Netflix Update Newbies: Instant "Glee," "Twin Peaks," + 6 More

I'm breaking my April Fool's Day promise. Sorry, but I got news just good enough to bump my finished "The Craft" review to next week. I also didn't want to hold this info off for too long. To make up for it, I'll have 3700 words worth of "I'm sorry" going up just after midnight.

Netflix made a deal with Fox and the hyper-popular "Glee" is on Instant Viewing; only the first season, but there's much more honey in this pot, so to speak: seasons 1 & 2 of "Sons of Anarchy" are online as well; all of "Ally MacBeal," too. [I'm amazed that Flockheart has great legs on the S1 DVD cover - she gets skinnier as it goes on, right?]

Oddly enough, the same announcement also claimed "The Wonder Years" as an addition. A search of the site only shows the first season, though, which isn't available for standard rental, either. I've never seen any of these series, but I've been tracking this news... And "SoA" is supposed to be very good...

There's more, of course: you can add "Twin Peaks" to the list of multi-season shows with one page. I announced 5 weeks ago that David Lynch's obscurist masterpiece would be up for streaming as part of a big deal with CBS. Now that April is here, the streaming rights belong to Netflix. I'm glad about it, as I'll be able to watch "TP" for the 1st time; I won't even have to wait for all 10 DVDs to ship...

It's odd, but only some of the shows acquired in that deal have become available. The "Andy Griffith Show" is up, but it's spread out over 8 pages, not 1. "Flashpoint," though, got the deluxe package; so did "Cheers," "Medium," and "Hawaii Five-O." On the other hand, only parts of "Frasier," "Family Ties," "Star Trek," or "The Twilight Zone" are even available for offline rental. Of course, I don't know if I'll ever watch any of them, aside from "tTZ."

This brings the tally of one-show, one page entries to 18. I don't know why the series are going up piecemeal, or why only some came with the improved browsing options. It's not important, of course, but if I don't track the news I posted two months ago, who will?...

Also, in fresh-off-the-net news, Netflix announced this morning that they've made deals with Viz Media and Funimation Entertainment. This one will bring a wealth of new Anime (TV, not movies, sigh) to their streaming selection. I've written before that I don't care for TV-Anime, but I'm listing the titles anyhow: Bleach, Naruto, Inuyasha, Afro Samurai, Fullmetal Alchemist, Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood, Sekirei, and Trigun. 

The article about these two deals notes that the many more shows have been acquired from each animation company. All of them are available, even if several also still have stand-alone pages for DVD sets. Further still, movies based on these series were not included in the deal.

What's even more strange is that Inuyasha, Fullmetal Alchemist, and Bleach have all their episodes on one page. Yet none of these received the kind of fancy options given to "Twin Peaks" and "Flashpoint" above. As far as the website is concerned, there simply are no seasons. "Inuyasha" has 167 episodes on its page, "Bleach" lists 109, and "FA" boasts 51 eps. It makes for extremely long pages, and it's a little awkward to navigate.

And, since I'm mentioning strange things: "Inuyasha" had a 26-episode series that completed its massive story. Well, it wasn't part of this mammoth deal; that series doesn't even register on searches. It's especially funny, as Hulu has both "Inuyasha" and "Inuyasha: The Final Act," and you don't even need Hulu Plus to watch all of each of them. I believe much of the Anime mentioned here is also available on Hulu, again without a Hulu Plus subscription.

This deal does bring a lot of new content to Netflix. They get bonus points for showing these series with subtitles. But unlike the other deals I've discussed today, it doesn't really set the company apart. They're just "tied" with Hulu in terms of Anime offerings. It's only "sort of" a tie, too, as Hulu has 220 episodes of "Bleach" and offers both subtitled and dubbed versions of many Japanese animated series...

I wanted to catch you up on this now, as I have a slew reviews, articles, and recommendations coming soon. I'm also sure lots of folks will take advantage of "Twin Peaks" availability; I will. I'll keep plugging hidden gems among the Netflix library - and Hulu, as well, when I get the chance.

I hope this little update was helpful. It started out around 400 words and it doubled in length. If this was all just balderdash to you, I've got 7 Reviews coming up in about 15 hours. I hope those will be entertaining and useful, even if this wasn't. And, by the by, you should feel quite silly for calling something "balderdash..."