Although I love adding more of my physical media to my Plex server, sometimes I just want to kick back and watch television. With over a thousand live TV channels on Plex, only a handful come out on top.
10
At the Movies
While I hesitate to call myself a film buff, I do watch a ton of movies, paying close attention to older ones released between the 70s and 90s. I consider those decades to be some of the best years for film. As luck would have it, Plex has At the Movies, a TV channel that broadcasts movies from said decades.
At the Movies mainly focuses on classic films, but lesser-known titles and even box office bombs do show up from time to time, like Deep Cover, One Crazy Summer, Drop Dead Gorgeous, and The Hudsucker Proxy. Either way, you’re going to find some underrated gems here, though there are numerous sites with free movie streaming that are worth checking out, too.
9
Hit Sitcoms
Hit Sitcoms is a TV channel that delivers exactly what it says on the tin—constant reruns of popular sitcoms from the past couple of decades, like Perfect Strangers and The Drew Carey Show. However, it’s limited to sitcoms produced by Warner Bros., which isn’t much of a limitation since Warner Bros. is probably responsible for your favorite sitcom, too.
The way Hit Sitcoms works is by running a string of episodes from just a few sitcoms, making it really easy to find a comfy spot on the couch and enjoy a sitcom you like. It’ll then alternate to a different sitcom, then rinse and repeat for the next few days.
8
BBC Earth
BBC Earth produces many of the best documentaries about our planet to date, and I cannot get enough of them. The product quality alone is worth a look, but it’s the beautiful shots they capture of animals in their natural habitats that I enjoy the most. More importantly, BBC Earth being free on Plex (and ad-supported) means you don’t have to add yet another subscription to your bill.
Perhaps not every documentary will interest you, but I highly recommend catching David Attenborough’s Natural Curiosities, Wild Japan, and Amazon Abyss. Additionally, there are documentaries about global warming, and those are always worth watching to stay informed. If you’d like a choice in the matter, try streaming services with dedicated documentary libraries.
7
Miramax
While At the Movies is much more focused on a handful of decades, Miramax doesn’t have that limitation, and it’s what I turn to when I want to step out of the 70s, 80s, and 90s. You’ll find a wide variety of genres, too. I caught the tail end of True Grit before it when hundreds of years into the future with the immediate start of Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. That was then followed up with The Hunt for Red October.
Miramax gets pretty cozy with blockbusters, so I can usually count on there being some exceptional movies, or at least a part of something that interests me enough to look for it on streaming. If you have a good media setup, maybe even a projector, Miramax is a great channel for movie night!
6
National Lampoon
Self-described as knowing “comedy from A to Z,” National Lampoon delivers comedy of all shapes and sizes. It truly is an expansive library of slapstick and sophisticated comedies. One night I went from Cheech and Chone: Still Smokin’ to Tommy Boy to Tropic Thunder, so the channel doesn’t just stay in one decade.
Beyond the decades the movies were released, you’ll also notice, like I did, there is a good mix of popular hits and cult classics, long recurring actors. For example, I see Will Ferrell, Adam Sandler, and Paul Rudd show up frequently, and that’s to be expected when they’ve been in numerous well-known comedies.
5
CW Forever
The CW is home to quite a number of great dramas, whether it’s a movie or series—Veronica Mars, Smallville, and Supernatural, to name a few. My personal favorite is Charmed, which I can no longer watch since I cut cable many, many years ago.
To my surprise, I discovered CW Forever gives you the best of two worlds. On one hand, you could watch newer CW dramas like Wild Cards and Good Cop/Bad Cop or take a stroll down memory lane and watch reruns of Charmed.
4
Scares by Shudder
As a streaming service, Shudder is a paradise for horror fans, myself included, with a library that includes just about every facet of the genre. Not even comedy is left out. If you were ever on the fence about the service—or hesitant over adding another streaming service to your bill—check out Scares by Shudder on Plex instead.
What you’re essentially getting is Shudder’s library in TV format, so content you see broadcast on live TV is likely to be on the platform, too. With that said, Scares by Shudder is completely fine on its own, because it has the same ratio of slashers, thrillers, and bloody spectacle.
3
FilmRise: Sci-Fi
When I considered the kind of live TV channels I wanted to put front and center on my Plex server, sci-fi was one of the first to come to mind. Luckily for me, FilmRise has multiple channels dedicated to specific genres, and in this case, it’s the FilmRise: Sci-Fi channel.
Now, the channel isn’t like Miramax, where movies are usually well-known classics and blockbusters—FilmRise: Sci-Fi is equally likely to have something good, like I’ll Follow You Down or a stinker, like Alien Siege. And when you aren’t in the mood for a movie, you might even get to catch an episode of Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction.
2
Amasian TV: Anime 24/7
Having a TV channel dedicated to anime every single day is like putting my childhood on repeat, though I do admit I was only able to catch shows that were popular on TV channels like Toonami. Once streaming took off (especially with Crunchyroll), that’s when the world of anime opened up more for me. The reason that matters is because Anime 24/7 mostly focuses on well-known anime, like Hunter x Hunter.
Sure, you do miss out on more obscure anime, but it does mean your Plex server will have the best content right from the word go. FilmRise: Anime and RetroCrush are solid alternatives if it’s classic anime you’re after, but Anime 24/7 will still cast the widest net.
1
Non-Stop ’90s
I am of the opinion that the 90s are one of the golden decades of film—a lot of phenomenal movies that artists cite to this day as inspiration come from that era. Think Jurassic Park, Toy Story, and The Shawshank Redemption. I could go on and on! The Non-Stop 90s channel plays 90s content exclusively.
It’ll also have reruns of 90s television series, like the drama Silk Stalkings, but the channel also has series from outside the U.S. For example, the Non-Stop 90s channel has reruns of ReBoot, which is a really weird Canadian animated show with incredibly shiny and dated CGI.
It was a tough battle, but these TV channels have been consistently good to me, and you can enjoy them too, once you’ve enabled live TV channels on your Plex server. You don’t even need a Plex Pass. If it’s content you want to expand, I’ve managed to grow my Plex library for cheap.
