Not down on Netflix yet

Things I've learned: I can take Ryan Gosling more seriously as a smarmy, backstabbing politico than I can as a face-stomping tough guy. In other words, The Ides of March equal good. Drive equal not as good. But he is still fine as hell in both movies.

Next!!!

So I have been trying to wrap my little brain around this whole Netflix issue. Many people are still pissed about the separation of streaming and DVDs and its accompanying price hike. I too am not crazy about the price boost, however, I am not ready to go streaming only so I'm sucking it up. It'shttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif funny that people claim that the reason Netflix is doing this is so they can eventually drop DVDs all together. This argument was helped along by the now-abandoned idea to move DVDs to a new site and rename it Qwikster, which was dumb. Frankly, I don't see how Netflix would really benefit from dropping DVD. I like getting DVDs because of the additional content and options that are available. Right now, neither my Roku, my Blu-ray player, my iPod nor my Inspire provide closed-captioning or subtitles (unless a film is originally in a foreign language). We also don't get much in the way of bonus content with streaming and the picture quality on some flicks leaves much to be desired. I don't know how much of that is Netflix fault or the various players (can't do captioning/subtitles for Amazon either on my Roku...I don't think).

The other major beef is that Netflix is losing content. It was recently announced that come February of 2012 they will be losing a bunch of Starz and Sony content. The thing is I thought that meant those movies and shows would disappear from Netflix, but really it's just that they won't be available through Netflix Instant Watch. Now, while I'm sure that is inconvenient for some of the lazy fuckers who can't wait the two days to get a disc or aren't will to trudge over to their local Redbox (or if they're 'lucky', Blockbuster) to get the movie, it isn't the end of the world. HBO doesn't have a streaming deal with them, but you can still get HBO show DVDs from Netflix (for the most part). Waiting sucks, but remember when Netflix first became a THING and not only did you have to wait but you had to wait like 4 or 5 days between discs? That is rarely the case anymore.

And yeah, sometimes a movie or show you want is a Very Long Wait for a Very Long Time (looking at you Breaking Bad, although that is mute now since those are now streaming on Netflix), but if you just can't stand it anymore, you can do what I did and just buy the freakin' discs yourself, or even use some other type of streaming (which will usually cost you). Which is what all these people who are belly-aching about it and leaving Netflix will end up doing anyway.

I guess I have drank the Netflix Flavor-Aid (it wasn't Kool-Aid, y'all) and just won't give up on them yet. I am still DVDing and streaming and I just can't quit them.