Netflix Instant...again

I'm at the library and instead of working on my papers, I think I'll address a few things mentioned recently by by John and Jason (By the way, hello Jason.  I'm Ben.  Sometimes I game with John.  He has somehow roped me into this blogging endeavour, not that it was particularly hard to do.  I'll take any excuse to avoid doing actual work.) about Netflix Instant.

I have to admit that with Netfilx's new Instant-only pricing out, I've been a bit tempted to switch to that plan in the hope that the more people who do so, the more options Netflix will make available there.  However, I am pretty sure that within a week after switching there would be a movie I would need to see that was only available on DVD.  

It's true that I've watched a lot of bad indie romance movies (a secret love of mine) on Instant, but I've also seen some really good movies as well.  For example, The Tracy Fragments, Ink, La Moustache, The Big Lebowski, Let the Right One In, Examined Life, We Live in Public, Broken Flowers, Brief Interviews with Hideous Men, Encounters at the End of the World, We Don't Live Here Anymore, Wendy and Lucy, Primer and The Glamorous Life of Sachiko Hanai.  Of course, these are all recent movies.  Though I've never looked, I'll take John at his word that there is a shortage of classics.  But give it time.  

Much like Jason, I use Netflix Instant mostly for TV shows.  It turned me on to Party Down, Weeds  and Californication.  There are also great shows like No Reservations, Penn & Teller: Bullshit, Firefly and Jekyll (which is worth it solely for James Nesbitt's performance).  And those are just a few that I can think of off the top of my head.

It is interesting.  I feel about books the way you feel about DVDs.  I have a very hard time bringing myself to read a digital book.  I like having something that I can hold and smell and write in and mark up.  For me, the DVD does not provide any extra experience that I can't get from watching the movie online like a book does.  Of course, I would probably be singing a different tune if I had a slow internet connection, an old computer or a penchant for old, old movies.  I suspect that in my quest to obtain full Film Club membership status Netflix Instant will not be my friend...

Alright, enough incoherence from me.  I've written around 50 or so pages in the last week or two in the race towards the end of the semester; so, apologies for this poorly thought-out blog post.  I'm sure I'll be revisiting this topic in the next few weeks.