YouTube Red worth the price? Not really
YouTube: The place for cat videos, comedy, lastminute test review and entertainment — all for free. However, if you, like me, are a YouTube fanatic, checking out the paid version of YouTube, YouTube Red, may be worthwhile. Launched in 2015, YouTube Red charges subscribers $10 a month to have access to ad-free streaming, offline streaming, a Google Play Music account and exclusive series and movies not available for free.
Here’s a sampling of some of those programs, which are clearly in the infancy stage of production.
The Thinning (2016) — The preview for this movie prompted me to claim a free trial, but after watching it, I was relieved I didn’t pay the $10 subscription. Starring Vine and YouTube personality Logan Paul and Disney Channel star Peyton List, this movie takes place in a dystopic setting where the nation has become overcrowded. In order to combat this, students in grades one through 12 take an aptitude test, and only those with the highest scores are allowed to survive. For a lowbudget sci-fi movie, I’ve definitely seen worse, but this movie was subpar at best. It felt like the Great Value version of movies like The Hunger Games and Divergent with clichéd dialogue, unrealistic acting and predictable character sketches.
Dance Camp (2016) — It must have been sheer boredom that drove me to watch this movie, because it was absolutely awful. For a movie about competitive dance teams, you’d think they’d cast actual dancers in all lead roles, not Hollywood rejects and choreographically challenged “dancers” like Logan Paul, who portrayed the best dancer in the camp. The rest of the plot followed the budding romance between Cheyenne (Meg DeAngelis) and Hunter (Nadji Jeter) who formed a team of misfits to take a rival team down. If it sounds awful, I can assure you it was. My advice? Stick with classics like Camp Rock.
Broke (2016) — Broke tells the story of three college graduates who move from Philadelphia to Los Angeles together, trying to make it work while they are what producer and star Quinta Brunson calls “firstworld poor.” This sitcom-style series is definitely an upgrade from Buzzfeed’s tacky surveys, and I had to applaud the all-black main cast. It’s a wellneeded modern perspective on growing up as a broke, 20-yearold millennial, but for a story that follows the trials of three people, there is little to no character development. We are left with loose or hasty endings as to why each character has a dream, and it seems like we know more about their struggles as opposed to why they are facing them. But I hope Buzzfeed does projects like this in the future because it gives younger producers the chance to showcase their talent. There’s nothing worse than a 50-plus-year-old producer trying to re-create a text conversation or FaceTime call, and I loved Broke’s believable parallels to the real world.
I will continue to subscribe because I am a frequent YouTuber and the advertisements get annoying, and because apps like YouTube music are superior to other apps I have like Spotify. However, if you don’t mind the advertisements and already have music you are happy with, I wouldn’t encourage you to splurge for YouTube Red. The movies and TV shows at this point just aren’t worth it. Competing sites such as Netflix give more bang for your buck.