(Title courtesy of Lewis Carroll. This is a repost from my blog last week).
Netflix just announced that at the end of September, it will cease its DVD service. I’m not surprised, but I’m disappointed.
People have been predicting this since streaming really started to take off: as more people turn to streaming, the costs of storing, shipping and handling DVDs won’t be worth the returns. Now it’s happened. For a lot of subscribers it won’t make a difference, but I’m not one of them.
An article I read years ago in TV Guide pointed out that many people don’t watch TV to see specific shows, they watch TV as an end in itself. If they can’t find a show they like, they’ll click channels until they find something acceptable. The same is true, I think, in the streaming era. When TYG (my wife) watches a movie she’ll often sit, check out streaming services for options and settle on whatever appeals to her.
I’ve done my share of that but after I got a VCR that changed, at least where movies were concerned. Taping gave me a constant, huge stockpile of movies I wanted to see; my Netflix DVD queue serves the same purpose. I rarely watch movies at random any more. A lot of times I’m quite systematic about it, watching all the Fast and Furious films or working my way through Alfred Hitchcock over a couple of years.
Losing DVD access makes that harder. Getting multiple DVDs a month for a flat fee is much cheaper than streaming the same number for $1.99 or $3.99 apiece on Amazon, or discovering I don’t have the right streaming service. I don’t have Disney Plus, for instance, but Netflix DVDs made it easy and affordable to stay current on Marvel movies I missed in the theater. Some movies, even in this day and age, aren’t available streaming at all. If they’re available via Netflix DVD, that gives me access without having to buy them in hard copy. 
It’s fine when it’s something like Francois Truffaut’s excellent The Bride Wore Black, which I just bought; I’ve been watching Truffaut’s films and this one wasn’t available on Netflix, nor Amazon Prime, nor any other streaming service I have. There are other movies I really want to watch but don’t want to own permanently; I can buy them and give them away but that seems incredibly spendthrift.
As I still have several months before the axe falls I’ve begun prioritizing: older more obscure stuff (and Truffaut films) first, whatever remains second. I’m also giving my library’s DVD collection closer scrutiny to see what’s available there. In the end, it’s very much a first world problem. But after all, I’m a first-world person.
#SFWApro.
I had Netflix, several years ago, but only mail service and often found the reverse true; stuff I wanted to see was streaming only. After giving up a job and working part time, with the severe money restriction, Netflix was the first to go. Never came back. Things are better, financially; but, I refuse to pay for streaming services, when I am already paying for internet access. I’ll go for free entertainment, instead. I haven’t seen much exclusive content that deeply interested me and anything really good usually is made available in a way that works for me, whether it is a dvd release or just turns up on a free site, eventually.
I didn’t even know Netflix was still doing their DVD service.
It always bugged me, even as a kid, even when I watched a ton of TV, when people seemed to turn it on without having anything to watch. Sure, I watched TV all the time – but it still only happened because there was something on I wanted to see. I just wanted to see a lot!
Or that The Bride Wore Black was originally in French.
I’ve always thought the ’09 Treks were for a Fast And Furious crowd – I’ve never realised how similar the posters were.
Maybe you’re not knowing is a sign why they were in trouble.
It’s not really something I pay a lot of attention to.
I watch streaming with friends; I don’t have any services at home.
Initial alternative results:
checked out S2 of Joan of Arcadia (I have S1) from the library.
Found “The Aristocrats” on one of Amazon Prime’s free streaming apps.
The writing was on the wall for a while: I had resigned up for the dvd service a couple years ago and my que of dvds was still there by the vast majority of them were marked “unavailable.” The number of DVDs available was really small and wasn’t really worth it so after a couple months I cancelled it again.
The list of “not available” has definitely gotten longer in recent years.