Back on the Netflix Teat

Didn't think it was ever going to happen, but I just re-signed with Netflix. I have nothing against Netflix at all, mind you. I think it's a great service, for most people, and I love how it gets people seeing films (indy, foreign) that they otherwise never would have watched...just because they feel they need to add something new to their queue (and they've already seen every Austin Powers and Deuce Bigalow film). People get to experience TV shows they never would have seen through Netflix, too (I know there's a lot of Firefly converts out there because of getting the discs on Netflix...and we welcome them to the Browncoat fold!).


When the service first came out, I signed up, and was digging it. This is when it first went live, back when you paid twenty bucks a months and you got three discs at a time. It was cool for a while. But then I hit that inevitable point...I got all the movies I REALLY wanted to see out of the way, and then started trying things I'd always meant to see, or ones that I was just curious about, but those kinds of movies aren't a real big priority (which is probably why I never saw them in the first place). So I found myself with three movies sitting in their little red Netflix envelopes on my coffee table, and I was just never in the mood to watch any of them. I could have just sent them back, of course...but my mind kept telling me I'd ordered them, so I HAD to watch them before I moved on to something else. So I ended up paying $19.99 per month for three movies to sit in my apartment, unwatched, for about four or five months. I finally sent them back when I decided maybe Netflix wasn't for me anymore. And about that time, my TV-watching time started going out the window, too, so there really was no point.

However, today I got obsessed with the idea of seeing the HBO show, "The Wire". I remember watching part of the first episode when it aired, and wasn't really thrilled with it. Maybe I was just in the wrong mood. It seemed slow and not very interesting. Anyone who knows me knows that I usually have no problem with slow in my media (I own the director's cut of "Wyatt Earp", for God's sake...), so I'm thinking it probably was mood. I usually try not to judge a show by its first ep only, and usually like to give it at least three before I write it off. Didn't get back to this one, though.

But I've been seeing promos for their upcoming (final) season, and a browsing of some reviews on Amazon have me really jazzed to try again. I'm liking what I'm hearing, how the whole series is described as a "visual novel", how there are dozens of main characters the show follows, and how all the different pieces fit together. I like that several people's reviews said it was impossible to properly describe the show in just a short review, that you just have to experience it to understand. And how they're saying that it's not a show you can just casually watch while cooking dinner or paying your bills - there's a lot of small details, and you really have to pay attention, and maybe even watch each ep more than once. I love shows like that!

What I don't love is HBO's price point when it comes to their DVD sets. In short - they screw you. HBO shows are (usually) only thirteen episodes long. And they want to charge you, often, up to a hundred bucks to own them (like with "Sopranos, Season 6, Part 1" - if you want to own the whole Season 6, you end up paying $200). In general, HBO prices their 13-ep seasons of their shows at $60.00. I am not going to pay $60 for 13 episodes when, generally, on any other show from any other network, I can spend twenty bucks less (often less than that) and get nearly twice as many episodes. I'd love to own the first two seasons of Carnivale. I'd love to try some Deadwood. At those prices? No. And you wonder why Bittorrent TV downloads are becoming such a problem for the networks...

My normal way of trying out a show that enough people have recommended to me is just to buy it. I did that with Veronica Mars (hey, and that was JOSS WHEDON recommending it...), which I still haven't gotten around to watching yet. But I know it's there, on my rack, if and when the mood strikes. And the cost was reasonable enough where I felt it was worth the money to have that kind of instant and anytime access to the set. But while I'm getting the feeling I'm going to dig The Wire a lot and probably will WANT to own them, I'm also not going to shell out $240 just to watch the first four seasons. So...

So it hit me today that Netflix was probably the best option. And unlike when I was with them before, there are different subscription options. There's a really low-level one that lets you pay on $4.99 per month, but that means you're restricted to one movie at a time, and can only have two movies per month. I like the one disc at a time thing just fine, so that's cool for me. But if I really get on a run (if I find time) and watch to start zooming through a TV show, I'd like the option to get the new disc as soon as I send back the previous one, and not have to worry about how many a month I can have. So I went with their $8.99 option, which is the one-at-a-time, no limit per month option. I think I can justify affording that. Especially if I mainly focus on TV show seasons, as that's four hours of TV per disc. And if a disc ends up on the coffee table for a couple of months (which I'm sure will happen at some point), well, I won't feel quite as bad about it at only $8.99. I thought about looking into the Blockbuster.com thing, as you can go return the movies and pick up new ones at the store if you don't feel like waiting for the mail, but then I realized...I'll never go to the store. I hate stopping on the way home from work. I'll never use that option. I want everything to come to me...I don't want to go out and get it.

So, for now, I'm back with Netflix, and I'll see how it goes, and see if I stick with it after I get through The Wire (assuming everyone else out there isn't wrong and I end up hating it...). Who knows? Maybe I'll even start catching up on some of those many, MANY movies I've missed in the theaters since I started sucking at making it to the theaters the past few years. I'll start browsing. Ooh, I could finally see "Last King of Scotland". This is starting to sound like a good idea...