Episode 8. Movies and why Netflix is so boring.

I really miss Blockbuster. It’s definitely nostalgia. But that’s by-the-by.

Thinking about Blockbuster now, the experience trumps streaming movies. Here’s why:

1) Have you ever sat scrolling with your partner or your friends, just endlessly scrolling Netflix/Amazon/Disney, not knowing what to watch?

2) You have the world of entertainment at your finger tips, yet its hollow, you feel inside like you have nothing.

3) Not only that, everything is uninspiring and you spend more time debating what to watch rather than just enjoying something?

This isn’t your fault. Harking back to the idea we opened the blog series with: an environment where you have everything means you have nothing. There is no cost, no limitation and therefore no pay-off. The experience is soul-less. Empty. And really boring. 

Not only that, its so socially isolated. There’s no anticipation for new releases. There’s no chatting about it with strangers. There’s no hype. It’s all dead on arrival. Sure you might chat about certain series with colleagues, friends and so on. But have you ever felt how empty those conversations are – like dead chatter almost. It’s not that people are malicous, or nothing good is made any more, the problem is that we are saturated.

Compare this to the historically social experience of:

1) Getting out into the world to a DVD store or a rental store

2) Waiting for new releases

3) For series, waiting each week for the big show, the new entry of a good series. You don’t want to miss it as you’ll need to wait months for the box-set.

4) Chatting about recommendations and new arrivals with employees and strangers

5) Having limited choice which oddly makes the experience more rewarding and easier

6) Making an event of it. My family used to go once a week or two weeks to Blockbuster to rent. I’d get a video game and we’d choose a movie as a family. Sometimes we’d get snacks. Occasionally I’d get a poster for my favourite game. It was real.

Tools and Tips

1) Buy a USB DVD-RW drive

2) Cancel your subscriptions. This alone is the biggest step to making movies or TV series consumption intentful

3) If you are learning a language, join your local centres library. I’m a member of Institut Francais and I can borrow up to three DVD’s at a time. It’s kind of like a budget blockbuster experience

4) Become a member of your local library – similiar energy, often they have DVDs to borrow

5) Date night? Go to your local charity shop or CeX and limit yourself to the DVDs available there6) Make series watching and movies a social thing. Commit to watching a movie or a series with a mate or partner and make it a scheduled thing rather than a mindless thing

I admit, this is a difficult one to resolve at an individual level as you are fighting the new economic structure of entertainment whereby different streaming platforms war over who gets to dump the newest show all at once on their platform. But we can try.