Netflix

I was first exposed to Netflix around 2002 by my supervisor.  He was pretty excited about it, but at the time I still preferred going down to my local video store.  I couldn't imagine having to fill out a list of movies and having to wait to watch something.

Fast forward seven years and I'm a subscriber.  Netflix let the wife and I watch movies we just couldn't find at the video store.  Of course now we don't have a video store, but we do have Redbox.  Between cable, Netflix, and Redbox we were set.  Then I quit my job.

When you've got money coming in and you pay your bills automatically it is easy to let a few things slip by you.  Cable was one of those things.  I noticed this spring that Netflix had pretty much taken over our TV viewing.  When over a month went by where we hadn't turned on the cable, that was $55 a month that needed to go.  There are a few shows we miss, like Chuck and Mythbusters, but we can get the DVDs or watch live later.  Carolyn doesn't want to wait so she is buying Mythbusters on iTunes.  Still a LOT cheaper than paying for a mostly unused cable, and we can watch things on our schedule, not theirs.

Streaming Netflix through our Xbox has been great.  We were already using the Xbox to control our Media Center PC, so using it for Netflix was a no-brainer.  Last year I even went so far as to get a second Xbox just to extend that functionality to the bedroom TV.

The only thing I'm not a huge fan of is sharing my Netflix cue with my wife.  It isn't that I don't mind sharing things, after all I did marry her, it's just that &^%#$! Xbox requires the Netflix subscriber to have a gold account.  Carolyn doesn't play video games for the most part, so paying $50 a year just so she can have her own Netflix feed is overkill.  I subscribe to the 2 DVDs at a time plan and Netflix would let me split that up between us (1 DVD each) which would also get each of us our own feed.

Why would I care?  Netflix likes to make suggestions on what they think you would like to watch.  I wish they would base their recommendations on shows you actually have watched, not just put in your que.

Here were my latest recommendations:

Gilmore girls.....kill me now before my man card is taken away.  Was this based on the fact I liked Happy Gilmore?  I love that flick!  Bob Barker saying "The Price is Right.......bitch" was classic.

 What a Girl Wants.  I've seen this flick, I think...er, never heard of it before.

 I definitely never heard of the last movie and quite frankly I don't even want to bother to look it up.  Tales of the Gold Monkey however, I have heard of.  I think Carolyn does want to watch it.  Isn't it just a live-action version of Talespin?


These four movies were all in the same recommended category, by the way.  Netflix suggests lots of other movies too, just in specific categories.

You'll notice I haven't brought up the whole pricing fiasco that has plagued Netflix recently. I don't see any reason to comment other that to say it appears that the free market made a self-correction in this regard.  Capitalism can work comrades!