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Caught in the Net(flix)

I've been on summer break since May 17. Despite my best intentions of using my break to catch up on the course readings that I was not able to get to during the semester (or getting a head start on summer Greek), I have barely turned a page of that small stack.

Rather, my productivity has been thwarted by my introduction to, and subsequent immersion in, Netflix and the instant gratification of Netflix's streaming movies (curse you, Peter!). It started innocently enough with wanting to watch again the James Bond film License to Kill, an underrated film featuring the very underrated Timothy Dalton. Then I was introduced to the BBC's modern interpretation of Sherlock Holmes, called simply, Sherlock. Then there was the 9-part documentary World War II in Color from the History Channel. Of course, having been a long-time fan of Michael Palin's travel documentaries, I had to see Michael Palin's New Europe (good), Sahara (very good), and Himalayas (great). Then there's a whole slew of movies from the 80's that I never got around to seeing: Chariots of Fire, The Right Stuff, and The Last Emperor, to name only a few. Or movies that I had seen that I thought would be fun to revisit, like the Universal monster movies from the 1940's.

Here's the insidious thing about Netflix--actually insidious things. Netflix is like a drug dealer. They rope you in by offering one month free. Then, as soon as you've watched a couple of movies, they begin to offer you suggestions. "If you liked X, then you might also like Y." The other night I watched the original Nosferatu, the German silent film from 1922. Now I've been informed that I might also like other macabre masterpieces from the Silent era, such as Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (with John Barrymore), The Golem, and Fritz Lang's Metropolis. Come to think of it, I've always been kind of curious about Metropolis...

Comments

  1. JeffJune 20, 2011 at 6:23 AM

    My current queue reflects very similar obsessions. A little time goes by and there is a whole new perspective waiting from a reviewing of Smokey and the Bandit.

    -Sylvia Meyers

    ReplyDelete
  2. PeterJuly 1, 2011 at 10:36 PM

    mea cula, mea culpa. But in my experience, I've found Netflix to be more of a recreational media outlet than a gateway media outlet. I haven't dabbled with Hulu Plus or Amazon Video On Demand yet. I no longer have a TV (and I've never had cable), so I'm catching up on TV shows (both old and new) that I never got around to watching. Movies aren't such a time investment, but watching a TV show can take weeks! I guess that's why they call it funemployment.... :(

    ReplyDelete

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