Netflix
If you asked 100 people to name their favourite Prime, chances are you’d get a lot of Optimuses and Miss Jean Brodies before anyone mentioned Amazon. That’s the branding problem facing Amazon Instant Video. It’s marketed as a treat, the cherry on top once you finally acquiesce to the will of our corporate overlords and cough up for permanent next-day delivery. But that makes it seem like a pay-as-you-go bolt-on, whereas Netflix – mighty, algorithm-powered Netflix – is entirely focused on doing one thing, and doing it well.
Both services rely on permeable back catalogues that often feel like a million different versions of the same low-budget assassin movie starring John Cusack. But the battleground of the future is original content, and Netflix is making the most daring moves. What’s that? Amazon just fast-tracked another round of pilots? Big wow: Netflix is gifting the world a full-blown Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon movie sequel later this year, while also slinging the Wachowskis enough cash to make Sense8, the globe-spanning sci-fi show of their dreams.
Netflix has Daredevil and four other gritty Marvel series in the pipeline, plus a new season of Orange Is The New Black that ditches Jason Biggs, perhaps the ultimate example of tailored content. Sure, the opposition has current critical champ Transparent but House Of Cards blazed that particular Emmy-winning trail. Amazon Instant Video’s securing of the UK rights for epic romance Outlander is a decent scalp. But as with all its imports, what happens when the DVD drops? Will you still be able to access shows for free (as with Vikings) or will Amazon quietly drop the streaming and nudge you towards buying the Blu-ray (as it’s done with sci-fi show Extant)? The fate of Netflix isn’t entwined with a gigantic sales operation, so you can enjoy an ad-free experience for seven quid a month, in HD. S’all good, man.
GV
Amazon
Everyone you ask will always say the same thing: Netflix’s selection of films, generally speaking, is a bit pants. And that’s fine. The best of us have weaknesses. But Amazon’s varied roster is an alternative: an alternative to spaffing away another spiritually disastrous hour trawling Netflix’s logic-free menus. An alternative to the titting Hobbit. An alternative to recommendations that must actually be taking the piss out of you. Plus, unlike Netflix, Amazon’s sensible categorisation means that finding something to watch isn’t like running around a car park trying to grab a raffle ticket from the beak of a petrified hen. There’s also a Sky Box Office-ey option to rent recently released titles; a nice choice to have, even if your white-knuckled tightfistedness will definitely mean you never use it.
Then there’s these rival services’ TV offerings. House Of Cards? Can we all just admit once and for all that it isn’t that good? Kevin Spacey always wins by being a dick. Every episode. There’s more variety in the ways a dog brings back a stick. The same goes for Orange Is The New Black: trite, self-righteous thunderguff. What’s that? In this episode you learn about someone’s past and realise they’re not really that bad after all? OH GREAT! WASN’T EXPECTING THAT. Amazon’s superb, life-affirming dramedy Transparent is better by every conceivable measure, including height.
That’s not all: Black Sails is The Sopranos of the seas; Vikings is Game Of Thrones for people who have read a book besides Game Of Thrones; Ripper Street – rescued by Amazon after the Beeb cancelled it – is superb for many reasons, at least nine of which are Jerome Flynn. Amazon has a bulging library of the best shows you’ve never seen. And there’s pilot season, where you – yes, you – get a say in the programmes that are given a full series. That’s actually a brilliant idea. A new way of doing things. It’s this sort of thinking that will hopefully – nay, surely – see Amazon win the streaming wars.
LH
Netflix is £5.99-£8.99 a month; Amazon Instant Video is £5.99 or free to users of Amazon Prime (£79 a year)
