Netflix

I realized that I have been talking about all these tech products that I hardly ever use and ignoring the ones I use every day. No longer! So let’s talk about Netflix. I love Netflix. There is always, always, always something on. I am old enough to remember when TV ended. They called it the end of the broadcast day, played the national anthem and then there was a test pattern and nothing to watch until dawn.

Well, I could watch my dad snore as he slept on the floor in front of the TV but that was boring. So I would go read. It just occurred to me that I might have had insomnia at the age of eight.

Anyway, there is a lot of useless crap on Netflix but that is okay because what I think of as useless crap might be something you really enjoy and vice versa. I never watched Friends or The Office but man do I love The Great British Baking Show and Jeopardy. I rewatch episodes and still get most of the questions wrong.

And there are all those lists about the best movies on Netflix and the best TV shows and I read through them and maybe add a show or two to my list and then just rewatch Sherlock. I wish there was a way I could share my list with you. Let me see what I can do. You can but it looks like a lot of work for very little payoff so never mind.

Here, I will share ten titles grabbed at random from my list.

1. One Day at a Time
2. How To Get Away With Murder (I am embarrassed to admit I just started watching this)
3. Carol
4. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (I am old enough to have seen this in theatres)
5. The Last O.G. (I bought the cookbook!)
6. Sex Education
7. Juanita
8. Obvious Child
9. Russian Doll (I just finished watching this and I am reeling in the best possible way)
10. Money Heist (My friend’s husband insisted I watch this and I still haven’t but I will)

For some people who don’t watch TV, Netflix isn’t a big deal. Maybe to them it’s a negative development. I don’t wholly agree. I think what we watch on our screens matters and services like Netflix expand what we see. Shows from around the world. Shows from creators who would never have had a voice within the former system. Russian Doll would never have been made a decade ago, maybe not even 5 years ago. It isn’t perfect but it is a move toward a broader horizon. Joan Didion said, “We tell ourselves stories in order to live.”

So live a little.