Orange is the New Black Links

My sister just started watching “Orange is the New Black” and so I have no choice but to sit through all the episodes…not that I mind! I love the show and I jumped at the chance to rewatch the series! I’ve also been doing plenty of research on the show (and by that I mean reading every online article ever) and here are some of my favorites:

A Guide to the Characters of Orange is the New Black:
http://www.buzzfeed.com/louispeitzman/a-guide-to-the-cast-of-orange-is-the-new-black

23 Surprising Facts about Orange is the New Black:
http://www.buzzfeed.com/lyapalater/surprising-facts-about-orange-is-the-new-black
My personal favorites: Yoga Jones was the voice of Patty Mayonnaise. Laverne Cox’s (Sophia) real-life twin brother played her pre-transition in the flashback sequence in Episode 3…

The actual article written by Larry about his relationship with Piper:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/28/fashion/28Love.html?pagewanted=all&_r=1&

Books of Orange is the New Black – someone actually took the time to document all the books seen/read by the characters!
http://booksofoitnb.tumblr.com/

Have you jumped on the “Orange is the New Black” train yet?

Orange is the New Black

Today was a bit of a gloomy day. It rained a little and I didn’t want to leave the house at all. I spent most of the day in bed, lounging around and doing some reading. I’m almost done with my next book in my 20 book list. I was browsing around on Netflix was taking a look at the Netflix original series and I remembered that I had read something about “Orange is the New Black” and the series was pretty good. I started watching the series last night and at first I had somewhat mixed feelings but now I’m hooked!

“Orange is the New Black” opens with a theme song written by Regina Spektor and photographs of former female prisoners. It’s unlike any other opening I’ve ever seen before and frankly, it made me a bit uncomfortable after finding out they were actual past prisoners but it adds a very real element to the show. The story follows Piper Chapman and her 15-month sentence in prison for carrying a suitcase of drug money. While her story is interesting, what makes the show more compelling is the cast of characters that Piper meets in the prison. The show is told in flashbacks and the present and you find out about the past lives of some of the inmates. Though Piper’s story is more or less a relationship gone wrong, some of the other prisoners have really interesting stories. A familiar face in the cast is Laura Prepon, otherwise known as Donna from "That 70s Show!"

I can’t stop watching and it doesn’t help that the whole season is already on Netflix. Have you watched any of the Netflix Original Series?

http://tvafterdarkonline.com/

More Hulu+ Gripes

As I’ve continued on in my Survivor binge, I’ve discovered more “problems” with Hulu that make it frustrating for me to use. I’ve started using it on my AppleTV (a birthday present that I love!) but it’s difficult to get the streaming across all my devices. I guess my main comparison of the site is to Netflix and its interface but without further ado, here’s part II of my Hulu+ gripes.

Queue feature – I tried to start using Hulu’s queue feature and it’s very confusing and not at all helpful. Unlike Netflix that allows you to add full seasons of shows to your queue, Hulu+ is more geared towards new episodes and whatever is currently playing on TV. This means that the feature only adds new episodes that recently aired and only after you join and log-in. So if I want to add the entirety of season 21 of Survivor, I can’t just add the show to my queue because it’s not newly airing. Instead, I have to individually add each episode of the season into my queue. That’s 15 more clicks of the mouse than I’m willing to do. The closest thing they have to just adding the season is adding the show to my favorites. By adding it to my favorites, I can easily access the show without searching for it and it will save my spot. On my AppleTV, if I finish an episode, however, it won’t know to automatically line up the next one to watch, though it does this on the site.

Browser resize – Hulu doesn’t resize the window for viewing when you change the browser size which makes it so that your window always has to be a certain size. It makes it hard to watch things in the background and make the window smaller so you can work on something else in the foreground.

Device compatibility – After subscribing to Hulu+, you can access your account and stream episodes and movies on several devices, with a caveat, not all the shows can be streamed to your mobile devices (AppleTV included). That means I have to keep track of which shows can be streamed and which ones can’t.

Their show advertising – I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again: those Hulu exclusive shows are irritating. None of the advertisings look even remotely compelling to watch. I don’t know if it’s the way they’re presented or just that I don’t see any familiar faces in them, but I find them just so annoying. I’d rather watch a car ad then these Hulu exclusive shows.

Well, there you have it, Part II of things I wish could change about Hulu. If I could get my Survivor binge elsewhere I would, but for now Hulu+ holds the treasure among the rubble.

I read a great article here about why author Simon Dumenco both loves and hates Hulu and I think he does a pretty good job of explaining the problems. I aspire to write better and this is a great example of an article and less of  paragraph-list like mine.

Hulu+

I recently started subscribing to Hulu+ (ok well my dad did) so I could binge watch old seasons of Survivor. While it only has 5 of the 26 seasons, it’ll hopefully be enough to tide me over until the new season starts.

Unfortunately, I do have some gripes about Hulu+: mostly the ads that still play despite the fact I’m paying $7.99 each month. When I want to binge on a show, I don’t want ads playing and disrupting my flow (do I sound like a terrible rapper?). It’s annoying having the ads play, especially when I’m watching something with suspense. Netflix doesn’t have that problem and I find the experience immensely more enjoyable. Hulu+ also tries to promote its own shows (their Hulu exclusive series) and while I know they need the advertising, it does not make me want to watch them. Perhaps they should’ve waited a bit more before coming up with their own shows.

Additionally, the streaming seems to vary a lot more in terms of buffering speed. If I try to do too many things on my computer and mom is streaming a video as well, the buffering shuts down.

I really shouldn’t complain – having Netflix and Hulu+ means I’m pretty much getting all the TV I need, and probably at an unhealthy rate. But if there was a choice between Netflix and Hulu+, I’d pick Netflix in a heart beat, even though it doesn’t have seasons of Survivor.