Now you can watch more TV than ever before!

Consider this a public service announcement for all TV junkies.

Hulu.com is now out of beta testing and open to the public. What is Hulu.com, you ask?

It's pretty damn awesome, is what it is.

It's a compendium of TV shows and movies, available for absolutely stinking free. It's streaming content, not downloadable, and there are a smattering of commercials. So basically it's like watching TV on a given network's site, except for a few major differences:

1. It's all on one site (though clicking on "Gossip Girls" takes me to the CW site).

2. Old and new shows come together. Included in the always-updating content are entire seasons of WKRP in Cincinnati, St. Elsewhere, and The A-Team as well as the first couple seasons of Arrested Development, the first season of Bones, Life, The Riches . . . the list goes on, which brings me to

3. Buffy. Right now Hulu has all of seasons 1 and 2, and I can only assume that more are on the way.

(More are on the way, right, Hulu guys? As well as all of Angel? Seeing as how you have most of Firefly, it would be in your best interest to include the entire Joss Whedon oeuvre.)

4. There's a queue you can use. I loaded up a whole bunch of stuff so that it's all in one easy place when I'm ready to start watching.

5. You can subscribe to shows so that when new episodes appear, they get automatically added to your queue. Genius.

Now, I think this site is absolutely fantastic, and I am thisclose to stalking them until they hire me, but there are a couple things I think would improve it.

1. Better queue interface. Right now I have to click on individual episodes of a show in order to add them to my queue. It would be nice if it worked like Netflix, and I could add an entire season with one click if I so chose. Also, it would be cool if I could reorder my queue using click-and-drag. Because I added all of Buffy before adding Arrested Development, then chose to watch a few episodes of Arrested Development first, which is when I found out that Hulu.com will start the next episode of your queue automatically . . . but it will start at #1  if you're watching from the middle of your queue. So another thing that would be nice is if the auto-start feature worked in sequence--if I start with show #36 in my queue, the next should be show #37.

2. Also regarding the queue: if I want to order my queue alphabetically, I think show name should outrank episode name (this is the first principle of indexing).

3. More international shows. I know this is something they're working on, but it would be especially awesome if they could add shows from, say, England, when they are airing in England. Instead of us having to wait for months to see them here. I'm just sayin'.

For me, Hulu.com will not replace watching TV live, nor will it replace entirely watching TV on DVD. I am a sucker for DVD extras, and I love listening to commentaries, so the DVD will always be queen for me. But I'm trying to save money, and I can only have a certain number of Netflix DVDs out at one time, so when Michael and I are halfway through the second season of Battlestar Galactica, I can still be catching up on The Riches without having to wait. I can only see Hulu.com enhancing my TV viewing experience.

So, anyway, you're welcome.

Comments

[nipper jenn]

OOO! They have all of The Riches! Now I can catch up and start watching Season 2. Rock!

Thanks, lady!

[Carrie]

Yeah, we are actually embarking on an experiment in which we are completely getting rid of live TV and only watching things on the internet. Hulu.com is obviously a large part of our experiment.

I am scared of our experiment, but I promised the husband I would try it.

[jackie]

Unfortunately any recent series I want to watch has only small assortments of eps. But I'm having fun rewatching Picket Fences which I loved.

It has grown since the last time I looked at is, so there is hope.