Week 18: Why Netflix?

When I was a little kid there were four television networks.  There was NBC, ABC, CBS, and PBS.  We watched Sesame Street on PBS and whatever else decided to come on the other networks.  We didn’t get movie channels, and there were always lots of commercials.  It’s no wonder we were always outside playing.

There was no internet at that time and we didn’t have cell phones to drag with us everywhere we went.  We couldn’t go online and if we wanted to look things up you would find an encyclopedia somewhere.  Our libraries still had Dewey decimal system card catalogues to find books with and no one but the librarian understood how to use them.

Eventually there was a new thing called Cable.  If your family was rich enough to pay for cable, you received a few more channels.  Nothing like we have today, we’re talking maybe ten or fifteen channels. My family did eventually decide we wanted cable, but I don’t know how we afforded it.  Anyway, suddenly there were new channels to watch!  A station from Atlanta that showed Atlanta Braves baseball games!  There was also a Chicago station showing Chicago White Sox games!  I grew up watching those two teams play.

We couldn’t afford special networks like HBO (Home Box Office) so we didn’t get to see any of the movies put on there.  I did figure out that I could jam our television between two channels and get a really poor, unwatchable version of HBO.  The picture wasn’t watchable, but the sound came in great!  So I listened to a number of movies when I was a kid.  *chuckle* It was kind of like radio.

Eventually I finished high school and joined the United States Air Force.  I was sent overseas to Italy.  Over there we had one channel, the Armed Forces channel.  You watched what they wanted to show, or you had no television at all.  So it’s no wonder we didn’t watch much television there.  I didn’t much care for their programming.

Now let’s flash forward to much more modern times.  Now we not only have cable companies, we also have satellite companies that have hundreds of channels to choose from.  I pay for one of the satellite hook ups and it’s quite expensive!  I do like having a bunch of movie channels, though.

Now along with the wondrous internet comes another new thing.  Well, not exactly new, but new for me.  Streaming shows.  Some services will allow you to stream shows and movies to your television, or iPad, or even your cell phone!  How neat!  But why pay for a streaming service when I already have a satellite hook up?  I’ll tell you why:

Along came this service called Netflix.  As far as I knew they streamed movies to people who paid for their service.  I get movies on my satellite service, so why add one more bill for myself, right?

Well it turns out Netflix has their own shows.  You can only watch these shows if you pay for Netflix.  I can live without special shows, right?  I’d heard good things, though.  I had heard interesting things.  People have asked me, “Have you been watching Daredevil?”  And I have to answer, “No, I haven’t.  I don’t have Netflix.”

I happened to be talking about this to a family member yesterday.  She’s a lot like I was when I was younger and before we had even finished talking, she had signed up for the free month preview.  It seems Netflix is so confident in the shows they’re putting on their streaming network, they’ll give you a month to start watching them before you have to actually start paying.  And looking into things, they’re not even really expensive.  $9.99 for two devises at the same time with high definition.  Not a bad price as I’m paying around $160 a month for my satellite hook up.  Yes, it’s very expensive for a satellite hook up.

And so my family member and myself decided we would just try Netflix out.  She was stunned just looking at the variety of shows you could choose from.  And you don’t have to wait for something to come on at a certain time, you just choose something and it streams away!

So this morning I started watching the series Daredevil.  Daredevil is a Marvel Comic Book character that I used to read every month when I was in the military.  I liked it because the hero was always beaten down.  He was a blind lawyer and…well, it was a good comic book.

After the first two episodes I was hooked.  There are also other Marvel comic book hero series on Netflix.  The Punisher, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, and a lot of others!  I want to see all those without even having to watch the first few episodes now!  I also want to watch the rest of the Daredevil seasons!  I think it’ll be soon time for me to binge watch a few things until I’m caught up!

My newest book is almost finished and ready to put out, so I need something to do to get me motivated to write some more.  I think Netflix will be just the thing!  For now I’ll probably still keep my satellite hook up.  At least for the time being, but I’m also going to sign up for Netflix. So that’s why Netflix.  Because they actually have REALLY good shows for a cheap price, and no commercials!

Until next week, keep asking why.