The Bad, the Good, and the Oh Well

 Since I'm almost caught up with the movies we've watched, I'm going to take a minute to discuss the whole Netflix DVD thing. 

Streaming is still streaming: The selection is poor, the experience is weak, and our internet connection usually drops at some point in the movie. Lately, another problem is that movies are scattered over 4-5 services, and you have to subscribe to all of them to have a hope of seeing what you want to see. And that seems to be mostly recent movies and movies that are loved by people who used to see them every weekend on cable. Amazon Prime used to have a lot of old movies, but they've been disappearing. At least, I think they are - the interface is almost impossible to use. I go to JustWatch.com, mostly, and it's interface isn't as good as it should be. So we still want DVDs by mail.

The Bad: let's say we get two discs a week, and watch them on Saturday and Sunday. They go in the mail Monday. That used to mean that Netflix got them on Tuesday or Wednesday, and sent out the new discs. We got them on Thursday or Friday - in time to watch on the weekend. 

But under the Improved Postal Service, you can't expect overnight service. So now Netflix gets the disc on Wednesday or Thursday, and ships them to us so we get them Friday or Saturday - if everything works out. If Netflix doesn't ship by Wednesday, I panic and tell them the disc is lost in the mail, and hope they mail it in time. 

The Good: They usually do this. In fact, they usually send at least one of the discs before they receive it. They sent an email explaining that the disc gets scanned in the post office, and they get informed that it's en route. So that shaves a day off, which is usually enough. I have had to hit the panic button a few times, but I've always gotten at least one disc by Friday. Possibly because I almost always send a disc back on Saturday.

That's right, the hypothetical above is a lie. I make sure we watch a disc Friday night, never a streamer.

The Oh Well part? The disc we tried to watch on Friday was unplayable. Tried it in two machines, tried a damp cloth, then soapy water. Nothing. It was Bram Stoker's Dracula, which just happened to appear on streaming the next week. Oh well.