Netflix Plan vs. Reality

Jacob,

Which one???? Are you guys the reason it's been in my que THIS long?

Would the obscure Japanese film be Night on the Galactic Railroad?

Or alternatively…. don't put obscure Japanese films in your queue unless they give you huge amounts of pleasure.

Just add movies that you know you are REALLY psyched to see.

Then Netflix will be constantly give you jolts of cinematic joy.

You are right Mike. Not only some but indeed most titles at Netflix are not available on instant, at the moment.

Another risk to an instant-only approach right now is that (a) the picture quality is not going to be quite as good as with a disk and (b) it might be a lot worse if you are watching at a time when bandwidth is at a premium.

Regardless, though, I'm uncertain that Instant would solve the particular problem raised in this article. The problem raised is not people who's temperament is very spontaneous — they don't have any idea what they might want to see until they sit down. Instant is indeed a good solution for those folks.

Rather, the problem (as far as I can tell) is people who have some inner judge telling them they Ought to watch "good for you" movies (hyperarty, social commentaries, morally improving, movies with a good Christian message, whatever) — which in fact they don't actually like. Instant, it seems to me, still means that the person is going to have that moment of being judged and found wanting (just each moment he or she starts up the movie for the night).

The solution to the problem is finding a Romans 8:1 freedom for movies — to banish the hectoring Professor and just watch whatever gives you joy.