Scaling Berlin Station’s Geoblock

Canadians. We are friendly, polite, willing and able to put up with winter yet possess such a roguish side with television we might as well say yo-ho-ho-eh? Canadians ranked 7th in illegal television downloads. Before the Virtual Private Network (VPN) crackdown, I knew people using services like Unblock US to see Netflix’s US content. I didn’t get around to Unblock US, and I did use Project Free TV to stream episodes of True Blood before biting the bullet and getting HBO Canada. I liked the site for its ease of use. Otherwise, I practice delay of gratification and crack jokes about Canada sharing the longest undefended border yet having the geo-fenced slammed in our collective faces.

It’s how I felt after sitting down with my veggies, hummus, Garnacha red wine to watch episode 2 of Berlin Station, Richard Armitage’s latest project, last Friday. Epix released the first two episodes for free and I watched one on Thursday. The next day, I saw the content-not-available message. I finally have a two-episode taste on Vanity Fair and then:

The story goes Vanity Fair ran into some technical difficulty and put the videos back up, this time with geoblocking. EPIX wants to compete in already crowded US cable market, that market has more people, and I can add yadda-yadda-yadda to the rest. I went back to delaying gratification and took comfort in watching the first episode.

Saturday, I noticed the icon for my VPN appear on my tablet. My hotel during New York 1.0 had free wi-fi, but I knew enough about free wi-fi to purchase a VPN. I kept it if I went into a coffee shop, and the price stayed within budget. Now I wondered if it will help me get episode 2. I went in, selected my location, turned it on, and went back to Vanity Fair. The sounds eliciting from my shocked vocal chords looks like a cross between an excited kitten and a whale with laryngitis. So, yes, it worked. I scaled a wall and landed softly in Vanity Fair’s garden of earthly delights. At least watch the second episode. How did I know it worked? My smaller tablet couldn’t play it, and I couldn’t cast the videos to my tv despite seeing the Google Cast symbol. Who cares, I think Hector feels the same way about Faisal, and it will motivate him to feed more info to Thomas Shaw. Plus, I want more and hope it will broadcast in Canada. More intrigue! More Armitage! (Not in the way you’re thinking although *cough* not objecting *cough*.)

I decline to say what VPN I use, but most do have 30-day trials to see if you like their wares, and I heard Berlin Station’s two free episodes disappear on September 30th. I think episode 1 needs a re-watch for the shower scene its narrative choices.