Quentin Tarantino isn’t a big fan of Netflix and the reason why won’t shock you but it might make you cross your eyes in mild frustration. Commitment. That’s the biggest reason. Now if you were born in the 60’s or 70’s, or even the 80’s or early 90’s, you knew what it was like to go to video store and browse the aisles, sometimes for much longer than you’d intended if the movie you wanted wasn’t in. But there was a some commitment to finding something to watch, which I’d agree with Tarantino makes it a bit more special. You might have even picked up one or two extra movies just in case the one you wanted wasn’t what you thought it would be. But the chances were pretty high that once you left with the movie the expectation of what was to come would keep you in your seat and invested in the movie to the end.
His argument is that Netflix doesn’t inspire a lot of commitment from viewers. The thing is that Tarantino doesn’t subscribe to Netflix though he does have cable. So honestly he couldn’t tell you just how many shows and movies Netflix has, among them some lesser known titles and even some older and more classic films that come and go as desired. Nor would he know much about the option to rent a DVD or two or three that are drawn from a very extensive collection and can provide hour upon hour of entertainment. It’s easy to see his point, but as so often seems to happen in interviews with the famed director he might glance at another person’s point and then attempt to shred it based upon the few facts he has.
He has that right after all, he can continue to watch VHS and tape things directly from the TV in the old school fashion. There’s nothing wrong with that really, but claiming that there’s no investment value in Netflix is where his argument kind of gets derailed. Yes, there are hundreds of titles that Netflix has offered since they started up, and yes, they’ve come and gone and in some cases are now only available on DVD. But the argument that a person can’t get invested in a show or a series or a movie is kind of ridiculous.
The comment he makes about getting up to go do something, pausing the movie, or even stopping it to go run an errand or something, is just as prevalent with a VHS movie as it is with Netflix. The great thing with Netflix though is that you don’t need to rewind and you certainly don’t need to worry about anything other than paying your bill every month, which even by 1980’s movie prices is fairly low. Netflix is there and ready to go whenever the viewer is, and the descriptions of the movies and the shows are right there as well. If that’s not enough then all you need to do is ask or even Google reviews about it and you can find the good, the bad, and the strange all on one site that will tell you what you want to know about the program.
And honestly, has he not heard of binge-watching? It can be done with VHS just as well as Netflix.
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