Thanks to Chromecast (see: Tired of Waiting For Roku, 7+ Year Customer Buys Chromecast Ultra to Stream HBO Max to TV), I’m finally able to see what’s under the hood at Quibi as part of their 90 day trial on our TV.
Previously, I’d refused strongly to watch anything on my phone (see: Quibi is the Cats of streaming services).
The door was never completely shut for me at Quibi, I would consider it only when it appeared on my TV. As it turns out, my motivation for getting Chromecast wasn’t Quibi, it is simply a benefactor for me wanting to be able to more easily cast to TV HBO Max, which is another Roku holdout.
The Stranger was my first complete Quibi TV movie broken into 13 episodes of 10 minutes or less runtime. It follows Claire, an Orbit driver (think Uber, Lyft) who encounters a psychotic passenger that instantly reminded me of the 80s classic The Hitcher starring the late Rutger Hauer (if you haven’t seen Hobo with a Shotgun, seek that craziness out).
I found the show itself somewhat interesting and entertaining (very good ending, including a solid modern cover version of “California Dreamin'”), but, again, painful to watch with 10 separate starts and restarts.
When an episode ends, you have to manually restart the next one, there (seems to be) no continuous play option on Quibi. It just goes to a stock Quibi screen waiting for another click from the user.
This intentional interruption in the watch flow is noticeable and dumb. If anybody reading knows how to turn on some sort of continuous play — perhaps in Quibi options — please let me know.
You’d just think an app that $1.8 billion invested in it would have gone through some sort of usability testing, but no such logic present here.
Bonus!
Have checked out a second Quibi show called Most Dangerous Game. Again, this one reminds me of other hunting human beings for sport like Jean Claude Van Damme in Hard Target (1993).
More recently just before the pandemic, The Hunt ⭐️⭐️ was in theaters and dealt with similar subject matter. My favorite story on this topic is Stephen King’s novel writing as Richard Bachman, The Running Man (recommended read). It was made into a movie, The Running Man ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ by Paul Michael Glaser starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Richard Dawson.
Back to the Quibi show? The main character is having rough times financially, so considering being hunted for a bunch of cash seems … not so crazy (yes, it still does). Add to it, however, that he’s sick, too … (still crazy).
This one has a lower Rotten Tomatoes review score than The Stranger, but the acting is better and the action ramps up once you get about 30 minutes in (3 episodes). The stake in the game are simple: every hour you survive the hunt more money is put in your account, if you make it 24 hours and still are alive, all the money is yours.
Anything on Quibi I should check out before our free trial runs out? Any Quibi shows that caught your interest and curiosity?
Movies, Movies, Movies 