Using Netflix’s streaming service to catch-up on certain Joss Whedon created shows?
You’d better hurry up and watch them all.
Come April 1, “Buffy, the Vampire Slayer,” “Angel,” “Firefly” and the first season of “Dollhouse” will no longer be available for streaming according to Whedonesque.
Of course, if you can’t make it through all of “Buffy” by then, you could pick up the entire series on DVD for $69.99 from Amazon. And if you do, Slice of SciFi will get a portion of your purchase to help keep the show and site running.
You can also help pick up the full run of Angel, the DVD or Blu-Ray of Firefly and the DVD or Blu-Ray of “Dollhouse” season one as well.
Buying any of the shows via the links above will help Slice of SciFi out. (And you’ll get copies of some of the best TV of the past twenty years as well….if you don’t already have them as part of your collection, you should.)
That’s no good, I wonder who making the push to pull them, doesn’t seem like Whedon would. Good thing I still have Firefly on DVD.
This, to me, just illustrates one of the huge problems with pushing online streaming. It’s one thing if the online streaming library remains stable and grows over time. It’s quite another when the shows become unavailable at random. Or only certain networks are available on a given cable service, etc. If they continue to push for the elimination of physical DVD/BluRay rentals, it’s just begging people to find alternative means to get the content. Because I’m damn sure people aren’t going to start buying up the DVD sets instead…
If you really love these shows you already own them on real media with all the image quality that comes with them.
I wonder if this only happens for popular shows. I recently looked into Hulu plus, and the shows I was interested in were either not available, or only available through a PC (not the Roku).
That said, I do already own Firefly, and the others I don’t care about, but I think removing them will lessen the chance of bringing in new viewers. As for affecting sales, I think anyone who is a fan of these shows already own the DVDs.
But truthfully, I don’t see how streaming can generate the same income as DVD sales, so if I were looking at it as a business, I might not be inclined to stream my property. Then again, it’s not much different than rental of actual DVDs.
So ultimately I think it comes down to two things . . . first, people who are interested will still buy the DVDs.
Shows that might have a strong following are not likely to be streamed because there is still some money to be made from syndication. In fact, I wonder if the removal of Firefly’s streaming option means they will be available on regular TV more often.
Just wondering.
The contracts that Netflix has with the content owners are for fixed periods of time. That doesn’t mean that these won’t come back onto the streaming service in just a few weeks time. I’ve seen that happen many times before
Here’s a great website for tracking when titles are coming onto and leaving the Netflix streaming service…
http://www.instantwatcher.com
I don’t know why it didn’t occur to me that they’d only make the series available for streaming for a limited time, but it makes sense. There were a couple older movies I’d slated for streaming that I noticed were no longer available for streaming, and I didn’t really think much of it at the time.
Note to self: save up to buy “Firefly” Blu-Ray, just because.
Yeah . . . Legend of the Seeker Season 1 was on instant and it went away. So I started renting the DVDs, and now it’s back on.
Quick note on the Firefly Blu-Ray; I don’t think they are worth it unless they are close to the cost of the regular DVDs. The way the show is filmed, to give it an “old style film” look, means you don’t gain much from the Blue-Ray DVDs.
I bought them hoping the extras would be worth it, but really you don’t get much extra there either. Plus they load slower.
What I usually play are my personal backup copies of the regular DVDs.
Then again someone is sure to extol the virtues of the BR release.
I can’t speak to a direct comparison of DVD vs BluRay but I will say the BluRay looked pretty darn shiny on my 96″ diagonal screen.
Those with smaller screens may not see the differences and there were certainly times when the BluRay was not going to make any difference as was also the case with some of the BSG episodes.
If I still had my DVD set I would mail them to Summer just to get them off the shelf but alas, a family member (my 16 year old niece) saw them and took them home at Christmas).
ALERT! I just checked Amazon and the DVD set is actually $2 MORE than the BluRay set. The BluRay set is $31.99. It’s usually closer to $70. Hope someone sees this in time!
@AndyMac, I have the Firefly DVD, I just want to grab the Blu-Ray set for completist reasons. I don’t even own a device that can play Blu-Ray discs just yet 🙂
Damn, $31.99 for Firefly Blu-Ray at Amazon? Crap, I may have to grab that now instead of waiting…
ps: stop teasing me with your 96″ screen. I may either hurt you… or tie you up, watch a few movies on your TV, then hurt you 😉
well this sucks I was all happy to see FF in the line up (miss it so much) and Prison break because I didn’t get to watch it during its run. and now they are off for me. and that wasn’t even 4 days streaming.
HELLO. THAT’S APRIL FOOLS DAY!
So? Just because it happens to be April 1st doesn’t mean it won’t happen.
Summer, as long as you tie me up in the theater room so I can watch the few movies with you I don’t think I will mind too much.
Hee! Actually, I think things might be okay for now… just recently found out that Netflix has Babylon 5 Seasons 1-5 on Streaming, and I’m told that it’s unlikely those would look great on a screen as large as the toy you’ve got 😉
Wow, I’ve never has a guy tell me it was okay to tie him up…
I want NETFLIX to bring back Legend of the Seeker season 1 & 2 they deserve it with Bridget Regan, Kahlan Amnell Mother Confessor, Craig Horner Richard Cypher/ Rahl the Seeker, Bruce Spence Zeddicu’s Zu’l Zorander, Tabrett Bethell Cara Mason, Craig Parker Darken Rahl, Alison Bruce Sister Verna, & have Emily Foxler as Sister Nicci turn good & help Richard & all his friends I mentioned above & all the other actors & actresses that were in the show were superb the best show I ever seen with such talent. The show has good morals, true love, true friendship, magic, real life situations people can relate to in real life & reminds us of the battle against good & evil. NETFLIX should put Legend of the Seeker season 1 and 2 back also so we can help the show get to season 3 which it deserves. most other shows have bad things in them even grownups should not watch. That is another reason the show should be back on the air. The Legend of the Seeker to help it get to seasons 3,4,5 Save our Seeker
Would it help if I told you that Legend of the Seeker is on Hulu now?
Looks like both seasons are available, but only 21 of the episodes are available for free.
http://www.hulu.com/legend-of-the-seeker