Against my better judgment

[oneiriad]

I signed up for the free trial at Netflix. Still not impressed. There's a couple of old science fiction series that I used to want to see, but considering the staggering number of other such shows that I can already get my hands on? Not worth it. And as for the movie selection? Poor. (And considering the big fuss made about how Danish stuff would be available, I wonder why there is not a single Dirch Passer movie?)

I'll give it one + point for being the first place in DK I've seen Dr. Horrible available, but that's not nearly enough. I think I'll take the opportunity to check out the first season of Justified (you'd think they want people to turn pirate, the way they only offer the first few seasons of popular series), but there is nothing in this selection that would make me even consider staying past the free month.

Comments

[calvinahobbes]

I considered signing up, but then they wanted my card info, and I couldn't be arsed to get up and find it. I still might sign up for it while I have the iPad just to see. Do they have Buffy? Star Trek?

[oneiriad]

Buffy yes - all seven seasons. No Angel. First five season of new!Who, all of Torchwood. Of Star Trek, they only have First Contact, Nemesis and Insurrection - none of the series at all :-(

[calvinahobbes]

See, because that's stuff I might actually be interested in, because it's hard to find stealth d/l of ST and classic Who. But it makes absolutely zero sense to have BtvS but not AtS!

[oneiriad]

I suspect they'd be too complicated to get the rights for and then they have to produce subtitles (since Netflix seems to be awfully proud of having subtitles) for too small an audience. Netflix seems to aiming at the rent-a-movie-for-the-evening crowd, not the I-want-to-watch-this-specific-thing people like you and me. They're talking about keeping an eye on what's popular and expanding their selection in those directions, but if the selection isn't there to begin with...

[calvinahobbes]

Yeah, exactly. If they start out catering to the casual viewer how are they going to catch the geeks? IDK, I think they're missing out on some cash there. If I had all the shows I watched anyway available to watch streaming ANYWHERE -- yeah, I'd pay for that!

[oneiriad]

Not to mention that a streaming service targeted at geeks would have the advantage of not having to compete with every other streaming service, dvd rental and television package available...

[calvinahobbes]

Haaah, so true! Dammit, I just made myself really want a GeekStream account. *wistful sigh*

[oneiriad]

Oh, I've been wanting that for years...

[calvinahobbes]

Let's not talk about the fact that if they DID make it, they would market solely to dudes.

[oneiriad]

Probably. As long as it had the right content, I could ignore the marketing. Marketing always seems to aim for people-who-are-not-me anyway...

[calvinahobbes]

Yeah, me too :o)