Tag: The Offer

Cutting the Cable

We finally ditched cable. I guess technically, we still have internet through Xfinity, but we had to dump it. The promotional deal was done and our monthly bill jumped up to $170. It was time.

90% of the stuff we watch is on Netflix or Disney Plus, so we decided to keep the internet and stream. We got the unlimited data plan and cut our bill down A LOT!

Our old TV was a Roku TV, but when it died, we just got a smart TV. So I ran up and bought the cheap Roku set up from Walmart and in a matter of minutes, we were all set to go.

Naturally, the Roku set up comes with a bunch of the streaming apps all ready to go. Sam knew that Paramount Plus had all the Nick Jr. shows that the kids watched and she paid to get that every month. They have just about everything on there, including shows I watched with my older boys that they are just discovering.

I’ve been thinking of getting Paramount Plus ever since they made that series “The Offer” about the making of the Godfather. I just never knew what else they had. After scrolling a bit today, I cannot wait to check out some new stuff and some classics!

  • The Andy Griffith Show
  • Chappelle’s Show
  • Dexter
  • Gunsmoke
  • Hawaii Five O (the original)
  • I Love Lucy
  • Key & Peele
  • The Love Boat
  • Mission: Impossible
  • Perry Mason
  • Reno 911
  • Star Trek (and the many spinoffs)
  • Taxi
  • The Twilight Zone
  • You Can’t Do That On Television

…and SO much more! There are a lot of original shows on there as well as musical stuff. Yeah, I’m kind of excited.

Brief Update

I have been reading more over the last few months. As a matter of fact, I’ve probably read more books in the last 6 months than I did all last year. I just finished up another one from Anthony Horowitz. He has earned a spot on my list of “must read” authors.

I went through my “want to read” list on Good Reads and requested a few more from the library. I am currently reading a fascinating book from Patricia Cornwell on Jack the Ripper.

She wrote it back in 2002 and I think I found this at a used book store a few years ago. When I ran out of books from the library, I went to my home “to read” stack and picked this one off the top. I don’t know much about the Jack the Ripper murders, but this book seems to line up with a PBS special I saw a few years ago.

I also got my hands on a DVD copy of The Offer, which was a mini-series that streamed on Paramount+.

If you know anything about me, you know how much I love the Godfather movies. This is the behind the scenes story of how the Godfather went from a best selling book to the amazing award winning film. I haven’t gotten far, but I did get one episode in. I can’t wait to finish this.

On the Horizon …

  • I think I have decided on a topic for a “feature” I want to host. It will probably involve childhood Saturday mornings …
  • I recently finished up my post for Dave’s (A Sound Day) Turntable Talk. It involves a childhood musical memory.
  • I have been wanting to write on something for a while and I’ve decided that my brother is the perfect person to help me with it. That will be coming soon.

Have a great day!

Too Many Streams

Money hungry. That’s what they are. Money hungry.

I remember a time when we had Netflix and Hulu and that gave us pretty much every thing we needed to watch movies and TV shows. That’s not the case today. So many “parent companies” are pulling stuff off Netflix to add to their own streaming platform and quite frankly, it ticks me off.

All the NBC shows are now on Peacock, all Star Wars, Pixar and Disney is on Disney +, and so on and so forth. We’ll guess what? I’m not paying for all of them! We’re barely getting by with all of the inflation, gas prices, and life in general! I cannot afford $20 a month here and $15 a month there. The cable bill alone is high enough! To add more streaming services would put us in one big financial hole!

What really angers me is that there are things that I would LOVE to watch, but can’t because there is no way to justify paying for another streaming service. Paramount + has The Offer, a series about the making of the Godfather. I would love to see it. HBO Max has the new Christmas Story movie, which I hear is great! My list goes on and on. I just cannot in good conscience pay for something that I will only use to watch one or two shows.

The TV shows I would binge watch, well, many of them I have on DVD. I can pop them in whenever I want to. It seems to be more worth buying them outright at $40 and watching them for years that to pay $20 a month and maybe not even get the chance to watch them. And when you have them on DVD, you get the bonus features that don’t show up on streaming.

Actor Jack Palance once said, “The only two things you can really depend upon are gravity and greed.” The fact that there are almost as many streaming services as there are cable channels makes me sick. I’m sorry greedy streaming company – you aren’t getting my money every month.

I suppose I will hope that the one or two things I want to watch on their platform will end up on DVD soon …

Rant over.