Cut The Cord: I am fully, completely entertained by Netflix & Hulu on Roku

I am. Absolutely, full, completely entertained by a combination of Netflix Instant and Hulu on my Roku 2 device. It's been a perfect viewing experience. I had only one issue with the actual streaming on only on one Hulu video (from the 2010 Just For Laughs festival). Otherwise the picture is pristine on my 40" LCD, the useability of the Roku device is solid, and with adding on over-the-air broadcast stations I'd be set. No cable TV necessary.

Last night I watched a couple episodes of The IT Crowd on Netflix, The Speech, which features my favorite thing in all sitcomdom, the Moss and Roy plot that I affectionately call "Jen, this is the Internet" and Friendface, the episode that ends with Moss and Roy fighting to be Jen's fake boyfriend in front of all her old college chums. EVERY episode of this international Emmy and BAFTA winning sitcom that manages to squeeze so much funny out of only four regular characters and does it better than almost any other sitcom in history.

After that the final two episodes of Moone Boy on Hulu (also Chris O'Dowd, who's in The IT Crowd and also the recent HBO series Family Tree). Moone Boy's a show he created about a young boy kinda like him growing up in Boyle in Ireland who happens to have an adult imaginary friend (played by him). Delightful! Wonderful! Very sweet, funny, tale of Liam Moone, a moon faced boy living in the 80s in an Irish town with all the usual hurdles and hardships of being a kid ... with an encouraging someone on his shoulder.

Lovely show.

And great for your not-too-young kids, too.

And Steve Coogan shows up in an incredible guest starring role in the second episode. Don't miss that. His scenes with Liam's mom, played by the beautiful Dierdre O'Kane are hilarious.

NOTE: There are commercials on Hulu. You can't skip them. However, they are short breaks (maybe 40 seconds, tops), not the overlong breaks that broadcast and cable TV needs to keep the lights on. It's doable. These are the first TV ads I've watched in a long time, because I record EVERYTHING, even if I watch the same day. Or in the cast of last night's Jeselnik Offensive on Comedy Central, I started watching 11 minutes after it started so I could FF through the commercials.

After that, two episodes of another series from Britain's Sky HD, this one's called Spy. Darren Boyd (think of a young, British Jeff Daniels) plays a dad of a brilliant, awful, prissy kid played by Jude Wright. He's in the middle of a child custody battle with the kid's awful mom and awful new partner who's also the headmaster of the kid's school.

Dad wanders into what he thinks is a civil service exam and this doer of puzzles and sudoku ends up taking the exam for MI5. Hijinks ensue, Robert Lindsay crushes it as his immediate superior (they write to him like crazy) and the complications make for some great comedy, if maybe at times just a bit too sharp (the kid is mean, REALLY mean).

Great fun, though, and there are 10 more episodes waiting for me on Hulu.

Also watched Safety Not Guaranteed on Netflix, the Aubrey Plaza movie from LAST summer (The To Do List being this summer's offering). Great film, sweet ending, Mark Duplass makes you want to believe that he can do what he says he can do.

And a couple Bob's Burgers eps on Netflix.

You can watch a lot more TV if you cut down on the commercials. The commercials, however, fund the airing of the shows. So what to do? This! This that I'm doing, it puts some of the power back in your hands.