Jenn's Zen

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. (more…)

Where to begin?  First, I suppose I should admit that I only saw two movies in the theater last year. They were Sex in the City and Horton Hears a Who.  “Sex” was a girls night out event and “Horton” was part of a great Saturday (previously blogged).  Each year when Oscar nominations are announced I feel a sudden urge to go out and try to round up as many movie tickets and DVDs as possible to watch in the weeks between the nominations and the awards.  This rarely works.  This year I almost saw Anne Hathaway’s performance, well, maybe almost is too much.  Friends and I discussed seeing it, but ended up missing it’s re-release.  I have felt completely and totally out of the loop because I haven’t seen Slumdog Millionaire.  In one of the post-Oscar articles I read today it said that the film was going to be re-released.  So, maybe I’ll catch it there.  If I don’t, I already added it to our (ever growing, over 300 titles) Netflix list.  In addition I also added these:

• Encounter at the end of the World
• The Garden
• The Betrayal
• Man on Wire
• Trouble the Water
• Pineapple Express
• The Reader
• Tropic Thunder
• Doubt
• Milk
• Seven Minutes
• Frost/Nixon
• Secret Life of Bees (I have to read the book first)
• Revolutionary Road
• Frozen River
• The Visitor
• Australia
• Ironman
• Defiance
• The Class
• Revanche

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One of the things I do while watching the Oscars is to write down the titles of films that look good, interesting or that win several awards.  This way I can add them to our Netflix queue and JD can ask me (as he always does) "How did you find this (OBSURE/BORING) movie?!"

Here they are, in no particular order:

• Juno
• Atonement
• Michael Clayton
• The Savages
• Charlie Wilson’s War
• Enchanted (to screen to see if E would be allowed to watch it)
• Away From Her
• American Gangster
• August Rush
• No Country For Old Men
• There Will Be Blood
• 3:10 to Yuma
• Once
• The Diving Bell and Butterfly
• No End in Sight
• Operation Homecoming
• Sicko
• Taxi to the Dark Side
• War Dance
• Lars and the Real Girl
• The Valley of Ella
• Freeheld

And just so you know, we have over 200 DVDs in our Netflix queue.  Too much media, so little time.