Netflix... How Did It Come To This?

How is it that anyone actually goes for and stays with Netflix streaming?  This is the weirdest phenomenon.  People voluntarily pay money to have lame movies and old tv shows.  This would be the same thing as 20 years ago having a subscription to Hollywood Video but only being able to rent the movies whose boxes are faded by the sun.  What are we thinking?

Netflix has maybe five brand new movies that people want to see at any one time.  Avengers has been on there for a couple years, but oops!  Everyone bought it on blu-ray because it was so cheap.  And, while Jack Reacher was entertaining, I don't really want to watch it again because maybe I missed something.  I didn't.

I know a lot of people who have given up on cable or satellite tv only to opt in to Netflix and their tv antenna.  And, I understand the argument.  Why pay over $75 a month for something I don't really watch?  With satellite, things start piling up on the DVR and then, I owe the tv time because I am investing so much into it.  But I don't want to spend that much time on it.

I think there is this sweet spot with cable and satellite tv that many people are willing to accept on a monthly basis.  People would be willing to throw a certain amount out the door each month to have these services.  My thinking is that that amount is no more than $45 a month.  For $45 a month, they could have me as a customer for life.  But they don't want that.  They want to continue with their whole song and dance of $25 per month for the first year and then $75 per month thereafter.  Anyone who does even the most worthless budget is going to see how ridiculous that is.  One can only throw a $50 dollar bill in the trash so many times.

Having a family and doing things together really cuts into my tv time.  So, why have cable or satellite if I am not even there to watch it?  And once again, this goes back to the certain amount of money that I am willing to just part with each month.  

There was a time where people could not live without cable.  It was unheard of.  I think that is why Netflix appeals to people.  In a way, it is a freedom thing.  It's sticking it to the man.  It is the ability to survive outside what they said had to be.  For $20 a month, I can wait a year to watch your stupid zombie show.  Then, I will watch it all in one night.  So there!

And Netflix is ridiculous.  Things that should be on there never are.  I still make the mistake of looking for movies hoping that somehow the old Rankin-Bass Hobbit will be on there.  It isn't.  It doesn't work that way.  Instead is more like the tv we grew up with.  What's on tonight?  Well, we can either watch this old Ken Burns documentary on baseball or Free Willy 2. (For some reason, Free Willy is nowhere to be found.)  Or we can watch The Terminator for the millionth time.  Or Star Trek Deep Space Nine.  That is what tv was like when I was growing up, surfing through the channels settling on the best of the worst...

What it comes down to is that we have essentially given up.  We realized that tv has nothing to offer us in any form.  But since we have gigantic tv's and our kids need to watch something, we choose the cheapest option, Netflix.  And who knows?  Every once in awhile, we may catch a gem here or there.