Post by David Pierce. Find me on Twitter.
I’m a senior in college, and for the first time since I was about 6, I don’t have cable TV. Who knows why: some combination of cheapness, laziness, and some subconscious desire to actually do productive things sometimes. If you know me, you know that’s a bit of a problem: I have approximately 59 shows I must watch every week always, or people start losing limbs.
Believe it or not, though, I don’t miss cable. Thanks to these seven websites, I can waste every bit as much time watching TV, and never (ever) miss an episode of my favorite shows.
Here’s where I get my fix:
ABC, CBS, NBC and many other networks all have their own websites, where they put up recent episodes of most of their shows. The upside of these sites is that they’re usually the first to have the show, it’s usually great quality, and it’s a decent way to support the shows you like. The downsides: the websites are usually ridiculously slow, and you’ll probably see a lot of ads.
Unless your favorite show is on CBS, it’s probably on Hulu. Hulu’s got deals with most major networks, meaning the shows it has are good quality, and they’re supporting the show and network. Hulu’s also an excellent website, and full of content—it’s where I look first for any show I want to watch.
Fancast is a lot like Hulu—except nobody knows about it. It’s a Comcast website, and has a huge number of TV shows and movies for you to watch—including CBS, for some reason. There’s basically no difference between Fancast and Hulu, except the Hulu interface is better and the videos are slightly higher quality. Between the two, odds are great you’re going to find what you’re looking for.
Justin.tv is tough to navigate, but awesome when you get it working. I can’t tell you a lot about it, because I only really use it for one thing: live sports. Sports were, for a while, the only reason I still had cable, but now I can mostly do without it. When there’s a game on that I can’t get on TV, odds are great that someone’s streaming it on Justin.tv—just search for what you’re looking for, and enjoy!
SideReel’s a combination of information, reviews, and discussion about TV shows, all alongside links to episodes. No videos are actually hosted by SideReel—it just keeps links out to tons of shows and movies, including every episode, ever, from a lot of TV shows. It’ll often point you to slow, crappy-looking videos, but it’s as complete a database as I’ve found, and works great in a pinch, even offering links to buy from Amazon or iTunes if you’re really in need.
Surf The Channel’s basically the same as SideReel, except it’s better at letting you pick which site you want to go to, and prioritizing the best ones. If the episode’s available on Hulu, STC will tell you to go there first—it also indexes the network websites and a few others, meaning its got an enormous world to search through for episodes of your favorite shows.
South Park Studios does only one thing, and does it mind-blowingly wonderfully: it plays South Park episodes. Every single one. From every season. In all their poorly-drawn glory. I’m just getting into South Park recently, and I can safely say it’s the greatest thing in the history of the universe. No exaggeration.
Where do you watch TV or movies online? Movies, in particular, are harder to find for free—where do you look?
