How to Host a Virtual Watch Party!

Do you have a group of friends that you constantly text about movies and shows that you’re streaming? Start a Watch Party Group! Some of my girlfriends and I started one a while ago and it’s been so much fun. We look forward to it every week. Here’s how you do it:

First, give yourselves a group name! Our group name is:

Next, align on what common streaming services everyone has. Hulu and Netflix offer actual watch party capabilities where one person controls the screen and you can watch in real time together. You can also download Teleparty on your computer and use it with other streaming services like HBO Max.

Then start your list of movies and shows to stream together! The way we did it was having everyone pick 2 shows and 2 movies that they wanted to watch. If someone had already seen one of the nominations, it was out. Then we created a watch party bracket to narrow it down to what we were going to watch first. (Very March Madness of us.)

After a few rounds of voting, we landed on our first one and scheduled a date. Next, set up the watch party through the streaming service as well as a video meeting (Zoom / Google Hangout / Microsoft Teams) so you can see each other during the viewing.

Before the night of the watch party, we always text a lot with excitement and also to talk about what drinks and snacks we should have. Everyone kinda does their own thing, but it’s fun to see what everyone is planning. For our last viewing I did a little sushi and champagne setup.

Now it’s time for the watch party to start! We put ourselves on mute while we watch and use the chat to make comments and chime in throughout, which always has us cracking up laughing. Some of the streaming services (like Hulu) actually have a chat built into the watch party feature so you can do it there.

HAVE FUN!

Reviews so far from the Stream Queens:

The first show we watched together was A Teacher. Overall 4 Crowns Up from the Stream Queens! We were a little underwhelmed by the ending, but overall enjoyed the scandalousness and character development.

Next we watched the movie: The Assistant. Although we all love our girl Ruth from Ozark, the Stream Queens all gave this a CROWNS DOWN! It was very slow with no real plot. It was hard to have sympathy for the characters because there was no backstory given and we all thought it fell flat.

Next on our list: The Ripper on Netflix!