Is The Criterion Collection Streaming Service Worth It?

Yes, The now defunct streaming service, FilmStruck, was a joint enterprise run by the Criterion Collection and Turner Classic Movies (TCM). It was invaluable to movie lovers. Unfortunately Warner Media in their "wisdom" saw fit to shut it down last November. Fortunately for movie-lovers The Criterion Collection has struck out on their own - preserving the (arguably) most important aspect of the earlier streaming service (namely, their own collection of movies). The best news is that the service is not adverse to licensing titles that aren't part of Criterion Collection (their current series "Columbia Noir" includes many titles that have been released by other labels and/or remain unreleased). They also are maintaining the "community" feeling (with extras featuring actors, directors, critics, etc. discussing their favorite movies and movie-going experiences). I do wish they had access to TCM's resources too (the film catalog as well as their hosts - past [Robert Osborne] and present [Ben Mankiewicz and Eddie Muller]); but so far the Criterion Channel is filling in a very important gap in entertainment streaming left by the shut down of FilmStruck. The quality of streaming is at least equal to FilmStruck (and superior to Kanopy).