Netflix

Once again, I am late to the party. I joined NetFlix in December (of 2010)--opting for the magical streaming and 1 DVD-out option for the rate of $11/month that everyone raved about. I had been wanting to see a bunch of movies and I've been talking with a friend who watches movies voraciously and has seen dozens of arthouse and foreign films and another friend who I managed to watch the entire first season of "Dexter" with (through her Netflix). In terms of my streaming use and as someone who loves films, I'm disappointed in myself that I haven't watched a single streamed movie completely and have been watching more tv shows. And as much as I'd like to say I've finally seen all the Ken Burns documentaries or caught up on "Lost", or "24", I have to confess that my streaming history reveals episodes of "South Park", "Family Guy", and the "David Chappelle Show" instead.

In another regard, I must be NetFlix's dream customer. I have had the same DVD for months--and if I wanted to follow the rules of rounding, it'd be more accurate to say I've had it for almost a year. And of course, there was the infamous rate hike.

It made big news this summer that NetFlix would start charging $7.99 each for streaming and for 1-DVD-out, raising my current set up to $15.98.  Apparently they're separating the two services into two separate bodies, and will rename the DVD-out entity as "Qwikster".  Yeesh, nothing like actual dollars to make me move my butt and actually watch the DVD that would have been a better value to purchase brand new at Best Buy and then donate it to Goodwill. Twice.

So I've decided to switch to streaming only and maybe when I actually watch more than a movie a month, I'll treat myself and get the 1-DVD-out service as well. But for now, I've got the rest of this month to watch the one DVD I have out now. Don't worry, it's on my to-do list.