Keep Your Prestige Dramas. Discovery+ Is My Happy Place.
In times like these, I'd rather be zip-lining with Dame Judi Dench and watching House Hunters with Seth Rogen.
By Adrienne Westenfeld
"Catch up on prestige television during quarantine," they said last March. "It'll be fun," they said. I heard that suggestion loud and clear, then proceeded to progressively rot my brain with all the seasons of House Hunters and Say Yes to the Dress available on Hulu. Lifestyle television is my Xanax: an invitation to slip away to the blessedly low stakes of my mental beach, where the biggest stressors are whether the cake will rise or the renovations will get done on time. Imagine my delight when, earlier this month, Discovery, the umbrella network behind these programs, entered the streaming wars with Discovery+, a new streaming service boasting over 55,000 episodes of nonfiction television. I've been eating my heart out—and eating a lot of Barefoot Contessa recipes—ever since.
discoveryplus.com
Here's the lowdown: for the monthly price of $4.99 with ads or $6.99 to stream ad-free, Discovery+ offers on-demand content from a huge swath of cable networks, including HGTV, The Food Network, TLC, Animal Planet, Lifetime, The History Channel, Science Channel, and Trvl Channel, among many others. New episodes hit the platform shortly after they air on cable television, but while you wait for those to land, you'll have no shortage of archived offerings from the expansive back catalogue of long-running hits, like Fixer Upper, Property Brothers, Dance Moms, Good Eats, Planet Earth, and Mythbusters, just to name a few. If you're used to tuning into these shows while absentmindedly channel-surfing, you'll enjoy dialing up twenty-plus seasons of them on demand. If you're a Shark Week die-hard, then the modest cost of Discovery+ is worth it for year-round Shark Week access alone.
Revisiting these old favorites and their familiar, predictable rhythms feels like slipping into your favorite pair of sweatpants, but what really sets Discovery+ apart from the streaming pack is its original content. Discovery has invested over a thousand hours of original programming into this launch, with more on the horizon when Chip and Joanna Gaines parlay their lifestyle empire into the new Magnolia Network. I never knew I needed to see a grand dame zip-lining through rainforest treetops until Judi Dench's Wild Borneo Adventure, which features a buoyant Dame Dench touring the rainforest landscape with awe and wonder, marveling at its creatures and its vistas. Or maybe you like your travel shows with sumptuous meals involved, which is where Bobby and Giada in Italy enters the picture, with Food Network stars Bobby Flay and Giada DeLaurentis heartily eating their way through Rome and Tuscany.
Meanwhile, you haven't lived until you've seen Cakealikes, a series where cake artists make life-size versions of their favorite celebrities, including Kim Kardashian, Lady Gaga, and RuPaul (reminds you of the Great British Baking Show's iconic Lupita cake, doesn't it?). But my favorite offering in the original programming line-up by far is House Hunters Comedians on Couches: Unfiltered, where comedians like John Mulaney, Seth Rogen, and Ali Wong join Dan Levy and Natasha Leggero to rip into House Hunters hopefuls.
All these lazy lockdown afternoons into my Discovery+ journey, I've been thinking about what keeps me coming back to these shows. On a shallow level, we watch these shows to revel in the delicious pastime of finding fault in other people's choices—to scoff at the missteps on Iron Chef, criticize the fashion crimes of Say Yes to the Dress brides, or make snap judgments about the marriages of the tetchy couples on House Hunters.
But I like to think that, in quarantine, we're watching these shows to make life within these four walls feel a little bit bigger. Homeowners can find inspiration both big and small in HGTV's vast swath of renovation shows, whether that means taking their home offices down to the studs or just slapping on a revitalizing coat of bright paint. Even apartment dwellers can look to shows like Small Space, Big Design for renter-friendly solutions to cabin fever. Burn-out home cooks will find inspiration anew in any of Discovery+'s dozens of culinary offerings, while those who've been living on takeout might just find their way into the kitchen under Alton Brown's beginner-friendly guidance. Nature enthusiasts can embark on a breathtaking safari from the comfort of their own couches, while those starved for travel can crisscross the globe. For the price of a bougie latte, do yourself a favor and shell out for Discovery+. Soon enough, you'll be sipping mai tais—real ones, that Ina Garten taught you how to make—on your own mental beach.
Adrienne Westenfeld Assistant Editor Adrienne Westenfeld is a writer and editor at Esquire, where she covers books and culture.
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