I got the 30 day free trial of Amazon Prime & now you get to read every last detail of my experience

And so it begins...

This is where it begins.  An Amazon account, a TV, a Roku box, and too much time on my hands.

Okay, not really too much time.  I should be writing and doing other stuff.  I'm already wasting time.  Guh.

And so it begins...

Comments

  • Day One, Minute One.

    Wait a fucking second... I thought I was supposed to get the older HBO and Showtime shows for free with my Amazon Prime?  It's telling me I have to have an HBO subscription.  Hey, Amazon, if I had an HBO sub already, why the fuck would I go watch it on HBO?!  I could just watch it on HBO GO.  Stupid.
  • edited December 2016
    Day One, a few minutes later.

    Okay, I'm overwhelmed by the choices.  I choose a movie instead of a tv show.

    I'm picking Mockingjay Part 1.  I'm already lost.  The last thing I saw of these movies was when the Mockingchick... whatshername... she gets captured by a rebel force led by that actor who tragically died not long ago but I really liked him and he was in State & Main and Capote and a lot of great shit.  But the start of this movie is making me think that maybe I started back up with the wrong installment.

    Oh, hey, that dude from House of Cards and also Luke Cage just came on the screen!

    Update:  Okay, I think I'm caught up now.  Movie is, y'know, about what I expected.  But it sure was a clunky start from where the last one left off.
  • Mockingjay's little sister went back for the cat even though the fortress was getting bombed and the shelter doors were about to get sealed.

    "You went back for the stupid cat?!" Mockingjay yells at her sister.
    "I had to!  I couldn't leave the cat behind!  I couldn't live with myself!"

    I totally understand, little sister.  I totally understand.  As far as I'm concerned, the true hero of this movie is the little sister that went back for the cat.

    Amen.
  • Ooh, hey, I can get caught up with some old FX shows.

    Just watched the first episode of Season 4 of Justified.  Happy.

    P.S.  The opening credits, the way they end with that tilt-down shot of a quaint Kentucky downtown?  That's pretty much my view of my Frankfort, KY downtown.

  • Wow, how many Game of Thrones actors are in this Mockingjay movie?

    Oh, and hey, the bad guy in the movie, his last name is Snow!  You know nothing Snow!

    Now I can't recall two sets of their character names.

    Corny but fun movie.  And, actually, this was the kind of movie I used to be able to watch on Netflix, back before Netflix ditched their catalog for a bunch of lame-mediocre original programming.
  • I am probably the last person on the planet to discover this, but Amazon sells all types of stuff that they didn't back in the day.  I mean, you can buy TVs on there and they have this thing called Pantry where you can buy food and shit.  I mean, I knew they weren't just about books and music anymore... it's just that those are the the only two things I ever associated them with and just visually ignored all that other crap that would appear on my screen.  But they just gave me a $5 credit for a Pantry purchase b/c instead of using my Prime 2-day shipping, I choose no-hurry shipping instead.  I took that credit, even though I had no idea what the hell a Pantry credit was.

    Does anybody actually use Pantry?  I'm a really good grocery shopper.  I take advantage of sales and supplement w/digital & paper coupons.  I could see it being helpful if you're a two-job family and very little time to go to the store... especially if you have to lug the rugrats with you.  But I'm solo household now.  Not sure I even need to wander the Pantry aisles.

    Fuck, is there anything I should be looking at on Amazon now that I've got this Prime thing?  I get it free for 30 days, and already I'm thinking I'll cancel before that if nothing else interesting pops up.  When I first began this thread, I thought it was gonna be a strange, neat experience.  Not sure why I thought that.  Kind of like how as a kid you go to the mall thinking it's gonna be this new, cool experience, and then realize that it's just a bunch of fucking stores under the same roof.

    But I have a terrible cold and I'm planted on this sofa until it goes away, so might as well make use of my Prime thing.

    P.S.  They've got a $5 off $15 deal in books.  Just took advantage of that, yessir.  But you don't need to be a Prime member to use it.

    /furniture
  • I'd recommend Man In The High Castle but it may fall under the category of "lame-mediocre original programming" but anyway I really like it.

    Also Amazon usually has a bunch of things I've enjoyed from A24 and Drafthouse, two indie film places that have been doing a lot of interesting things lately; you can look up either and then scan am-prime for what they have. I just finished The Lobster last night which I really enjoyed
  • I actually put that Man in the High Castle in my watch list.  I'll probably give it a try, but (I am completely serious about this) with the presidential election and a bunch of fucking anti-semites and racists getting slotted in senior advisor and cabinet positions, nazis in America is seriously touchy subject for me right now.

    Heard good things about the Lobster from someone else.  Might give that a shot.

    I really dislike the Amazon interface.  It keeps giving me recs for shit I have to pay for, even when I make my setting for Prime free stuff.

    It looks like they have some recent James Bond movies on there.  Those seem like good movies for sitting around the house with a cold.  Ooh, maybe they have some of those Captain America movies... kicking nazi ass.  I think I may have seen the first one.  Hard to remember.  I have literally fallen asleep on so many of those superhero movies, I'm not sure what I've seen anymore.

    It looks like I can use my pantry credit on cat stuff.  May go that route.
  • Oh shoot, I forgot how different the world got since last time I watched that show. What a stupid year.
  • edited December 2016
    This fucking election completely ruined The West Wing for me.  I swear, I think I've watched that series all the way through like a kajillion times.  But watching good people, dedicated to their country in office on that show and knowing that we've got real life degenerates that are putting their wealth, their power and their political future against the good of the country... and to such dangerous levels that it's reached... there's no sense watching anything in politics because it's all just fuckall.  Even a hyper-reality show like House of Cards (which isn't even about politics, per se), why the fuck would I want to see some degenerate in a fictional white house when we've the real thing about to assume office, and he and his mob are so much worse.

    There's so much stuff I'm passing on now, just because reality is so much worse than the fiction these shows and movies are dabbling it.  Guh.
  • I have to say, I did enjoy not having to abide by that $50 minimum for non-Prime members to get the free shipping.  I was able to take advantage of that $5 off $15 in books deals by just buying one book... rather than having to buy a bunch of other stuff and trying to get as close to $50 as possible.  I still don't think that makes it worth the $100/year membership fee, but it's nice while it lasts for the thirty free days.

    Really excited about the purchase.  It's a hardcover deluxe edition of Frank Miller's "Ronin," one of his better, but lesser-known projects.  With the sale price and the $5 coupon and the free shipping, it came to like $12.  Plus I got that $5 Pantry coupon by choosing the no-rush shipping.

    I'm positive there are people out there that are like ninjas at the Amazon Prime shopping thing.  I just don't have the cash or, more to the point, willpower to actually dedicate myself to something like that.  Of course, here I am blogging about the shit, so maybe I'm underselling my ability to immerse myself in the "Amazon Experience.tm"

  • I thought about using Prime Pantry last year when I broke my leg and wasn't able to drive myself around for a while, but that only lasted a couple of weeks because it was my left leg and I have a car with automatic transmission. I've ordered things like steak sauce, salad dressing and fancy nuts from Amazon, but only because I live in a small town and can't get my favorite foodie stuff locally. Other than that, it would be useful for shut-ins or people who can't leave their house for long periods of time because they're taking care of disabled kids or elderly folks. I'm sure there are other plausible scenarios.

    I saw a pretty good movie on Amazon Prime Video the other day called "The Frame," which was almost straight-up surrealism, sort of like a Jean Cocteau movie rewritten for the mass-media era and filmed by David Lynch. It got a little silly towards the end, but not unforgivably so. (I can hardly remember the last time I saw a movie with a really good ending, come to think of it.)

    Definitely a shitty year... Still, like I said in 2000, it should be survivable as long as there's no hyperinflation.
  • Yeah, I can definitely see that Pantry being a cool thing for certain people.

    And there is this cool thing I've discovered on Amazon called (and I think I'm getting this right) a Dash Button.  But it's this button with a product logo on it (think: that Staples easy button commercial), and you actually attach it to a smart-tech appliance.  Like you would put a Tide dash button on your washer or a Ocean Spray button on your fridge, and then when you ran low, you would just hit the button, and because it's hooked up to the smart-tech appliance, it automatically place the order for you at Amazon and ships it out.  This way you never have to worry about putting some things on a list and remembering to pick them up at the store.  (I probably explained that hilariously bad, like some grandpa that just got his first cell phone)  But anyways, I think that's pretty cool, in a totally useless way to me, but the idea is cool.

    I'll check out that movie.  I'm always looking for recs.  There's so much I haven't seen and so much that I read the synopsis and dismiss immediately.
  • jonahpwll said:
    There's so much stuff I'm passing on now, just because reality is so much worse than the fiction these shows and movies are dabbling it.  Guh.
    I am the same. I wonder how much of an effect the election is going to have in that way on viewing/listening habits, and what music/tv genres will thrive on the back of our struggle to take in all the junk that's happening.
  • Okay, Season 4 of Justified has got me liking this show again.  I remember getting exhausted by it when I left off on Season 3 long ago.

    But this episode "Money Trap" has had so many funny damn ass moments... smart, silly moments... has me liking this show again.
  • edited December 2016
    On Justified...

    Detroit hitman on the phone to Detroit mob boss: "He says he's a constable."
    (silence)
    Hitman:  "Yeah, I don't know what that it is either."

    An anecdote that can only be appreciated by Northeners who move to Kentucky.

    Update:  They're making a molotov cocktail with an Ale8 bottle.
  • edited January 2017
    Just canceled my free trial.

    When I first signed up, for some reason I thought it was going to be some cool new adventure.  Don't know why, but I did.  i think all the crap they entice you with that comes with the Prime membership got to me a little.  I thought maybe also I'd start really doing some shopping on Amazon, too, and get cool stuff.  But when it was all said and done, their free video selection was mediocre and not better than Netflix, I have no real time or use for the free music, and I don't enjoy shopping on their site... it's fucking tedious sorting through everything.

    Meh.  What an anti-climactic thread.  Sorry, folks.
  • edited January 2017
    Shoot, did you miss watching "Catastrophe" before quitting? Sorry I didn't get on this thread to rec that if not - it's gut-busting comedy.

    Anyway, I think Prime only fully justifies itself for frequent Amazon shoppers, but once it does that, the other stuff is nice gravy. I don't ever stream music from them, but do use the video service occasionally in a complementary fashion (since it's effectively free).
  • Yeah, I've checked it out at my sister-in-law's place, not a lot there. I'm sure some of their original programming is good...Seems like Netflix is beating them roundly in that department right now. I'll probably do a trial someday if only to watch Doctor Thorne, but then I am a Trollope fan (not the largest audience). 
  • Most of the people I talked to about Prime said similar things... that they shop all the time on Amazon and that the free shipping and other shopping perqs are what they subscribe for... and all that other stuff (the stuff that what I was interested in) is just icing on the cake.

    I've heard that sometimes Amazon will offer additional free months to try to suck you in, so I wouldn't mind taking it for another spin... see some more movies and tv shows, maybe take another stab at shopping on the site.  But if it doesn't happen, it won't ruin my year.
  • I like some of the Amazon only shows like Man in the High Castle and have watched a few Dr. Who episodes since it got pulled from Netflix, but yeah, it doesn't' really equal Netflix right now. 
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