I have had a Netflix account since I started college. I've seen many films and watched many awesome TV series through my Netflix subscription, but other than that I can't necessarily say that it has deeply enriched my life.
When we left for our honeymoon we put the Netflix account on hold, which apparently now equates to "canceling" your account temporarily. I don't like this. They make you pick either Streaming OR DVD + Streaming, not just DVD alone, when you "reactivate" - and we have been a DVD-only house for a while now. On top of that, they charge you immediately when you reactivate, not after a month of service, which really sucks if you suddenly change your mind two minutes later, or had to pick streaming plus DVD but only want DVD!
Frustrating. Fortunately they have impeccable customer service, and almost a no-questions-asked policy when it comes to refunds. We couldn't choose between streaming-only or DVD-only when we were thinking of reactivating. There wasn't anything particularly pressing that we wanted to watch on DVD (I mean we have a queue going obviously, but nothing we were itching to see right away). I was trying to come up with something we could watch, or would want to watch, if we reactivated - but in order to see what was available on streaming, I had to activate it. So I did, not realizing I'd be charged right away.
Once I saw that their streaming was mostly crap I'd seen already, we changed our minds and decided to go back to DVD-only, but that wasn't a choice. So I had to choose DVD + streaming just to look at what our DVD queue had in it, and what we might want to watch. Once I was able to look at it, we decided we really weren't in need of watching any of that stuff just yet. So I tried to go in and cancel again, only to realize that I had already been billed for a month of streaming only plus a month of DVD + streaming.
So I called them and explained the situation, and they happily refunded both amounts and put our account back on hiatus.
And you know what? We haven't missed it in the three weeks we've been back from our honeymoon. Granted, we've also had access to Showtime for free (introductory promo, which just ended), but even without Dexter and random movie-watching we have lots of shows that we regularly record on DVR. There's "New Girl", "Raising Hope", "Tosh.0", "Law & Order: SVU", "South Park", and "Brand X", not to mention "The Daily Show", "The Colbert Report" every week night and "The Simpsons" and "Family Guy" and "American Dad" on Sundays. I'm probably forgetting a bunch.
Oh, plus "Jeopardy" every week night. And sometimes "Conan". We have way more stuff to watch than we are able to catch up on. And honestly I even find myself getting bored with this selection and wanting to watch stuff on the History Channel, or TLC, or HGTV or Food Network, as well as dumb things on TruTV. We have a glut of entertainment at our fingertips. I think it's safe to say that we watch a LOT of TV. I think it's probably almost always on in the evening, unless we are gone.
Some nights we turn it off and just work on other stuff, like a jigsaw puzzle or a good book or a computer game, or cleaning house. Those are things I wish we did more of, actually.
But it seems impossible to say "no" to any of the shows we watch. Which ones would you axe? It seems sad to say "I don't care if we watch that anymore", particularly with the sitcoms that pull you into the story line There's a general feeling of loss and of missing out if you don't watch. But guess what? You don't have to, and once you stop I bet you won't miss it.
Just like with Netflix. When did it become standard, acceptable practice for everyone to constantly have rented movies? And really, how many DVDs (one at a time) do you go through in a month? More than three? Think about the time it takes to receive the DVD and to send it back in. If you time it right, you can get two DVDs a week. But that assumes you watch it right away and send it back.
Realistically, if we get a DVD int he mail on Monday-Wednesday, we won't be watching it until Friday or Saturday night. In part, this is because we have TV shows we want to watch, but also a movie just doesn't fit well into our weeknight routine of coming home from work at 5:30, dinner by 6:00, clean-up, running errands/going to meetings/meeting up with friends/doing chores, and getting ready for bed.
Even if we managed to watch one DVD per weekend (which doesn't always happen, since we have other fun out-of-the-house things to do on the weekend a lot of the time), we'd probably only manage to watch 3-4 DVDs per month, max. At $9/month, that's $2.25-$3.00 per movie. Not too bad, as far as movies in general go. But then you bring RedBox into the equation, with their $1 rentals. Suddenly $2.25 - $3.00 seems like a fool's price. But included in the price of Netflix you are gaining the broader selection and greater convenience of home delivery, as opposed to having to go to the RedBox location, choose from the limited selection, then return the DVD the next day to avoid additional charges. When you consider the inconvenience, Netflix seems like the better choice I guess.
So basically unless you work at Walmart and there is a RedBox in the entryway that you pass at least 4 times daily and would have no trouble returning the DVDs you rent on time, hitting up RedBox is potentially a losing proposition compared to Netflix or other streaming sources.
Is that how lazy we've gotten, though? We can't be bothered to swing by our local grocery store, Walmart, or pharmacy store to snag a movie from RedBox? I'll tell you two things RedBox has going for it: spontaneity and instant gratification (if the movie you want is offered).
Then there's the question of movies in the theater. It's pretty insane that we're all somehow willing to cough up $10 to see a first-run movie. For the price of two people seeing a movie in the theater once, you can own in a few months later and watch it over and over again, or sell it to recoup some of your losses. Seriously? What a shitty deal! And yet we do it. Myself included. I am an AMC Stubs member, even. It helps to know that a few measly points are coming my way in exchanged for the large sums I'm shelling out to watch "Harry Potter". But you've gotta spend like $100 on movies before you see any serious returns rewards-wise.
We have found a comfortable alternative that lets us watch "current" movies before they've gone out of style, but without paying the crazy prices at AMC and its brethren (though we do sometimes still treat ourselves to that experience). It's the budget cinema. We live pretty close to the one in Milwaukee, and we go there quite often. Movies are $2 per person, and they offer a full concession stand at slightly lower than AMC prices, though it still isn't cheapy-cheap.
Between our DVR and the cheap-o theater (which, admittedly, is a little run down and sticky - but hey, it's dark in there anyway), we manage to stay entertained and abreast of media culture without breaking the bank. I'm not sure we'll ever go back to Netflix, unless they sweeten the pot.
Although they do have "Love Never Dies"... but I'm sort of afraid to watch that. Maybe I'll put it on my Christmas or birthday list, then once I've seen what cannot be unseen, I can decide to keep it or sell it....
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