Hey, what's up, everybody? It's Roy Wood Jr.
2020 was a huge year for streaming,
which is kind of like saying
1903 was a huge year for airplanes.
There were no real airplanes before then.
But this year, oh, all the streaming sites
came out left and right.
Like most of y'all, I've been coping with the pandemic
just streaming my ass off in my house, hiding from that rona.
I been streaming on my phone, streaming on my tablet,
streaming on my TV.
I even been streaming on my Peloton bike.
Technically, it's not a Peloton bike.
It's an iPad that I taped to the handlebars
of a bike I stole. Same difference.
Anyway, now there's plenty of stuff to watch
and plenty of places to watch it.
First, let's start with the classics.
Netflix, the OG of the game.
Netflix been in it since DVDs.
Y'all don't remember old-school Netflix.
They would send a DVD to your house,
and you'd go get it, and you'd open up the mailbox,
and you'd go, "Oh, boy, I got me a DVD.
"Mama, fire up the PlayStation 2.
It's time to watch Memento."
HBO. Yo, man, you got to give it up
to HBO and HBO Max. Quality shows.
You got Black women figuring out their lives.
You got white women figuring out how to kill their husband.
Wait, was it the husband they tried to kill?
Or was it the setting up the husband for the...
Uh, look, bottom line, if Nicole Kidman
looking at your ass without smiling,
you in some trouble.
But this year, we also had a ton of new streaming services,
which, if I'm-a be honest, I'm a little suspicious
of all these companies dropping
during the same year we had a pandemic.
You telling me y'all ain't had nothing to do
with corona coming out? Hmm?
It's like they were all sitting around their board meetings
like, "Okay, as soon as March hits,
hit the 5G button and start the corona."
So, we had new streaming services like Quibi.
Quibi, which promised to revolutionize the game.
Quibi, which stood for "quick bites."
And it was quick, and it bit the dust.
A moment of silence.
And, of course, there's CBS All Access,
where you can watch Star Trek with a Black woman in charge.
And if that's too much for you to handle,
we got an animated version.
And it's more popular, too.
And then there's Apple Plus.
This is one of my favorite new streaming sites,
'cause if you don't like the show on the Apple Plus,
you can just go to the Apple Store
and complain at the Genius Bar.
"Uh, yes, I got this show from Apple Plus.
"It's Steve Carell, but he's sad,
"and that's not how I like my Steve Carell.
"Can you get him back to Anchorman status?
Also, my iPod Shuffle broke."
But, all in all, all of these streaming services
gave us amazing content to watch this year.
Remember when Tiger King came out?
Oh, people, lost their damn mind.
This is how crazy people were.
We were only a month into quarantine
when Tiger King dropped, and everybody was like,
"Yes! Yes! Meth heads doing animal abuse.
"Give me more.
"What's that? It bit off her arm?
"Oh, yeah! Give me more.
"What's that? She's gonna be on Dancing with the Stars
"after maybe killing her husband?
Oh, give me more."
Another hit show from 2020 was The Queen's Gambit.
I'm-a be-- I'm-a be honest though.
Queen's Gambit didn't really do it for me.
I'm supposed to be impressed 'cause this lady beat
all these professional chess players?
All right, that's cool. But she didn't play
that Black dude in the park in New York.
You got to beat him if you the real Queen Gambit.
Gambit Queen? Is that what it's called?
You know who I'm talking about. The Black dude that set up
in Washington Square Park with the chessboard by himself.
Lonely. 'Cause nobody will play him.
'Cause people scared.
Another huge show from 2020, The Last Dance.
Oh, my God. Finally, a documentary
to prove how good Michael Jordan is at basketball.
It also showed us that Michael Jordan
is the Michael Jordan of laughing on a iPad,
he's the Scottie Pippen of wearing oversized suits,
and the Bill Wennington of hiding his liquor on camera.
I guess when you got six rings,
you really ain't got to hide shit.
Somebody told me The Great British Baking Show was good.
I tried to watch an episode, but it was just people baking.
Nobody was cussing, nobody was fighting,
nobody was backstabbing.
They was just being polite to each other and baking bread.
That's not a reality show. That's my grandma house.
Disney+ had Hamilton, so I started watching Hamilton.
But then I was watching Hamilton on TV
and I didn't get the real, full live experience
like I would on Broadway,
so I just threw $900 out the window when the movie ended
so I could know what it felt like.
Streaming's a double-edged sword for Hollywood though.
We're getting so used to watching good content
in our homes, will we really be ready
to go back to theaters when the pandemic's over?
I mean, I get to watch blockbusters like Tenet
and Wonder Woman in my house the same day they come out.
I can take my apartment and make it just like a movie theater.
I can pop some popcorn. I can sit close to the screen.
I can have a kid sitting behind me that won't stop talking
and spills soda all over your carpet,
ensuring that you don't get your security deposit back!
(exhales)
And that's the year in streaming.
And, please, for the love of God,
stop saying I look like the dude from the movie Soul.
It's not me. It's disrespectful,
and it's hurtful to my family.