Review: Netflix

We are patrons of Netflix. We love it. We are on the plan where we can have two DVDs out at any given time, and we can cycle through an unlimited number of DVDs in a month. This plan is about $15 per month, and to us it is worth it. DVDs comprise almost 100% of our entertainment. We don't spend money to go to movies or concerts or even restaurants very often, so Netflix is a worthwhile expense for us.

I have never rented a movie from redbox or any of its similar competitors. The idea of actually going somewhere to pick up a movie and then having to actually go back to drop the movie off just doesn't appeal to me. I'd much rather have the movies delivered to my mail box and have the shipping already in place for me to mail them right back. I know some people swear by redbox and the free codes, but to me it is just too inconvenient.

Not to mention the fact that redbox only has new releases, and we watch a lot of older movies, foreign films, documentaries and otherwise non-new releases. We perhaps could rely on the library to fulfill this need, but we find the hold lists for the library to be too long for our tastes, and again, the availability just isn't the same. You can get anything from Netflix. Anything. It truly is amazing.

I love that Netflix allows us to rate the movies we've seen (although sometimes it is tricky to agree on how we will rate certain movies) and then recommends others that we might like. We have seen some seriously awesome films this way, particularly foreign films.

I love that if we decide we want a Netflix break, we can put our membership on hold for up to three months. We won't lose any of our preferences or the movies in our queue, and when we're ready to pick it up again, it's very simple. We did this during the winter when we were house-sitting, and to be honest, we've considered doing it again during the summer when the weather is lovely and we should be spending more time outside.

We can also stream movies online, and this doesn't cost extra, nor does it count against our allotment of movies checked out to as at a given time. We don't do this very often, but I've done it now and then with movies that I knew I would want to watch and Eric wouldn't want to. Of course, the quality isn't as good, but I don't mind that. Plus, if I don't like the movie, I won't have wasted precious days to get the DVD in the mail and then send it back. (Of course, we find that if we put a DVD in the mail on Monday, the next DVD in our queue is usually sent on Tuesday and arrives on Wednesday. So the wait time is never horrible anyway.)

A downside of being a Netflix patron is that you feel obligated to watch movies, and if you let your DVDs collect dust, you feel guilty about the money you are spending on them. If you are not really into movies, then Netflix is probably not a good option for you. We love movies. And we tend to like to spend our evenings at home, so it is a good fit for us. It certainly is one of those things in our budget that could be easily cut if we needed to cut back, but for now it is something that we both really enjoy.