State libraries offer free streaming movies

Watch out Netflix and Amazon. Delaware libraries are offering free streaming movies, television series and documentaries.

The library system took to Twitter Tuesday to announce the program. Check out the 525 offerings available to stream here.

Here's how it works: Library cardholders select what they want to watch and click "borrow." The video is available to stream for up to three days and you can renew it if you don't have a chance to watch it. Checkout is limited to five videos at one time.

Patrons can sort by release date, most popular and alphabetically by title. As of Thursday night, the most popular selections were "Silver Linings Playbook" and "Django Unchained."

The system is a bit wonky, however. The Al Pacino thriller "Righteous Kill" is listed as the newest release, even though it came out in 2008. Meanwhile, the 2013 film "Straight A's" shows up lower in the list.

Sadly, I couldn't find a way to sort by genre, which means I had to skip through four seasons of "Fraggle Rock" to get to the critically acclaimed foreign dramas.

Among the eclectic offerings are a Vinyasa yoga video, a sushi-making tutorial, the 1940 film "His Girl Friday" with Cary Grant, "Spartacus: Blood and Sand, Season One," Sharknado," "Easy Sign Language" and "Kill the Irishman."

As a previous Netflix subscriber and an occasional user of Amazon Video on Demand, I was surprised to find so many independent films on the libraries' site that I must've overlooked.

On Wednesday, I watched "Arranged," the story of an unlikely bond between an Orthodox Jewish woman and a Muslim woman over their arranged marriages. Tonight, I'm game for romantic comedy-drama "The Republic of Love."

Given the success of the library system's DVD lending program, I have high hopes for this service as long as they continuously update their offerings.

And, let's face it, free is free.

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