Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Netflix Guilt

Newsweek coined a great phrase a few years ago: Netflix Guilt. If you use Netflix, chances are you've experienced this condition. Netflix Guilt results when a movie shows up at the house, and for whatever reason, you never get around to watching it. The guilt intensifies every time you watch something else, but you just can't bring yourself to watch it. You really want to, but the mood is never right. Finally, after months of excuses, you shamefully place the movie in your mailbox before skulking off to work.

I am currently experiencing a bout of Netflix Guilt over The Last Station. I want to watch it, I really do. Helen Mirren is in it, and she was great in The Queen, right? It's about Tolstoy, and I read War and Peace, didn't I? Hell, Meg and I even toured Tolstoy's old house when we were in Moscow years ago. Tolstoy was cool, I should want to watch a movie about the guy.

I like to consider myslf a bit of a cineast, so I hate to give up on any film. I'm also a realist, and it's time to admit defeat and move on. This isn't my first run-in with Netflix Guilt, and I'm sure it won't be my last. So, my fellow Netflixers, what movies have you had to send back unwatched?

7 comments:

  1. This is funny. I suffered from Netflix guilt recently - It took me about six months to watch La Vie en Rose and when I did it was in French and didn't have any bloody subtitles...sooo straight in the box.

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  2. Oh my gosh, "Netflix guilt" (did not even know that the moniker existed) is EXACTLY why I refuse to sign up for Netflix. I just can't stand the thought of all of those unwatched dvd's taunting me while I sit idly by watching college sports week after week ....

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  3. I have one sitting on my desk right now... been there for a month. It is at times like this I am reminded that as much as we want to be individuals, we really are all the same.

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  4. So you're the one. The Last Station has been at the top of our queue for months... waiting.

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  5. I'm one of the last standing that haven't subscribed to Netflix. Can't remember the last time I've watched a movie at home.
    BUT...I have "Buy a book and never read it quilt," so I understand.

    Happy Thanksgiving!

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  6. I saw The Last Station and it was very good. Give it another chance. Loved the post, very funny.

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  7. Never heard of that but I've experienced it. I like the term.

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