FXNOW: Movies, Shows & Live TV Reviews

Whenever I try to watch the Simpsons on FXNOW, the tv show is locked in portrait mode about half the time. Even when I turn my phone to watch it in landscape mode, it won't turn. (Lock orientation is off in my settings as well). Also pressing the pause button doesn't always work. About half the time the pause button doesn't work. Also when I try to fast forward through the show, the scrubbing bar that shows my progress in the show goes away after 3 seconds. So when ever I am fast forwarding, I only get 3 seconds to find where I left off at. If I don't get there in time, I have to stop, wait for it to load and most likely watch a minute of ads. Lastly when I tap the screen while watching the Simpsons to bring up the pause button/ progress bar in the show, I should be able to tap to put it away. I dont want to have to wait 5 seconds for the menu to go away. Pausing/fast forwarding feature needs a revamp. Please fix. Most importantly, fix the rotation of the show. I shouldn't have to open and close FXNOW 10 times hoping that it fixes itself.

Something on the side(not so important) I don't care that there is commentary for the Simpsons episodes. Please put a check box in the message that says "do not show again". It is really annoying to have to close out of it each time when I will never use it.

The FX Now app used to be my go-to app on Apple TV, primarily to watch The Simpsons. With the latest update, while FXNOW looks sleek and very “Internet 3.0,” The Simpsons World section has been rendered unusable. I can no longer watch episodes in original 4:3 ratio, nor can I choose to listen to audio commentary without leaving an episode I’m watching and going back into the Extras menu; and scrolling through various different “themed” episode blocks as well as single episodes is cumbersome and generally slow.
The BIGGEST misstep of this update is that the developers have completely gotten rid of Simpsons TV, which was the single best feature of FX Now app ver 1.1. I used to be able to just throw on a Simpsons TV channel and just watch for hours, now I have to press the random episode button (which is not great considering the amount of episodes) or watch the aforementioned themed episode blocks which do not auto play to the next episode when one is finished. FXNOW itself works *okay*, it’s just the complete stripping of all that made FXNOW actually good is what makes it difficult to use. I have resorted to just using the Simpsons World website through my internet browser to watch episodes now.

I’ve been dealing with this app support for almost a year. Strangely enough, the time this all began was when FxPlus arrived. I’m already paying my cable provider to watch this channel. My gut feeling is that Fx is trying to scam us by making us pay AGAIN for FxPlus so we can see an episode we might have missed. I keep getting “Parental Control” errors telling me to check settings. I HAVE NO PARENTAL CONTROLS SET! I have full rights on FXNOW AND with my cable service provider. I’m suggest that all of you who are having this problem contact your attorney general and lodge a complaint, along with the FCC, to let them know the we consumers are being ripped off by trying to double charge us. I’ve read reviews that much the same is happening with the AMC app, so if you’re trying to catch up on an episode of Killing Eve, it won’t allow it. We’re not only being ripped off by our cable providers, but now individual stations are trying to rip us off also. I’ve tried every troubleshooting step provided by the developer, and the last thing they did was cut me off with the statement, “this is a problem our Developers are attempting to solve.” Give me a break! At least be honest with us.

Updated: do not appear to have the same constant re-authentication issue, so I am updating my rating. Love the reduced commercials compared to earlier versions.

I do enjoy FXNOW and appreciate the reduced commercials in Simpsons world, but my review reflects the re-authentication requirements for the cable provider almost every time I jump out of FXNOW . I’d say after every 10 minutes or so if I haven’t been in FXNOW , my login expires and I need a new token (by entering my cable login) to watch again. I do not recall this being an issue in earlier versions, if I remember correctly it took a few days for the login info to expire.

Is this an intentional change? If so, it is annoying to have to log out and log back in every time I want to use FXNOW . I’ll update the review if this behavior is changed.

UPDATE: FXNOW has gotten worse. While I was in the middle of watching “The Americans” the screen got smaller, basically confined to the top 1/3 of my iPad. I closed FXNOW and upon reopening it, it was requiring me to create an FX account or sign-in with my Facebook account. I’m so sick of having to constantly log-in with my cable provider on FXNOW and now they are adding a new log-in?! Now my only option was to watch that episode of “The Americans” from the beginning. I started to, but the screen was still small so I gave up. This is such garbage.

The only time I have had problems with FXNOW is when I watch The Simpsons. It will regularly pop-up with a loading error notice so I cannot watch a particular episode. Sometimes if I go back a few screens, the issue will resolve itself. However, I have been unable to watch episodes from Season 2 for over a week. I have been trying to watch episode 5 or 6 but it will not work. Seems like the same problem with other Season 2 episodes.

This is one of the most sleek steaming g apps ever. You have all the variety or what people call, mixed bag of Teeee Vee!! Not since Cardi B. Hit Love and Hip Hop as TV been so fun and bingeable!!! Did I just make up a new word or use incorrect english?!? Well what happened is FXNOW! No jumping or pixelated missed scenes! Can watch on any device or TV at the same time and still text! The shows are enough to get you sucked into the TV, your friends will start to text you, “CAROL ANNE”?? Where you at? In the darn TV. Just when I got a new set of PJ’s and accepted my body positivity inclusion, the Work has to go into the offices!! I called out one day, I needed a mental health day. Watched TV all day!! FX is the best!! Can’t wait for more exclusive programs!!

If you are looking for an app that will raise your blood pressure to remarkably high levels, congratulations. You have found it. If you manage to sign on (keep in mind you will have to sign on every single freaking time you go to FXNOW) which is highly unlikely, you will not be able to watch anything that you want to watch. Latest season of Archer? Nope. It’s Always Sunny? Nope. Simpson’s? Nope. Oh it will say that full seasons are available. Where?? Not on FXNOW , that’s for sure. It is so unbelievably frustrating and horrible that I keep coming back to it to see how it’s gotten worse since the last time I attempted to use it. It is truly unbelievable to me that they have not fired everyone involved with making and/or maintaining FXNOW. My 10 year old could make a more user friendly app and he’s a dog. Seriously... it boggles the mind how terrible this thing is and how utterly unwilling they are to fix it. It’s like they are setting out to anger people trying to watch anything they produce. Mission accomplished.

The Good —
The application’s user interface is pretty... nicely balanced, full immersion in program poster art. The reduced commercials is a nice touch.

The Bad —
(1) The first time I tried to play an episode of The Americans, it would play for a few seconds, but once the onscreen controls disappeared, so would the video. The audio would keep playing and I could bring back the controls/video by taping in the screen. Obviously not going to work for the duration of a 40-something minute show.

(2) I tried watching The Americans again and got video to play! I didn’t do anything special, it just worked. But got distracted part way through an episode. When I returned to FXNOW , it didn’t have a resume option... I had to manually use the scrubber and suffer commercials to find where I’d left off.

(3) There’s no download option. Please, please, please give us the ability to download your own shows. Watching offline is essential for commuting or travel.

Alternatives —
Netflix can get old seasons of The Americans and they can be downloaded. Shows can be downloaded and it remembers where you left off.

Xfinity Stream (my cable provider’s app) has the same videos that this app has, but with flawless video playback, it remembers where you left off, and it has other shows (saved recordings, live TV, on demand) Still no ability to download theses shows (so maybe a content distribution/rights thing, so sad).

I don’t normally do reviews, but when one feels like he’s been left hanging on a technical support issue; then one feels like a review is needed. I contacted the support team with an issue. When sending the picture from my phone app to my Sony Bravia OLED tv; the screen is stretched from the top left of the screen to the middle. Because of this, the picture is small and it’s annoying when watching anything this way. I was asked to answer some follow up questions and waited for a response. I never receive another response. I emailed off my sent email and still didn’t receive an answer. I even asked was my case still opened and they couldn’t even answer that. This is the worst support team I have ever dealt with. Its sad that a support team cannot even answer a simple question. It’s irresponsible to leave a customer hanging. I hope some teaching lessons come from this review and that the issue to which not only I’m having, but someone else is having, gets resolved.

I wanted to start off and say I enjoy how all of the networks are starting to be in one app. I feel FXNOW is still under development compared to the older stand alone apps such as fox, fx, and nat geo for examples.

The way you search or browse for your favorite show seems to be out on order not only here on this iPhone app but also on the Apple TV app as well. The incomplete seasons or series is also a downside for FXNOW as it stands today. Unclear if they are going to be added or just left out for some reason. Other apps have every season up until the current season. Binge watching would be great with some of these Fox shows.

Another issue I have is when I am trying to play a show or movie from where I left off I need to crash FXNOW because it becomes unresponsive. It happens more if I pause on an ad and then resume playing. Sometimes I even have to go to the extreme and delete FXNOW completely and reinstall to get the function back in FXNOW .

I do enjoy the idea of FXNOW but the execution is poor. Also the lag between the CC and what is actually being said is very distracting if I am trying to watch something on low or no volume. I hope that this changes because I see the potential with this consolidation but currently I can’t tell my friends and family to go out and enjoy FXNOW .

I truly do not understand how FXNOW has so many 5 star reviews. This is without a doubt one of the buggiest apps in the entire AppStore. The only reason to download FXNOW in the first place is to watch the Simpsons. And I can’t even do that anymore because whenever I try to pull up earlier seasons, FXNOW starts bugging out (as usual) and shows me a bunch of clips for some random show with farm animals. Yes, you read that right. FARM ANIMALS! I cannot make this stuff up. And what’s worse is I tried using FXNOW a couple years ago (also to watch the Simpsons) and it was too buggy to work then so I deleted it. I redownloaded it and it’s somehow even more broken. Anyways, FX if you’re listening, FIX YOUR APP! It really cannot be that hard! There are plenty of other streaming apps out there that don’t have ANY of the problems you guys seem to have. So it’s clearly possible to have a working app. Why can’t you guys seem to figure it out?

1. If my phone’s screen turns to fit whatever way I’m holding it, the audio will cut out and not be replace until I shut down the whole app. The video still plays perfectly, but I can no longer hear anything.

2. Sometimes I’ll attempt to go back into things that I’ve watched before. Well, the screen with broadcast the large FX sign and cut to black.... and then that’s it. You can’t exit out of the screen. There’s not buttons to push play or anything. Exiting FXNOW is the only way to fix it.. and that doesn’t mean it fixes me being able to watch the video. It’ll usually just fix it so I can select something else to view.

Otherwise, I overall really like FXNOW . I just have those two complaints.

I’m not one to write reviews but FXNOW makes it very difficult to watch any shows on chrome cast. We have three different TVs, one with cable, one with Apple TV, and one with chrome cast.
When my husband is watching his show live through cable, I tend to go to another room to watch but when I’m trying to watch through the chrome cast I waste time logging out of my provider and re logging it. If I don’t it’ll tell me that my access has been denied. It’s just such a hassle. Watching live so far hasn’t been an issue once I’ve re logged in but when trying to watch a show, I come across the issue of having to continue going back and starting an episode where instead of it continuing on as it would do so on the Apple TV.
I’ve gotten so frustrated that I rather not even bother using FXNOW ......

I love FXNOW but I’m pretty disappointed that when the current season of something is playing you can’t watch the previous season. For example I can watch legion season two but not season one. Letting viewers watch the previous season gets them in the mood to watch the new season, just like when a movie comes out other movies with the same actors are aired on TV. FX, in my opinion, would get more viewers if all seasons were available. And there may be a good reason for this that I don’t know about, like maybe the first season is for sale but I think Add revenue would probably far exceed sales from paid for seasons. Maybe not.

When I sign in with my cable provider and try to watch American Crime Story a message appears saying “Access to this content is restricted as a result of your parental control settings. To view this content, please confirm settings with your TV provider and/or your Apple TV device.” It says this when I try to watch on Apple TV, iPad, or iPhone and when I try to log in on the website on my Mac with my TV provider it doesn’t log it and just cycles back to the 1 hour free trial. All those devices have no parental controls set. When I checked my parental controls with my cable provider Suddenlink, there were no restrictions and the maximum content rating available was TV-MA which I had it set to. When contacted my TV provider Suddenlink and they had no way to fix this. I contacted FX through their website and have had no response and I can not find any other way of contact. Please respond, thank you.

I signed up for the FX+. It’s $5.99 a month. I figured it was worth it for the shows, no commercials, and movies.
Downloaded FXNOW on my Apple TV 4th generation.
Every single time I open FXNOW . It doesn’t recognize my FX+ membership. I have to delete FXNOW , reinstall it and sign in again. Then when I begin to watch, it turns off telling me my free preview has expired. When i try to log back in again it doesn’t recognize my membership. Which leads me to again delete and reinstall FXNOW . If I pause a show and walk away, it completely logs me off and makes me repeat the whole process of deleting FXNOW and reinstalling, signing in all over again; praying that it’ll recognize my membership and let me watch something.
I don’t understand..
I’ve contacted the help desk and they tell me it’s my tv provider, which isn’t even the problem when I’m paying for the service directly to FX.

September 2018: Just unbelievably frustrating to be paying month,…after month,…after month for this channel, just to have access to this unusable app!

How, how can FXNOW be left without the ability to function properly for so long!…How?…Why??

How can you justify charging anyone a full subscription cost every single month when you’re very own comments acknowledge the ongoing problems?

Problems such as never knowing if one can watch a program after selecting it since, more often than not, the program is unable to start. Instead, the selection is redirected to a placeholder screen so that the following commercial can be directed to my, so called “interests” (which have never, ever been on point. Truly!).

Unfortunately, the coding needed to follow through such a process seems to be severely lacking with FXNOW and subsequently, not up for the task of providing the actual product your customers are (currently) paying out of their pocketbooks for. I think that is just...……unconscionable!

We (your customers) deserve more than your respondents inevitable blanket statements. Be up front. Provide a factual current status. Set realistic timeframes. Finally, if truth is FXNOW is beyond your capabilities, scale it down and charge accordingly.

Sincerely,
Befuddled

My original review of FXNOW was deleted after the development team sent me some “troubleshooting” link as if to imply none of those steps were taken prior to the review. So, since you guys like to delete honest critique I am writing again. I never once needed to uninstall and reinstall an app to get it to work properly, this is the only one that consistently force logs me out and refuses to allow me to log back in. Nor is it a network issue on my end because everything else works fine on my network with the exception of FXNOW. Your troubleshooting tips is a pass off of the issues that YOU CREATED BY DEVELOPING A FAULTY PRODUCT. If you decide to delete this review too that is fine. I have long since made the decision that your app and your network of shows isn’t worth the hassle to watch. If I could remove your network from my cable package I would, but unfortunately that isn’t possible.

What ever platform FX utilizes for live streaming their online content is unstable and frustrating to use. I understand that ads plugged into their live stream content is necessary to generate revenue but can they at least make the ads run smoothly with the streaming content? Every time an ad pops up it’s a roll of the dice on whether the ad freezes the programming timeline or im forced to restart the program after watching the notorious loading progress wheel forever. Any attempts to adjust the timeline to your last spot only brings on more frustration after being forced to rewatch all of the same auto dealership and big pharma ads back to back with no success. With all of these revenue generating ads they inundate us with one would think Disney would be able to develop a smoother running live streaming app. Come on guys, get it together.

FXNOW keeps signing out of my tv provider so I have to keep bugging my Dad to ask to sign in again. Today I just wanted to watch a clip from a show so I used the preview pass. The timer on the preview pass counts advertisements as part of the preview and if you pause it and put it in you pocket for a bit, that time is counted too. The preview pass lasts 5 minutes.

By the time I got through the ads I had 2 minutes left. I then kept hitting the “+15 seconds” button to get to the part I wanted and the timer kept going then too despite the fact the video wasn’t playing and just loading. I had 1:30 left when I got there when my sibling handed me something so I paused the video, turned off the phone and put it in my pocket. When I opened back up the phone I had 40 seconds left. This is insanity.