Why I love Netflix (today)

If you've been living under a rock since 1997 or so, you may not have heard of this wacky rent-dvds-via-snail-mail called Netflix. Short story is that you pay x amount of money which gets you unlimited rentals per month, but only y per month. In case you're interested, you can check out the Netflix fee calculator to see exactly what individual discs cost.

Their main page says they have more than 50K movies available, way more than any rental place that might bust down the block. One of the most rocking things about Netflix is the ability to keep movies for next time so you don't have to constantly tell them to send you the next movie you want to see- it's all very lean-back. Netflix support pages allege that most of their customers keep 10-20 movies in their queue, backlogging whatever movies they want to see next.

I've got 500. That's the limit.

There's a wonderful joy in shotgunning your way through the list of "Other members enjoyed" and "More like this" and "Roger Ebert picked" and "Also starring J. Random Actor" or "Also directed by J. Random Director." So between picking-and-choosing movies that I've heard of, or always meant to see, I also get to pick ones that I'd never otherwise pick up in the store or see on any kind of broadcast medium. (Insert obligatory comment about The Long Tail. If you haven't heard the phrase, read the article. I mean it.)

Today I got The Human Face, a fascinating documentary miniseries about, er, well, about the human face. It's hosted by John Cleese, so bonus. When before could I ever see a 2001 BBC miniseries? Hooray for Long Tail/New Economy/Internet/Technology/On-Demand entertainment. There's some fascinating stuff here about why we see faces the way we do and what happens when things go wrong. Science and accidents and genetics and crime and beauty and psychology and comedy. Definitely worth watching.

If you want to get a free two-week Netflix trial, give me a shout. If you already have Netflix, you can see what's on my biscuit by sending me a friend invite.