This month I did something that was once unthinkable for me – I cancelled my Netflix DVD service.
Let me explain why this seemed like a big deal. I embraced the early Netflix as the best source to satisfy my insatiable appetite for indie, foreign and documentary films – the kinds of quality cinema that chain video stores didn’t carry. Not only that, I evangelized for the service – encouraging everyone I knew to subscribe.
In the early years, I was a super Netflix customer, receiving and watching up to 22 DVDs each month. I used Netflix as a film school, as I studied the entire Francois Truffaut filmography and plumbed the depths of French and Japanese film noir. If one of those cool Sundance or Cannes festival hits didn’t make it to Bay Area theaters, I could catch it on Netflix DVD.
But, in 2007, Netflix began to move away from DVDs and toward streaming. The Netflix DVD collection suffered.
In 2008 I saw 130 movies on Netflix. In 2014, after I had gone down to 1-DVD-out-at-a-time, I watched only 13 Netflix DVDs.
In 2006, I saw 36 recent (2005 and 2006) movies on Netflix DVD. In 2014, I only saw 5 recent movies on Netflix.
Have I adapted to streaming? Yes, but I haven’t moved completely to Netflix streaming. I live for the indie/foreign/doc titles, and for those, Netflix streaming isn’t nearly as good for me as Amazon, iTunes and Vudu.
The 1955 French film noir Bob le Flambeur is a great example. If you’re into either film noir or French cinema (and I love both), it’s a Must See – and it’s available on a typically superb Criterion Collection DVD. Just ten years ago, I could only rent Bob le Flambeur on Netflix DVD. Today, I can also stream it on iTunes, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play. How about on Netflix Instant? Nope.
The way I see it, I’m not so much leaving Netflix as that Netflix left me.
