Month: October 2004

I love Netflix. Their service is remarkable. In my town, where there is no video store, I see their unmistakable red envelopes everywhere.
However, I was cheered to hear that Amazon might get in the market and would be prepared to switch tomorrow, given the opportunity. I’m sure I’m not alone.
After months of price increases, Netflix has announced that they’re lowering their price by nearly 20%. Amazon is already having a positive effect on Netflix customers.

“We started hearing rumors about two weeks ago, and we were able to confirm them,” [Netflix founder Reed] Hastings said in an interview. “We think we will compete successfully with them because we have great scale, we ship 3 million DVDs a week, and we have five years of experience in this market.

What I really want is a way to find movies. Netflix has the worst site of any major ecommerce player. Try to find movies by director. Try to get decent recommendations based on your past rentals. Try to find a list of recent releases that isn’t larded with garbage. Try to find critics’ recommendations that aren’t laundry lists of the greatest films ever made.
There’ is no question that I’m missing movies I really want to see because they aren’t top of mind when I’m on Netflix. I can’t wait for Amazon to get into this market with their recommendation software and with the Internet Movie Database.
I would pay $5 more per month just to not deal with Netflix’s crappy web site.

Friday, Jon Stewart broke through the curtain on CNN’s Crossfire. If you haven’t seen it already, you must view one of the streams of Stewart’s appearance.
He did something that no one approved for appearance on TV has been willing to do: he told the truth about the corrosive effect of cable TV news on our democracy. It was only a couple of minutes in 24 hours that day, but you could feel the refreshing breath of fresh air.
What’s amazing is that you don’t see this more often. Everyone’s a media critic and if you’re paying attention, you know this already. But if you’re not paying attention, you’re not getting this message.
To continue stating the obvious, to say that the Daily Show is the best show on TV is like saying that 30-year-old Talisker is the best way to get drunk.