Roger’s $0.02 - My Last Netflix DVDs (Patreon)

This past month I’ve been trawling through my Netflix DVD subscription eagerly finding titles I still wish to watch on DVD. Perhaps it’s an exercise in futility but I feel compelled to squeeze whatever remaining value I can from it pending its demise at the end of the month. Like a bargain shopper at a store’s liquidation sale. One of the things I’ve noticed is that the availability of titles is low. In fact, a great number of titles I know I have rented before from the service no longer show up in searches. Maybe I’m hoping to find some rare gem I’ve overlooked. A few titles like V (1983 TV Miniseries) I received damaged. Not once but twice. As its replacement was also damaged. It could be chalked up to the flipper DVDs being more fragile than dual-layered ones or that someone really hates the show and wants no-one else to watch it. 

As a Netflix subscriber for over twenty years watching the company (pun intended) move from a DVD-by-mail rental to a VOD service complete with its own Netflix original shows and movies is a fascinating one. As the library of streaming content outpaced the DVD ones I eagerly switched over to the newer offerings. And why not? It’s convenient. No discs to wait for or mail back. Plus no limits on the number of different shows, movies, and features I can watch in a single sitting. But as the company closes the door on its original business of DVD delivery I feel a tinge of sadness. Like most things with a long lifespan be a product or service they become unofficial milestones of your life. Like going to a class reunion and realizing that time has moved on for everyone. 

When I originally received my initial subscription it was back in 2003. I received a six-month free trial. The service was a revelation. It allowed me to watch many first-run movie releases, TV shows, and other DVD content without needing to buy it first. I was an avid DVD collector at the time and Netflix allowed me to know what I actually should go and buy the box set for and which shows I could pass on. The flexibility, speed, and no time limits on discs meant I never had to worry about late fees or mailing something back in at the specified time. I spent a few weekends a month binge-watching seasons of Stargate SG-1 or X-Files. The bonus for me was being able to catch up on all the movies I’d missed in the theaters. 

Interestingly Netflix’s DVD service's biggest impact on me wasn’t consuming the popular content. It was to watch little-known movies, indie films, and anime. Things I wouldn’t have been able to find in regular video rental stores or even in brick-and-mortar stores. Cult Australian 80s films like "Dead End Drive-In” and "Running on Empty”, weird oddball show from my youth like “Benji, Zax & the Alien Prince”, a TV series that combined Benji, an alien prince, and his robot guardian on the run from alien bounty hunters and the mind-bending sci-fi comedy “Liquid Sky”. And it didn’t stop there. The availability of Anime at the time was astounding. Services like Crunchyroll didn’t exist yet and Netflix offered a ready supply of titles outside of Suncoast videos and didn’t cost an arm or a leg to watch.

Although Netflix didn’t invent DVDs it did help push the technology’s popularity in that liminal period where both video cassettes and DVDs co-existed. It took an otherwise simple format change and made it into a cultural phenomenon. The old business model of charging by the video rental gave way to a subscription model. This turned video watching a low-risk impulse activity and not something that you had only on a Friday or Saturday night after driving out to the store. Binge-watching, a term the company hated, became a byword for catching up to socially significant shows. Red envelopes became a frequent sight in mailboxes across the country and in my case the office as people received and returned Netflix DVDs from their company’s mailroom. 

Netflix DVD service and DVDs, in general, are passing away as video streaming and video downloads have replaced them in accessibility and cost. While Blu-rays have replaced DVDs as the physical medium of choice for video distribution it has become a format limited to those who wish to own a show, a movie, or specific episodes or story arcs. Streaming is currently dominating the preference among consumers. However, like with CDs and LPs where there is a bit of a renaissance in their popularity amongst Gen Z I feel that given enough time and if the company is still around the Netflix DVD or Blu-ray delivery by mail subscription could see a return. But until then I'm going to find something I can watch before Netflix closes its doors. And as a side benefit I apparently don't need to return them after that date either.