"Adventures in Streaming” is a new segment in which I cover the failings and triumphs of different streaming platforms.
Pluto TV is free. This is what the ViacomCBS-owned streaming company seems to think is its selling feature, but if you even halfway know your way around an Apple TV you know this isn’t entirely unique. Crackle, Peacock, and Vudu all promise the same thing, so long as you’re willing to fork over the patience it takes to sit through commercial breaks in 2021. Thankfully for PTV, though, it has something else to offer, though it may take a moment to adjust.
Upon opening Pluto TV on your laptop, you may be surprised to note that you’ve dropped straight into a cable TV menu. A TV show has immediately begun to play in front of you. On first glance your mind might fill in the blanks, assuming these channels to be the same basic offerings you’d find listed on a laminated sheet of cardstock in a motel room’s nightstand. Yes, some of them are, but look a little closer and you’ll see that just as many are in fact plainly named for the genres or shows they offer. There’s “stand up” and “romance,” then a channel for Hell’s Kitchen and Beverly Hills 90210.
There’s nothing new about a streamer sorting their offerings by genre, but its assumption that you’d be happy to drop into the middle of some random episode, or hell, even schedule an evening around the airing of Johnny Carson, offers an antiquated comfort. In its pure dismissal of what exactly a streaming service is supposed to look like, Pluto TV has managed to conjure up originality in an overcrowded market.
Along with the “Live TV” section, Pluto TV offers TV and movies “On Demand.” The title of the section may lead you to believe it will resemble something closer to the streaming experience we’ve grown used to. While I do admit it’s closer to the UX of Netflix, it’s PVR-era-reminiscent wording (“On Demand” is palpably 2008 to me) should be an indication that its not much different.
It’s impossible to filter On Demand purely by TV or movie. Looking for a search bar? There is none. ViacomCBS almost seems to have ensured that the streamer be as confusing as possible to navigate. Even on Apple TV, it has plenty on inconveniences: the Live TV consistently pops up to interrupt your browsing, for instance. Certainly they must be conspiring to turn us against streaming, “See how much easier it is if you just let us make the choices for you?”
The TV shows and movies offered by PTV are similarly antiquated. If you’re craving Mystic Pizza, Three’s Company or The Carol Burnett Show (which I certainly am, at times), they’ve got it. Plenty more where that came from, so long as you’re willing to manually sift through it all.
When I first discovered Pluto TV I would attempt to put myself to sleep to it, play-acting the childhood nights when I would “accidentally” fall asleep while my mom watched CSI, ER, or whatever else was airing on CTV that night. It was a relief to be out of control, but it became clear the joy of the experience was fleeting. The Pluto TV experience is no different from the frustration of purchasing a cassette only to realize you’ll need to get up to flip it and worry about it wearing it out. You’ll remember the reason why we moved on, but this doesn’t lessen any of the warmth you get from reminiscing.
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