And the list keeps growing
It is that time of year, after May sweeps, when the selection of good, new (non-re-run) TV shows is nil. Thankfully for us, media hungry family that we are, we have Netflix. I don’t remember exactly how long we’ve had the service, but it has to be at least five years. Their selection is fabulous, everything from mainstream new releases to instructional videos to indie to popular television series. We love that there are no additional fees over our monthly $19.95 for three DVDs at a time. We love that the red envelope goes right back in the mail and a few days later a new red envelope shows up. We love that if there’s ever a problem with a damaged or missing disk there are no questions asked. What has become a bit of a conundrum is that we currently have 399 titles in our queue. Yup, after a few releases this summer we’ll be up over 400.
For those who want to know the math: 400 discs with approximately two hours of entertainment (a serious average, not including the extra features) that’s 48000 minutes of footage. That’s somewhere around 67 twelve hour days of constant DVD viewing. Whew! Over two months of couch-potatoism. I’m not saying we couldn’t do it (ha!) but truly how? If we watched three hours every night it would take us 267 nights, nearly two-thirds of a year. Wow. (By the way I hope, since I’m posting this to the world, that I did the math right!)
When people find out how long our queue is they ask how I hear about all the movies. JD often asks the same thing after we watch yet another Indie flick that wasn’t as good as I wanted it to be. I find titles a few ways.
- I watch the Oscars every year and keep a running list of what looks interesting, wins awards and/or has Hollywood buzzing.
- I read entertainment news online and notice titles of films from Cannes (or other festivals) that garner much praise.
- I pay attention online or in person when a friend or aquaintance mentions a good film.
- I troll the Netflix site for “because you liked _______ you might like ______” type recommendations.
- I see TV shows that look good but are either on channels we don’t get (HBO, Showtime) or the show has already been on for years and we are slow to come around to it (24 is a perfect example of that).
For us that’s pretty much how it works. It has ended up for some reason that I mostly post to the queue. JD has been encouraged many a time and does select some. He has also learned to bump up what he wants to see because the end of the list never seems to get to the top, because it keeps growing…