Sword's Edge

RPGs, Movies, Comics, y'know: nerd stuff!

Netflix Addiction

Netflix can be dangerous.

We recently cancelled our cable. We had it as part of an intro package, and the special pricing recently ended. Without that deal, we weren’t willing to pay $40 for it. Cable had been useful for Treehouse. We let our girls watch a half hour of TV before bed. Granted, they had seen every episode of the Octonauts (probably twice), so they were ready for something different. I decided to give Netflix a try.

It’s got 26 episodes of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic and 26 episodes of the Littlest Pet Shop, so that 52 days worth of TV for the girls. There are other shows for them to watch as well.

For me, I’m main-lining Community. I’m just starting season 2. My wife just finished watching Flowers Before Boys, a Korean drama-comedy (is dramedy a genre?), and there are a few other Korean TV series and movies that have piqued her interest.

But here’s the problem: we aren’t used to being able to mainline entertainment. We used to watch a movie on Friday and sometimes Saturday. Occasionally, Suk-hee would watch a little TV before bed, and I enjoyed the chance to watch Saturday Night Live sometimes. I sometimes watch the Daily Show or the Colbert Report, but I watch those streaming.

With Netflix, for the last week or so, we’ve been spending way too much time watching TV (mostly on our computers). It’s like someone who hasn’t had anything sweet for months, and finds himself with the keys to a candy store, or a refrigerator full of ice cream. I’ve indulged a bit too extensively. Late nights and weekend afternoons when I could have been doing something else.

I think we’ve got a handle on our addiction, but man, that was crazy. I think we’ll be keeping Netflix – at least for a few months. It’s a pretty darn good deal compared to what we were paying for cable. We still have rabbit ears for our TV, meaning we can watch the news and a couple of the national networks. That’ll work for me.

And whenever I need, I can still get that Netflix rush.

One Reply to “Netflix Addiction”

  • Get an Internet plan with a limit on what you can download/stream. That way you will have to be aware of how much Netflix you watch. We had a 60 gig plan that got used up fairly quickly with Netflix. Now we have unlimited internet (for the same price… the rep at Rogers must have been in a good mood that day) but somehow we seem to have our watching under control… I think we’re too tired to watch and would rather sleep. 🙂

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