hook. Not a fishing hook. Just like an "S" hook used for, I dunno, car straps and the like. Instead of just... reaching down an unhooking it, or let's say, showing the character panicking and maybe not thinking of that she just keeps... swimming up? Like nothing's wrong until she passes out?

The point being the entire scenario exists purely to give another character a chance to overcome their fear of water and save them.

Or, they murder a guard, and it's supposed to be a big deal, except 10 minutes later they're murdering LOTS of guards, making that entire scene seem kinda pointless? Kind of like video game logic where you kill lots of people in the gameplay itself, but then one specific person dies in a cutscene and it's supposed to matter more.

Or, the super top of their class competent cop gets her ass handed to her by a random scientist, who she AMBUSHED FROM BEHIND, so that another character has the opportunity to save her.

Or, with all the near infinite reasons to injure a character/render them sickly, a SPACE SPIDER bite, Spider-man style, is obviously the way to go. Even though they were JUST in a secret lab full of random creatures and syringes and sharp thingies and who knows what. So that, you guessed it, everyone has an excuse to save that character again.

And that's not even counting the shoe-horned romance sub-plots.

Each instance by itself doesn't seem that bad but the show just piles them on one after the other, choosing the sillier/dumber option almost every chance it gets.

If it was JUST a bad show, I wouldn't feel as frustrated. But if that stuff had been caught/fixed/written better to begin with, it'd be something decent, and maybe even special. You can constantly see echoes of a better show as often as you head desk all its dumb writing decisions.

If you're really hurting for some sci-fi, give it a chance, maybe those types of things won't bother you as much as they did me. But I ended up walking away really disappointed.

I'm enjoying rewatching Warehouse 13. There's a crossover episode with Fargo from the Eureka series, but there's also a couple one-off episodes with actors from Eureka playing completely different characters on Warehouse 13 I never noticed the first time (since I watched Eureka second). Like Jo and Zane from Eureka guest as a gambling couple in one episode.

There's a show called "We Are Lady Parts" that looks good, that I might try next:

Also Rutherford Falls

Don’t sleep on Resident Alien. It’s brilliant. Two seasons are available.

It’s about an alien who was sent to destroy humanity but crash lands on Earth and disguises himself as a human. It stars Alan Tudyk.

PaladinTom wrote:

Don’t sleep on Resident Alien. It’s brilliant. Two seasons are available.

It’s about an alien who was sent to destroy humanity but crash lands on Earth and disguises himself as a human. It stars Alan Tudyk.

Seconded, Resident Alien is god damned fantastic. Tudyk is amazing, but like, EVERYONE is amazing on that show.