This comic strip will strike a chord with many readers who have spent a long time idly skimming through the streaming options trying to find something to watch. It can be difficult even if one is alone and there are no competing views.
I have pretty much given up on searching through the catalog as a way of finding films. It is very rarely that I stumble across anything that I think is worthwhile to spend a couple of hours on. When I do find something, it is a title that I had heard about before and made a mental note of as possibly interesting and then forgotten about it. What I do now is maintain a list of films that I would like to see based on reviews or recommendations, and then wait until they become available in some format.
This is a good illustration of the paradox of choice, where the more options one has, the less satisfied one is because of the feeling after picking a possibility, that if one looked a little more, one might find something better. Nowadays, there are so many streaming options, both paid and free, that it can be overwhelming.
I wonder about the economics of the business. It used to be that films were made to be first released in cinemas and then later released as DVDs or for streaming. It amazes me that nowadays so many high production value films and mini-series are being made by the streaming services themselves and bypass the cinemas altogether. Even though there are so many streaming platforms with the consequent fragmentation of the market, it looks like they are still able to make money.
When I was in growing up Sri Lanka, films were one of the cheapest form of entertainment, that we went to if we had nothing better to do. Since there were very few cinemas, we ended up watching a wide variety of films, some of which were really awful, the kind I would never have chosen if I had more choice. Some of the terrible ones I still remember because we would be convulsed with laughter while watching it and discussing it afterwards. Two of these that come immediately to mind are Valley of the Dolls (1967) and Lost Horizon (1973). Some films we went to even though we knew beforehand that they would be bad, so starved were we of entertainment options.
So having more choice is welcomed, even if it makes selection difficult and time consuming.
Yeah, that’s my Netflix experience.
Spend 20-25 minutes looking for something, give up.
Repeat every few days, ad nauseam.
I often try to watch something but give up quickly, so my “recently watched” section consists of around 9-12 items with a few minutes’ watching before I gave up for every item I’ve completed watching.
It’s clear to me that this is their business model — they very deliberately don’t provide a searchable database of their current offerings in one’s locale — though there are third-party sites.
Really, were it not for my wife also using the service (more successfully than I do), I’d give up the subscription. But I know I’m not normal, and these days I’m also rather jaded. And, of course, I seek reviews with spoilers before even trying to watch something. Ah well. So it goes.
(Also: Sturgeon’s revelation)
Another thing that bugs me; there are heaps of old movies from from the 1930s to the 1960s that could surely be added fairly cheaply, but no. Not there.
Alas, they are generally crap, production values aside.
Much too much padding. Bah.
Basically, if I see something is from Netflix itself, I am already (on the basis of experience) prejudiced against it.
So I don’t watch movies so much these days -- too busy -- but back in the day when I wanted to know what to rent from the video store (I did say back in the day kids), here’s what I’d do.
You get a resource like this one:
https://www.allmovie.com/advanced-search
and you select four stars or higher, say, and then you can select what other criteria you want. I would, like, select the most recent 5 years not counting the last year -- because they’re what the video store is likely to have -- but you can select whatever you want. Select what genres you like, or whatever. You can even search by themes if you like feelgood movies or whatever.
Then you have a list of suggestions, so you right-click on each one, or equivalent on your phone, and you read the review, and you decide if this is the sort of thing you’re likely to like.
I discovered a lot of really good movies this way, I’d never heard of.
With your streaming services there’s the added complication of whether your particular service has the movie, but you know -- you just check that as you go along.
Anyway, that’s how I did it back in the day.
(Disclaimer: I swear I don’t work for Allmovie and am not getting a commission on traffic X-D )
Unintentional comedies were the theme of Mystery Science Theater 3000″.
There are a lot of podcasts that dissect “so bad they are good” films för the amusement of the viewers.
One of my favourite ones is “God Awful Movies” that specialise on religion-themed films. Mostly Christian but they are happy to dig up non-christian films (‘Day When Sun Rises In The West’ is a good example of the latter)
The mother lode of bad films are to be found in horror and monster films. I recommend Brandon’s Cult Movie Reviews and Terry Talks Movies but you can find a dozen other podcasts.
(A surprise is the German horror comedy ‘The Killer Condom’ about a GM organism camouflaged as a condom. It was … a good parody !)
Selecting four stars or higher sounds like a good criterion.
If you can find non-english films with subtitles and decent reviews, I recommend you try them.
Who are these people, who have five hours spare to look at a TV? Who are these people, who don’t already have a queue of stuff they want to watch but haven’t had the time to get around to yet?
By the time I’ve got home, made my son’s dinner, cleared up after said dinner, done other general day’s admin, got him ready for bed, got him in bed, read him his story AND as much of “The Hobbit” as he can stay awake for, come downstairs, cooked my wife’s dinner, cleared up after THAT and fixed us a drink, there’s *maybe* an hour, possibly an hour and a half available before we’re both asleep. In that time it’s possible to watch one film if it’s short enough, or one episode of a TV show we’re watching plus where applicable the obligatory follow-up Screencrush with Ryan Arey to explain to us all the stuff we missed in the episode we just watched.
On the roster right now (in order of how likely we are to pick that thing to watch on a given night)
-- Taskmaster (were rewatching old ones to keep up with the podcast, but the new series started last night… which we missed)
-- She-Hulk
-- House of the Dragon
-- Star Trek Lower Decks
-- Andor
-- Umbrella Academy
-- Stranger Things
-- Locke and Key
-- Cowboy Bebop (original animation)
-- Cowboy Bebop (live action)
We’ve not even bothered starting “Rings of Power”, although that’s very much in our wheelhouse.
Add to this the fact that my wife hasn’t seen an MCU movie in the cinema since Shang-Chi (I think), and has only see as far as the first half of “No Way Home” at, er… home, I missed “Love and Thunder” in the cinema and haven’t seen it yet at all (it’s there to see if I have time, but…), and we’re behind on just the junk food movies, never mind anything outside of that. Still have “Knives Out” on the “to watch” list and the bloody sequel’s already on the way.
And yet I’m not complaining. Why would I? With the magic of bittorrent, I’ve relived a few of the TV shows of my youth -- for example, Space 1999. In the desert of TV in the 70s (three channels only, so you watched whatever was on) this was a geek oasis. Watch it now and it’s almost painful. Similarly, the Six Million Dollar Man, and The Man From Atlantis, shows I thought were great when I was, y’know, seven, when watched back are startlingly bad, woodenly acted, slow, nonsense.
Nowadays, my “problem” is that I haven’t anything like enough time available to watch just the really good stuff. The concept of having the time available to scroll through crap I’ve never heard of is a distant dream, a luxury I can’t ever remember having. And hearing people complaining about it boggles my mind. I’m tempted to tell them to get a life -- this paucity of available time isn’t just because I’ve got small children. I’ve always had a bunch of other stuff going on in my life that meant the time available to simply sit and consume was limited. Admittedly I could, years ago, choose to prioritise telly if there was something I wanted to catch up on or rewatch. I’m thinking back to about six or seven years ago when my late bestest friend and I spent a whole Easter weekend watching ALL of Blake’s 7. It was wonderful.
If you’re scrolling through Netflix at all -- if you’ve even five minutes to do that -- you’re just not paying attention, OR you need to find something else to DO. That’s all.
sonofrojblake:
Well, I’m retired. I have all the time in the world.
In my experience, the only way to determine whether stuff is actually good is to watch at least some of it. And so often, series really dip in quality after a few episodes.
Hm, quite the dilemma. Luckily, I’ve found this blog, which is something else. 😉
#1 John
I might be taking the wrong meaning from this, so to clarify, does Netflix lack even a search function for members?
Au contraire, your time is very limited. And you’re happy to spend it scrolling through stuff you’ve never heard of and watching stuff that might not be worth your time? You’re happy to spend it staring at a screen? You do you, I guess.
Actually, that’s the opposite of how it seems to work nowadays. (Aside: I’m unsurprised your experience is the opposite of the reality, but hey, again, you do you). There was an article in the Guardian only the other day mentioning this common reality: when someone tells you about a new show that you simply *must* watch, very commonly the thing they tell you is how many episodes it takes to get good. Example: Sandman on Netflix -- like the comic, it starts slowly, setting the scene. Episodes five5 and six are where it really kicks into gear, so don’t give up before that. Star Trek: The Next Generation, well, wait until a little way into, er… season three. No series can afford to take that long to find its feet nowadays. I don’t know what you’re watching that starts well then dips -- that’s really not how anything I’ve watched in the last five years has panned out, but chacun a son gout.
Holms @11, it lacks a searchable list.
One can search for a name, and if a name is not there, it will give you related stuff.
One can click on categories, and vaguely related stuff will come up.
But no list to be found, as in “here is the catalogue”.
I saw that. My experience was that the first two episodes were rather good, the third and fourth getting slow and boring, and episodes 5 and 6 were when I hit the fast-forward button bloody hard.
Umbrella academy, I zotted my way though most of it, haven’t bothered with the next. You’ll probably like it.
—
It’s not about my lifespan.
The intent was to tell you that I do actually have five hours spare to look at a TV, if I choose to spend that time doing that. I have up to 24 hours per day to do whatever I want to do. I don’t have to go to work.
Related to the life-wasting aspect of video-watching, I’ve become a big zotter.
Boring bits get zotted, scenes where the point is established within 30 seconds but then goes on an on and on get zotted, and so forth.
I recommend that technique.
[sorry, Mano, I know I’m spamming a bit]
sonofrojblake, let’s see if I can better the algorithm.
From what you’ve written and from my own experience, I reckon that you would quite enjoy Brand New Cherry Flavor.
(One of the few Netflix series I’ve watched to the end; I also liked Happy!)
@John Morales:
Out of all that, I have only one question. Which of the following is true:
1. You think a chartered chemical engineer in his fifties doesn’t know what “retired” means.
2. You think I do know what retired means, but you felt the need to explain it to me anyway.
Both of these things say more about you than me.
sonof, #3: Neither of those.
Me: I’m retired. I have all the time in the world.
You: Au contraire, your time is very limited.
I was not explaining what being retired means, I was explaining what I meant by having all the time in the world. Nothing to do with lifespan.
So, you thought (and think) that me having the spare time to do it actually means I do it? Not so.
I was quite specifically and literally addressing your question:
“Who are these people, who have five hours spare to look at a TV?”
How could they possibly? They’re both products of your imagination.
#12 John
If you fast forward big chunks of conversation, how do you know you have only skipped unimportant bits? Plenty of shows have screenwriters that sprinkle useful plot information throughout a conversation. (Though of course there plenty of others that mistake ‘turgid’ for ‘deep’… looking at you, writers of Donnie Darko.)
Holms, experience and nous from me.
Formulaic and predictable techniques by film-makers.
And, of course, the inevitable padding by Netflix.
For example, very often it’s a case of A angsting at B, so we the audience get to see how angsty they are. But, after the first 15 to 30 seconds, I get it. A is angsty.
I don’t need the succeeding three minutes of angsting to get that.
For example, car is driving along open road. Countryside, wild area, whatever.
After the first 15 to 30 seconds, I get it. I don’t need to see the car driving for another few minutes.
Etc.
So, I’m going to drop a recommendation for a show my wife and I just finished watching: “We are Lady Parts”
I’ll drop the Wiki premise, because it’s shorter than anything I would write;
I wouldn’t say the plot is surprising, but it is quite well done. Cheerio!