Netflix Is All Grown Up

Hello Nerd 5, it’s been a while. How are you? Well… there’s no need for that language.

The sad truth, and the reason I haven’t voiced up much through Oscar season, is that I haven’t been to see many movies this year. A combination of being poor, and working a lot of nights, and being poor, and shooting on the weekends, and being poor has kept me out of the cinema with a few rare exceptions. This year, I've seen the following movies in theaters: The Avengers, Prometheus, Brave, The Dark Knight Rises, The Amazing Spider-man, Wreck-it Ralph, Skyfall, Life of Pi, Lincoln, Les Miserables, and Dhango Unchained. Not a terrible number (even if half of those were seen as double features) but not enough to speak intelligently about awards season. I’ve left that coverage in the very capable hands of my much more movie-going colleague, Josh.

So what have I been doing? I’ve been feeding the monkey on my back a different way. I’ve actually been going on long binges, and the monkey is fat and happy. I’ve been getting my entertainment the only way you can for $9 a month. I have Netflix.

I don’t have cable, dish, or even basic broadcast channels. I do, however, have an internet connection and that has proved more than enough. Whether through my laptop or my Xbox, I have access to more entertainment than I could ever watch. And what’s more, I’m becoming the norm. It’s not unusual at all anymore for people my age to not have any kind of television connection. This way I have complete freedom to decide what, where, and when I watch, and I never see a single commercial. It’s gotten to the point that when I stay in a hotel or visit family, normal TV feels very strange to me. Did I ever sit through that many ads to watch one episode of The Office?

Netflix is beautiful, Netflix is life, Netflix is a friendship that just gets better and better with time (and as more distributors jump aboard). Here I’ll stop my love letter and move on to the actual question: What’s stopping Netflix from moving to take over the world?

The answer: it already is. Netflix lives in our laptops, phones, and game systems and in our hearts. It’s ridiculously affordable and accessible, and with the one exception of that time when they SLIGHTLY raised their prices in 2011, Netflix has been nothing but the most friendly and reliable hook-up – your binge-enabler and your indie-movie wingman. The only things that stand in the way of their dominance is their lack of recent programming and their handful of web-based rivals. The tacit agreement when you sign up for Netflix is that you are willing to wait a year or two to see new TV episodes. This is where LESS awesome services like HULU can come in a steal a meal. The other problem is that Netflix was born to be a scavenger. It didn't set out to make entertainment, just to nibble it’s carcass after the big dogs had finished. Like a precocious child, Netflix is very clever, but still needs Mom and Dad in the studio system to provide for it, or it will die.

Well, Netflix just grew up.

Netflix has tackled both the problems of competition and content by creating their own programming, and by doing so they’re bringing in a whole new way to think about mainstream media. Netflix released its critically acclaimed trial run, Lillyhammer in 2012, and quickly went on to follow it up with even more ambitious projects. Netflix’s sophomore attempt was even more successful. House of Cards is a sleek and intelligent Washington drama (like an evil version of The West Wing) and Netflix went all-out, attracting stars like Kevin Spacey and directors like David Fincher. On a micro-budget, Netflix has created and released a show of a quality that surpasses the major networks. It felt like something that should be on HBO. And really, that’s EXACTLY what Netflix is doing, they’re going even further down the path that HBO blazed, providing a high-quality entertainment directly to their subscribers, but unlike when HBO started out, you can watch anywhere, anytime.

This is a game changer. I can’t stress this enough. This will affect everyone in media distribution, from the biggest studio to the smallest indie communities. Netflix bet big on House of Cards and drew a winning hand. We can look forward to MUCH more programming, and I’m hopeful that Netflix will maintain a high standard to quality as it finds its feet over the coming years (once it’s established itself we’ll start to get the crap). By combining the budget and professional talent of a big studio, and the distribution model of a tiny webseries, Netflix has unlocked the next step in our cultural evolution. I can’t wait to see what’s next.

Especially since what’s next is Arrested Development.