Photo-Illustration: Photo-Illustration by Vulture; Photos by CW, CBS and HGTV During the pandemic, I finally bought a television. Maybe you did too. It’s not that I didn’t watch things constantly prior to this — “I don’t own a TV” went from just a snobbish thing to say to a diagnosable marker for sociopathy years ago — but co-workers who review content for a living declared it unthinkable that I watched everything on my 13-inch laptop screen.
It’s also free. That’s the part that feels like it comes with a catch. It’s ad-supported, but commercials only add to the verisimilitude of the cable-adjacent experience. Pluto’s ads strike a middle ground between the repetition you find on Hulu or YouTube and local spots that aren’t far off from what you’d expect on cable, including plenty of campaign spots for the New York City mayoral race. And I, for one, welcome those ad breaks during my Survivor: Cook Islands marathons.
There are plenty of comforting obscurities that lend themselves to background viewing, too. There’s an entire channel dedicated just to Tiny House Nation. Another only has shows about wedding cakes and wedding dresses. Do you know how many reality shows are made about backcountry fishing? More than you’d think. At the rate other streamers release new, buzzy series, you can feel constantly pressured to keep up with a bunch of original programming that’s really only a 6 out of 10 at best.
There are close to 20 separate classic TV channels, including one that plays wall-to-wall Carol Burnett Show, and a TV Land feed where I’ve personally been watching Designing Women all day to educate myself about the Complete Unabridged Works of Jean Smart. This isn’t just a free substitute for cable, it’s possibly an improvement: There are four separate niche MTV channels on here, and all of them have music videos and a much-needed lack of Ridiculousness. .
ralter I use Pluto frequently. It's got cool programming that I can't find elsewhere in a live TV format.
ralter You know Gawker would have its own streaming service if it still existed.
ralter I have lived long enough to reach the point where people think a website that mimics 100 old low-budget UHF stations is strange and weird and new.
ralter Shhhh. I have been. It's a blast. They need classic cartoons like (Bugs Bunny etc) on there too. Maybe it's there, I have not across it.
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