Hulu Plus Review

Twenty-four hours into my Hulu Plus experience and I've got some thoughts about this $7.99 service.

Having every season of Saturday Night Live at the click of a button is priceless and worth the fee all by itself. I've already skipped around to some of my favorite episodes and sketches including the Garth Brooks episode where Will Ferrell plays the devil (Fred's Slacks is a winner!). I've already added a whole list of other seasons to the que which makes my old VHS recordings obsolete. Keep in mind that Hulu is a joint venture of FOX, NBC, and ABC so for Hulu to make sense for anyone you'll have to be a dedicated fan of at least one show from one of those networks and not own a DVR. I don't have cable or a DVR so being able to watch The Office, Parks & Recreation, Community, The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, and Saturday Night Live at my leisure is convenient times a thousand. I've yet to explore the full length movie options so I guess this isn't a complete review of Hulu Plus but I noticed that the first twelve features in Most Popular Movies included only one title that I recognized: Super Size Me.

There are only two complaints I have thus far: commercials and content overlapping. Commercials for a paid service will take some getting used to thanks to Netflix. And speaking of the big N, a lot of people want to know if Hulu Plus is worth it if you already have Netflix. It all depends on what you watch or how much you're spending now. Spending $16 on both paid services is still only 25% of what I used to pay for DirecTV without HD or a DVR. That said, if you've had Netflix for over a year then you may have already watched some of your favorite TV shows which is a drag. Netflix has Parks & Recreation through season 2 and Hulu has all seasons and the new episodes. Netflix has every season of Buffy The Vampire Slayer and X-Files, but so does Hulu. Content overlapping won't justify spending $8 so if you're not dedicated to any new show from those big three networks then you should skip Hulu Plus for now. Also, when I tried to watch The Simpsons via Hulu on XBOX I was pissed. Not only does it have an "Online Only" disclaimer but the disclaimer is even more misleading because when you go online they don't have all the seasons uploaded like you would expect.

Kinks aside, I love Hulu Plus. There are so many hours of new programming that I can't miss and old favorites that I want to revisit. I'd recommend it to anyone who lives cable-free and has a remote interest in any new television show from those three networks.