Watching Under Quarantine: Movies Anywhere Screen Pass, Twitch Watch Parties, 'Reno 911' On Zoom, And More
I know different parts of the country adopted self-isolation and quarantine procedures at different times over the past several weeks, but many of us are coming up on a full month of being in quarantine due to COVID-19. And amid all of the Tiger King discourse, our daily streaming recommendations, and films like Parasite and Portrait of a Lady on Fire hitting Hulu, you may have missed a few things that might help make your time at home a tiny bit better. So let's run through a few of them, shall we?
Movies Anywhere Screen Pass
You're familiar with Movies Anywhere, right? The online hub that collects all of your digital film purchases? Well, Collider points out that they're launching something called "Screen Pass" which allows you to remotely share the movies you own with friends and family. Most (but not all) movies seem to be eligible for the program, and once you sign up for the Beta program and select a Screen Pass eligible title, you simply text it to a friend, and they'll have a limited time to watch it. You can do this three times per month, as long as you add one new movie to your library every six months. It might not be a perfect fit for everyone's habits, but for those of you with a sizable Movies Anywhere selection, this sounds like a nice way to spread the love of movies safely.
Amazon Gets Into Community Viewing with Twitch Watch Parties
We recently wrote about Netflix Party, a third-party extension that allows viewers from all over the world to virtually hang out and watch a Netflix movie together, complete with a chat box on the side of the page. But none of the major streaming services have approached community viewing on their own...until now. Amazon is the first out of the gate with Twitch Watch Parties, which lets multiple people watch select movies and shows on Amazon Prime through Twitch.
But there are some pretty severe restrictions to this technology. Inverse reports that it's only available to U.S. Twitch partners (although a rollout to everyone in the country is coming soon). Everyone who wants to watch has to be an Amazon Prime subscriber. And perhaps most crucially, this tech can't be used for every single movie or show available on Amazon Prime – it's limited to this list, which currently only has 73 items on it. That could change over time, but right now, it barely seems worth the hassle to try to organize a big group of people if there are all of these roadblocks in the way.
YouTube Originals
For those of you who never ponied up to pay for YouTube original programming (and I assume that is a lot of you), the streaming site is releasing several of its shows to the public for free due to the pandemic. For a limited time, you can now check out Step Up: High Water (Seasons 1-2), Me and My Grandma, Impulse (Seasons 1-2), Foursome (Seasons 1-2), Escape the Night (Seasons 1-4), Sideswiped, Matpat's Game Lab, Overthinking with Kat & June, Re:Set, and The Fake Show. Personally, I have no clue what any of those things are, but if you've been eyeing them for a while but just couldn't justify pulling the trigger to pay for them, today's your day.
Adam Sandler's New Song
Earlier this week on an episode of The Tonight Show, host Jimmy Fallon and virtual guest Adam Sandler played a new coronavirus-inspired song called "Don't Touch Grandma." It's exactly what you think it's going to be, so take that as you will.
Reno 911 Zoom Briefings
And finally, to promote Quibi's upcoming revival of comedy series Reno 911, the cast has been gathering for Zoom "briefings" that can be found on Quibi's YouTube page. Check out the first one above, and the second one below.