Review: Dropout.tv (Streaming Service)

A different kind of review today. When I do review something – as rare as my reviews are – it’s usually directly games related. Well, saying that, I have reviewed streaming content before. I’ve just never reviewed a streaming service as a whole.

Everyone at some point has seen a CollegeHumor video. They’ve been around for a long time and have been a presence on Youtube since the start of that platform. In 2018, with ad revenues from existing platforms declining, they announced a subscription-based streaming platform of their own in a video:

I wasn’t really convinced and I quickly forgot about the service altogether for a good while. This was up until January 2020 when IAC pulled their funding from CollegeHumor, resulting in the termination of almost all of the staff, including the cast. They also sold the company to long-time exec, Sam Reich:

So, bad news – with a twist.

⁰IAC, our parent company, has made the difficult decision to no longer finance us. Today, 100+ brilliant people lost their jobs, some of whom are my dear, dear friends. Hire them. (thread)

— Sam Reich (@samreich) January 8, 2020

This sale was important for a couple of reasons.

First of all, it kept the company alive. They had approximately 6 months of pre-taped content that they could put out whilst they restructured and worked out a new direction

Second, it allowed CollegeHumor to keep maintaining and growing the Dropout platform. They kept the existing content and the pre-taped content. The only cast member who was kept on was Brennan Lee Mulligan. Mulligan produces, writes, and hosts the RPG show, Dimension 20, the most successful ongoing property that Collegehumor had at the time of the layoffs. This sent a clear message that Dimension 20 was to be the foundation on which the continuing development of Dropout would be based.

Since then, new content has continued to appear, and cast members have returned, I assume, as contractors.

I subscribed to Dropout in September of 2021. The cost of a monthly subscription is $5.99. Does this represent good value for money? Let’s delve in.

Part 1: Functionality

Dropout is available on a range of platforms, including:

• Browser
• iOS
• Amazon Fire
• Android
• Android TV
• Apple TV
• Roku
• Samsung TV
• Xbox

Heck, by the time I finish writing this, they may well have added more! My own experience has been via a browser (Google Chrome running on Windows 10) and the Android app.

In terms of interface, it’s all very reminiscent of other streaming services such as Disney+ and Netflix. Not Amazon Prime. Thank God, not Amazon Prime…

You’ve got the splash page at the top to show featured content, then categorised content tiles in rows below. If I visit the homepage via broswer just now, my first 10 categories of content are:

• Continue Watching
• My List
• New Releases
• Trending
• Dimension 20
• Dimension 20 Extras
• Dropout Originals
• Game Changer
• Um, Actually
• Dirty Laundry

The last six of those are show-specific. Scrolling a little further, you do find some different type of category, often themed around specific performers. These include:

• Brennan Lee Mulligan on Um, Actually
• Amy Vorpahl on Breaking News
• The Best of Grant-Shaming
• Classic CollegeHumor
• Sam’s Lesser-Known Faves
• For Fans of Dimension 20

There’s a heavy focus placed on Dimension 20, as can be seen in several of those categories, and the fact that 5 of the 9 featured content tabs feature Dimension 20 of Dimension 20-related content.

In addition to the homepage, there is also a Series page. I’ll discuss that a little more in the next section.

The search function is pretty good. You can search well by title and performer. It’s not that smart on keywords from the tests I’ve done. it also searches for collections of content, as well as individual videos, which is nice.

The next item in the menu is a link to the Dropout Discord. I can’t say that I look at this all that often, but it’s pretty active and seems like a reasonably cool place. I quickly get bored of most Discords, and can find it hard to interact on the platform, so this wasn’t a big selling point for me. I do like that there’s community interaction, though. Sam Reich is certainly active on it:

Finally, there’s also a shop. I actually really like the shop. Like, it’s really cool. What I like about it is that it’s not just a shot where they print the logo of the company or their shows onto stuff. They do that, sure, but the majority of what’s in there is actually really well thought out and cool. There were pins and plushies, featuring characters from Dimension 20. There’s posters of the Dimension 20 maps. What I like most of all, are the pieces that just come from really specific moments from the shows.

Example of the specificity include the mug, above, which displays a transcript of a rant/monogue from Brennan Lee Mulligan on the show, Gamechanger. This is a definite spoiler for the episode, so maybe don’t click the video if you intend to watch it:

Another cool item above is the Mountport poster. Mountport was the setting for an improvised musical that was developed and performed in another episode of Game Changer. This one isn’t a spoiler so you should watch it!

I love these specific items. They are cool objects that reference awesome moments from the shows. Almost nobody you know will actually get the references, but whatever.

Another piece of functionality worth mentioning is that the app allows you to download content for offline viewing. This was really handy for me recently when traveling, allowing me to watch their content both in absence of signal on the train, and when I would otherwise have to rely on some truly terrible hotel wi-fi.

Part 2: Range of Content

Unlike other streaming services such as Netflix or Amazon Prime, Dropout is a single-producer subscription service. This means that there simply isn’t the pipeline of new content that these larger competitors have. It’s also very focused on one genre; that of comedy. As such, although there is a range of slightly different types of content, it’s not a wide range.

There’s also an interesting split between the content that was produced before IAC pulled their funding and afterward. Understandably, the content that was produced with corporate backing had higher production values and was somewhat more ambitious. A number of these shows that were produced in 2018 and 2019 and are no longer running include:

• Troopers
• See Plum Run
• Erotic Book Club
• WTF 101
• Total Forgiveness
• Kingpin Katie

These all ran for 1 or 2 seasons at most. Contrast this with the newer shows, which are cheaper to make, all done in a studio, and although funny, are just less ambitious:

• Um, Actually (7 seasons)
• Dimension 20 (15 seasons)
• Game Changer (4 seasons)
• Breaking News (5 seasons)

That’s not to criticise these shows. I actually really love them. It’s why I pay my subscription. There’s just no denying that the loss of that financial backing has resulted in a dip in production values. It’s understandable.

In terms of format, they’re mostly gameshows. Um, Actually is a gameshow where guests have to correct an incorrect statement about a beloved IP. It’s actually a really fun one to play along with, which is probably why they recently Kickstarted a tabletop edition.

Game Changer is Sam Reich’s playground where he gets to try out different gameshow formats every time. This is also fertile ground to find formats that work and then spin them off, as they recently did to create the new show, Make Some Noise, based on a series of successful Game Changer episodes.

There’s also Dirty Laundry, which is basically a twist on Would I Lie to You, a UK panel show, but with cocktails and a bit more filth.

Breaking News features a cast of newsreaders and correspondents reading outrageous, bizarre, or dirty scripts from a teleprompter, having never seen the lines before. They must do so without laughing or breaking character. It’s good, though it can be a tad hit and miss. Some episodes haven’t interested me at all, whilst others have had me in stitches.

There’s also a lot of archive stuff. There’s a huge amount of content from Collegehumor’s backlog. I’ve seen it mentioned that it’s over 1500 clips and sketches. Now, most of this is available on Youtube, but it’s cool to have them all in one place where they’ll happily play away, uninterrupted by ads.

As I mentioned in the previous section, the service leans very heavily on Dimension 20 as a franchise. They’ve developed a fantastic property and they’re milking it for all it’s worth. And you know what? Good. It’s a great show, and it’s still feeling Fresh after so many different campaigns. I’m delighted both to watch the show and for the success it’s brought Dropout.

Given his appearances across all of the current content, there may be something of a reliance on Brennan Lee Mulligan. He was the only CH cast member kept on, as well as being producer, writer, and host of Dimension 20, and appears in Um, Actually, Game Changer, Make Some Noise, Dirty Laundry, Breaking News, and the more recent archive content from pre-layoffs CollegeHumor Originals. He very much comes across as the star of the platform.

So, then, I think of Dropout as consisting of four distinct groups of content:

• Dimension 20: the most important and most promoted content on the site.
• Original, studio-based programming: being actively developed and promoted. Interesting, and producing spin-offs.
• Pre-layoffs original content: interesting and ambitious, but not currently being developed.
• Archived CH content: a ton of really good sketches, shorts, and other odds and ends. Past is prologue.

Part 3: Highlights

There’s a lot to love on the platform. I’m going to share a few of my favourite series on the service. Heck, let’s do them as a top 5 list!

Top 5 Series

5: Um, Actually

This gameshow revolves around the idea that we nerds love our various nerdy properties. The only thing that we love more than these properties is correcting other nerds when they make incorrect statements about these properties. The game mostly revolves around Mike Trapp, the host, reading out statements. The contestants then buzz in to correct these statements, starting their answers with the titular exclamation, ‘Um, actually…’.

My favourite part of the show is when we get to a ‘shiny’ question. These are the questions that change up the format a bit and stop the episode format from getting too repetitive. In these segments, there might be a sorting task, a drawing task, a labelling task, or some other challenge. These really help to keep the show interesting.

The final question is always used to test the panel on real-world skills, rather then more nerdy nonsense. Oh, sure, they might know what Pon Farr does to Spock or that the lepers – not the women – are making the guns in Princess Mononoke, but do they know how to change a car tyre or when best to water your plants?

This is a solid show that is always entertaining. I will say that the panel in an episode can make a big difference. Some are definitely more interesting than others. I’ve never disliked an episode, but I definitely like some a lot more than others.

4: Gods of Food

Gods of Food is a mockumentary series that explores and skewers a range of food-related fads and tropes. The writer is one of my favourite CollegeHumor cast members, former head writer Rekha Shankar.

Each episode features a unique chef and charts their rise to fame. There’s the man who produces the greatest grilled cheese sandwiches, the cooking monk, the food scientist, the oldest and saddest baker you’ve ever seen, and more.

My favourite episode is “Anthony D’Anthony: The Motherfu*king Cheese Mogul”, which deals with the tropes of the ‘angry chef’, of unearned arrogance and disproportionate celebration, and of the now-declining fad that young chefs should have a ‘bad boy’ image.

The show is beautifully shot and it looks like a well-produced documentary series. It’s actually pretty gorgeous, whilst also being bloody funny. This was one of the pre-layoff shows, hence the wider cast and location-based shooting.

3: Game Changer

Sam Reich’s personal gameshow playground, Game Changer is probably the show on Dropout that exhibit the most fun. It’s a fun show.

In each episode, the contestants do not know the nature or rules of the game they are about to play. Sometimes these are explained early on, and sometimes they must be worked out as the game goes on.

With each episode being a different game (except for repeated concepts – ‘Game-Samers’ – which see popular concepts reused), there’s a lot of variety here. Some of my favourite episodes include the impressions battle (viewable below), the Whodunnit murder mystery, the ‘sponsored episode’ which saw the panel pitching unusual products, and The Official Cast Recording, which saw the panel create an improvised musical.

Seasons 1, 2, and 4 are the strongest, as season 3 took place during covid and is mostly done through video conferencing. Even this season is interesting though, taking advantage of players being at home to add in games that require access to their closets to put together themed ensembles.

I love this show, and I eagerly await some new episodes.

2: Total Forgiveness

Right, I should probably just say right away that I hate Total Forgiveness. And I love it. But I hate it. But I love it… It’s a hard one to commit to because, whilst the show is so damn good, it’s always pretty brutal in places.

It was always going to appeal to me because of the cast. I like Ally Beardsley a lot, and I love Grant O’Brian. Grant was probably tied with Zac Oyama for me as the absolute MVPs of the last few years of CollegeHumor.

The premise of the show rests on the fact that education in the US is a joke. Don’t get me started on the lack of objective standards in secondary education because I could go on for hours. This show does not deal with that aspect, though. It’s about the cost of college and the size of student loans. Both Ally and Grant have sizeable student debt and little prospect of paying it off in the forseeable future. This show sees them set each other a series of escalating challenges to add to a pot of money that will go towards paying off some of this debt.

Sounds fun? It starts off relatively tame (episode 1 is below) but becomes more difficult, more harrowing, and more profitable as the show goes on. There’s high stakes, high drama, and real risks to the pair’s friendship. It’s interspersed with reflections on, and information about, student debt, the value of college, and the journeys we take.

I expected to laugh. I didn’t expect to be tearing up. Fantastic show.

1: Dimension 20

The backbone of Dropout is so prevalent on the platform because it works. I’ve said before that I’m really not a fan of Critical Role, but I do like other live-play series. This is the best I’ve seen, overtaking my previous favourite, Acquisitions Incorporated.

Each season of the show presents a new campaign in a new setting with new characters. There’s a ‘core’ cast that appear in many of the seasons, and then in others we get to meet new players. The core cast is definitely my favourite as I’ve long been a fan of most of the participants. The only one I was not previously aware of was Lou Wilson, whom I now love as well. I’m particularly enjoying his interactions with Emily Axford in the latest campaign, A Court of Fey & Flowers:

The show is wonderfully put together, with Brennan Lee Mulligan acting as Game Master for most of the campaigns. He’s a really fantastic GM and shares some great tips on the behind the scenes content and in the accompanying podcast, Adventuring Academy.

The production is also fantastic, with beautifully constructed sets for specific encounters and wonderful custom minis for characters and enemies. Here are some

The attention to detail in the design work is really nice, and it adds hugely to the atmosphere of the series. They’re actually running auctions just now in the Dropout store for the miniatures from the A Crown of Candy campaign. Some individual miniatures are fetching upwards of $4,000, which is pretty damn impressive.

I’ve not gone through all the campaigns yet, but I’d like to do a ranking article once I have. There are none that I actively dislike, but there are definitely some that stand head and shoulders above others.

Part 4: Verdict

So, the big question is, does Dropout.tv deserve your money? Are you getting a good deal for your subscription?

Maybe.

I know that’s not the most useful answer, so let me unpack it a bit.

The vast majority of actual videos on the service are already available on Youtube, Facebook, or elsewhere. That’s the archive stuff, the sketches. It’s great to have it all together in one place and free of ads, but you can get it for free elsewhere. So let’s put that aside for now and consider it a little bonus.

The biggest selling point is Dimension 20. They know this. It’s why it’s so heavily promoted. It’s why Brennan was the only cast member kept on. it’s why there have been 15 seasons. It’s great content and I know that there are plenty of people who keep their subscriptions specifically for this show.

The pre-layoff content is interesting, ambitious, and it would be great if the company were ever able to get back to the point of creating that sort of content. As it stands, these should be seen as completed series which won’t be further developed.

Although the newer content is potentially a bit samey, less ambitious, and with lower production values, I find it funnier than the last category. The gameshows are really good, with great hosts and fantastic guests. There’s a real pool of comedic talent here that delivers. I find myself sitting waiting for releases.

That’s another issue. The waiting. There’s not a gushing pipeline of new content here. This is an example of the schedule, as posted in the Discord:

This week will see four new items added. There will be an episode of the Game Changer spinoff, Make Some Noise. There will be a new Um, Actually. There will be an episode of Dimension 20 and an accompanying piece of talkback content.

Last week, there were three items. A Dimension 20 episode and accompanying talkback, as well as an animated short. If you’re not into Dimension 20, you’re out of luck this week.

The week before saw an episode of Make Some Noise and an Um, Actually. Only two pieces of content.

The 7 weeks before that alternated between 3 and 4 pieces of content. Considering the monthly cost, it can feel like a bit of a trickle, particularly if there are current shows that you’re just not into and probably won’t watch. In a way it feels comparable to Warhammer+, but without the added incentives like the apps and free miniature. I should review Warhammer+ at some point…

To me, I feel like I’m getting value because I am regularly watching new content and delving back into older stuff. I’m keen to catch up on Dimension 20, so that content is still new and exciting to me. Once I’m caught up, I can see myself using the service significantly less.

Is this the sort of service where you might find yourself subscribing for a few months every year to catch up on the content and then letting your subscription lapse? Yeah, it’s probably not a bad idea.

For me, it’s worth it. The content is great and I love the service, but I do think you should know going in that the focus is narrow and the release schedule can be sparse.

If nothing else, it’s certainly not a box of bullshit: