Netflix Limits My World

I am continuing to note new ways in which Netflix has changed their web site for me personally since I have dropped the option for movies in the mail, in addition to those I pointed out in my “I Dood It” posting here on August 27, 2011, and it is starting to raise my irritation level.

Today I noticed that the Netflix filmographies for actors and directors only include movies available on Netflix Play Now. I also expect the previously existing save portion of the instant queue is going to disappear, so that when a movie in the queue loses instant rights, it just vanishes from my queue rather than going into a saved portion.

Our “Friends at Netflix” have gone out of their way to remove previously available information and methods for me to learn about movies that are not available for instant viewing. They have unilaterally decided to limit my access to the world of movie information about any movie that I cannot watch on Netflix on line. I am sure they would say that they did not act unilaterally but rather made the changes in response to my dropping mail membership; but why did they not explain up front that if I dropped mail membership all these features would disappear, and then maybe I would not have dropped mail? The answer is that they wanted me to drop mail and they don’t want me to have the previously accessible features available to entice me to reinstate mail or to help me find movies to borrow from the library or rent from Redbox. And they guessed right when they figured they could not actually entice me back to DVDs by mail. In fact just today Netflix issued an apology to customers and an explanation that they are in fact going to split the DVD mail business off under the name Qwickster.

I appreciate what Netflix did historically in making movies available by mail and what they are doing now with on line movie viewing, but the way they have handled this transition has been, as I have mentioned previously, insensitive at best and downright underhanded and sneaky at worst. The good will they had with me has pretty much been extinguished. The writer of this article at PC World magazine feels the same way now about Netflix and adds info about how the changes affect households with multiple viewers.  Here is an article telling about how many customers Netflix has lost and how their stock price has dropped. Reiko sent a link to this article from USA Today. And here is NPR’s take on the latest development.

While all this Netflix flap has been going on here in the US (and Canada?), Netflix has been quietly setting up for launch of its streaming service in Central and South America as well as the Caribbean. Tomorrow the world!

I have been trying to figure out how to work around the lost Netflix functionality. For filmographies, full and even better ones are available at the Internet Movie Data Base and I especially like the listing of all cast members with the name of the character they play and often a picture of the actor. The IMDb also gives more each movie average user review scores and sometimes metacritic scores, both on a 10 scale, but unlike Netflix, there is no link to the Netflix page for the movie and there is no column to quickly see my Netflix prediction for each movie. To access the Netflix movie page for user reviews and predictions, I have to type the movie name into the Netflix search box. The IMDB also may work as a replacement way to browse by genres for movies that are not available on Netflix streaming, and IMDb also has some trailers that Netflix does not. [Even before this latest transition, Netflix took away two other useable features on the movie page – they dropped all links to critic reviews and they dropped the identity of the user reviewers and the measure of their similarity to me.]

So here is how I am proceeding now. I use the IMDb for the full filmography and for their average user score for any movie that interests me. I use Netflix for anonymous member reviews and for the average member rating and the prediction for me based on the Netflix algorithm. But here is the interesting thing (at least to number freaks like me). I have created my own IMDb prediction algorithm by taking the IMDb score (which is on a 10 scale) and cutting it in half to make it match the 5 scale Netflix prediction and then subtracting 9/10 of a point to compensate for the lower rating I give most movies compared to both Netflix members and IMDb users. 

Based on the last 48 movies I rated, the Netflix algorithm was off on predicting by an average of .375 per movie, while my IMDb formula was off only .151. With my IMDb prediction, half of the 48 movies were better than predicted and half worse, but with the Netflix prediction three quarters of the 48 movies were worse than predicted. In the past I have praised the Netflix algorithm for its accuracy, but either I have changed without them detecting it or they have changed without telling me. In view of their diminished good will factor, I was leaning toward the conclusion they are skewing the numbers, but a quick look at my notes on some old Netflix predictions movies I have not seen shows that the numbers have not changed significantly. For now, I will be using both predictors and continuing to keep track of which is more accurate.

Studying Netflix operations and watching a couple more seasons of Friday Night Lights cut into my movie viewing time, but here is what I have watched since I posted my last list. [The ratings I give are on my own number system which is explained at the link on the sidebar].

Still Walking – 2008 (3.0). The talented Hirakazu Koreeda directed this thoughtful Japanese drama about a family gathering for the fifteenth annual remembrance of the accidental death of the oldest son. The interplay of the various characters at first seems designed to be taken at face value, but then we begin to realize that the face they show is often masking what they are actually feeling. Good script, acting and direction help cover the fact that much of the story takes place over one evening in the home of the parents. In 2005, Koreeda directed the excellent Nobody Knows, a poignant movie about a family of young children abandoned by their mother. He seems to draw wonderful performances from young actors, as he does in this movie, particularly from the step-son.

Friday Night Lights (Season Two) – 2007 (3.0). What was good from the first season is still there, but unfortunately the second season includes some unnecessary subplots of violent crime that seem totally out of place and detract from the overall experience of the story lines and characters.

Friday Night Lights (Season Three) – 2008 (3.0). There are some pretty big gaps in the story arc from season two to season three, but they become less annoying as the season progresses and the characters, young and old, grow from their experiences. Some characters move on and some new ones show up, including a believable villain.

Tying the Knot – 2004 (2.9). This low budget documentary does a fairly effective job of advocating for legalization of same sex marriage, without being strident or even appearing completely one sided. Concentrating on the stories of two popular Tampa policewomen and two older Oklahoma men, the movie shows how these long term relationships had all the semblances of marriages, without the legality and how the absence of legalization can create seriously unfair problems. You can feel the change coming while realizing it is not right around the corner.

Phil Ochs: There But for Fortune – 2010 (2.8). He had a way better voice than his contemporary Bob Dylan and he wrote very topical and powerful folk protest songs, but Phil Ochs never became famous or had a hit. The simple reason seems to be that his music was not as catchy as the Dylan songs. This decent documentary about a talented, generous and congenial man troubled by mental health and alcoholism issues is loaded with footage of him performing in numerous venues. There are also interviews with some other musical artists and with his family members. The movie makes me want to listen to CDs of his music to hear more of what I missed back then. 

The Unknown Soldier – 2007 (2.8). This German documentary about the controversy over a public exhibit documenting the involvement of the regular German Army in the holocaust atrocities contains some jaw dropping information, but the presentation is not well organized. Jumping between multiple interviews with the English subtitles sometimes overlapping the German titles identifying the interviewee was distracting, and the lack of maps to help viewers locate the places discussed did not help.

Biloxi Blues – 1988 (2.8). Neil Simon’s story of new Army recruits in basic training in Mississippi near the end of WWII made for a decent enough dramedy, though it probably has more appeal to those of us who have been through military basic training ourselves. My experience from 20 years later resonated with a lot of what was in the movie. There is a nice nostalgic feel and the movie holds its age well.

The Thin Red Line – 1998 (2.7). Another movie by Terrence Malick with rich visuals and lyrical, intelligent, subjective narration by the characters, this story about a WWII US Army unit fighting on Guadalcanal after the Marines had captured the airfield meanders and lingers and like most of Malick’s work the sum of the parts never quite equals a whole.

Lewis Black: Stark Raving Black – 2009 (2.6). This standup comedy routine from a 60 year old Jewish comic had a few humorous moments but was mostly marginal.

The Joke – 1968 (2.4). There is not much reason to watch this movie about a college student in 1950’s Czechoslovakia who is severely punished for a politically incorrect joke and years later seeks revenge. The film is a satire on the repressive communist system and was allowed to be made and shown during a brief period of local political liberalization, but unless you are interested in the political history there is not much in this film worth watching. One interesting flashback editing technique involved the contemporary man appearing to interface with the people in some of the flashback scenes, supposedly to show how his mind was mingling the past and present.