Tarter Source

My first impulse was to regret Netflix’s recent decision to bring the curtain down on its DVD enterprise, a program I’ve enjoyed for 20 years.

After all, I’ve gotten used to sitting in the back room to view some movie I never heard of before to then, maybe in one out of five films, experience the joy of discovery. I don’t recall what the actual success rate was but the point is I stumbled across plenty of gold over the years.

I know I’m not the only one still receiving movies in the mail (contrary to what my son laughingly suggests) but it’s obvious our numbers are down. Electronic transportation of material has been winning out across the board.

The Netflix act of linking the internet with the postal service was more than just a smart business move when first implemented 25 years ago. I relished the opportunity to comb through the vast Netflix library of films and make not-so-calculated decisions on what to view. Sometimes the selection process was more fun than the movies selected.

I don’t know what goes in the mind when faced with so many choices—almost certainly one option is to go to your safe place (as weathercasters are so fond of saying when there’s a bad storm these days). That’s film noir for me, the gritty, black-and-white crime flicks of the 40s and 50s, many of which I hadn’t seen before. These films were a great comfort to me despite the serious nature of many of the stories.

In 2019 (you remember—the year before the pandemic), CNN reported, almost incredulously, that “2.7 million Americans still get Netflix DVDs in the mail.” (Recent press reports estimate just a little over a million subscribers still use the Netflix DVD service.) Selection was cited as a major benefit in the CNN story: only 6,000 films are available for streaming while the DVD library is almost 100,000 (Netflix doesn’t disclose actual figures).

I’d be curious to know what Netflix plans to do with all those DVDs after September when the company’s mail service ends. I read that Red Box has approached Netflix about acquiring the business. I think the buyer should be one of those pharmacies that do business by mail: along with that order of Pravastatin you could pick up a copy of “Being John Malkovich.”

Regardless of what lies ahead, I’m appreciative of the service Netflix provided all these years. It allowed me to check out films from other countries that I would never have seen. Not just noir from Jean-Pierre Melville but classics like “Trollhunter” and “OSS117 Cairo, Nest of Spies.” I was fascinated with several French comedies from director/actor Jacques Tati—“Monsieur Hulot’s Holiday” and “Trafic.” They captivated because they were so different from what we’re used to seeing.

Netflix also provided me repeat viewings of such as “Ministry of Fear,” “His Kind of Woman,” “Saboteur,” “Foreign Correspondent,” “39 Steps,” ”Shadow of a Doubt,” “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang” and “Nancy Drew, Reporter” (the one with Spring Byington as Nancy).

I was able to go back and check on the veracity of TV fare from my youth. “Maverick,” “Outer Limits”(the 60s show) and “Rockford Files” all measured up. “Man from UNCLE,” on the other hand, failed to stir me as it had the first time (although I still like the theme song).

DVDs sometimes helped me catch up. I got to enjoy the “Longmire” TV series some years after its streaming success as well as movies missed initially like “Ghost Dog” and “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Mo.”

But maybe it’s time for the service to stop. My dog has taken to chewing up the DVD mailers before I send them back. Everyone’s a critic.