Our family used Netflix long before it was an ondemand service. In the early days, when our kids were young, we would go on our computer to their web site and pick movies we wanted to watch and put them in our “cache”. Movies would come in the mail and when we had watched them, we would send them back. As soon as Netflix would receive the movies, we had watch, they would send out the next movies in our “cache”.
Eventually they started a new service where we could still get movies in the mail, but we could also stream movies online on our computer.
That was light years ahead of our entertainment choices when I was a kid. Where I grew up in Floresville, TX we had three choices: Channel 4, Channel 5 and Channel 12, all out of San Antonio. Sometimes if you arranged the tin foil on the antenna right, and if my little brother stood in just the right place, we could get Channel 7 out of Austin. But that reception was rare and even when it happened, the reception was sporadic and snowy.
I remember that we would call Channel 12 the “Blood and Guts Channel.” Not because of horror movies but because every time there was a bad car accident in San Antonio, Channel 12 news was on the scene to horrify us with the pictures and details.
Fridays nights just after the announcement: “It’s ten o’clock. Do you know where your children are?” The news would come on and after that at 10:30 came scary movie time. The sound of a pulsating emergency horn would come on and an announcer would say: “PROJECT TERROR: Where the Scientific and the terrifying emerge.” Now that was entertainment.
Looking back, it seemed like only having three channels was enormously more entertainment than today when we have thousands. The Andy Griffith Show, Charlie Chan, The Bing Crosby and Bob Hope Road movies, Jerry Lewis, Star Trek, Leave it to Beaver, and Bugs Bunny are just a few shows and movies that kept us enormously entertained.
Now fast forward where I started this. I have to give an honorable mention to Blockbuster and the hours I spent in line waiting for someone to return the movie we wanted.
The internet became a dominant force in our lives. One aspect of that is it allowed for live streaming and gave birth to DVRs and almost infinite choices. Netflix became an on-demand service with a huge library of movies and shows. We used the service all of the time, especially with our grandkids. We set them up with their own channels with parental controls so we knew it was safe.
That all ended several weeks ago when a controversy over the show “Cuties” made the news. Admittedly, I never watched the show, I only watched the trailer, but I saw interviews with people who had seen the show. It was clear that 11 year old girls were being portrayed as sexual objects. That was not acceptable. The show’s director’s defense of her film that its intent to expose sexualization of children didn’t wash with me. You don’t sexually exploit children to point out the problem of sexually exploiting children.
I looked up the phone number for Netflix Customer Service and cancelled. My phone conversation was recorded and I explained that we had been loyal customers for decades. But airing and relentlessly promoting the show “Cuties” was an outrage that couldn’t be allowed to stand. Not in my house.
I wasn’t alone. Many of my friends also cancelled Netflix for the same reason. I don’t know how many cancelled but I am certain it was a lot.
Then last week there was a news story that Netflix Stock was down. News outlets cited that the reason was because it had fallen far short of the number of subscribers it had projected. I watched the story on a couple of news outlets who speculated why subscriptions were down, but no mentions of the tidal wave of cancellations by people who object to “Kiddie Porn”.
Last week I got an email from Netflix. Here is exactly what it said:
Leonardken, give us another chance?
Don’t miss out. Everyone’s talking about Lucifer.” (If you don’t know, Lucifer is a Netflix show that they have relentlessly promoted. It is about…. you guessed it….Lucifer.)
Netflix? Seriously. If I cancelled you over showing and promoting soft child porn, it’s a good bet you’re not going to win me back with the temptation of watching a show called Lucifer.
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