View on Threads
I wish there was a way to know you’re in the good old days before you’ve actually left them. Andy Bernard, The Office
The thread above really brought back some memories. Looking back, getting DVDs delivered in the mail was magic. I’m now starting to think it might’ve been the better service. We didn’t have the instant gratification of streaming, but we also didn’t have to deal with juggling a million subscriptions, streaming rights headaches, or the frustration of finding out the thing you actually wanted to watch isn’t available anywhere.
My Netflix queue was everything. I’d constantly shuffle stuff around, knowing the moment I shipped a DVD back, the good folks at Netflix would send the next one on my list.
Simple. Reliable. Perfect.
It didn’t matter what you wanted - movies, TV shows, documentaries - they had it all. The only downside? Sometimes you’d have three DVDs of Six Feet Under at home and just not feel like diving into their drama that night. But hey, them’s the breaks. You made it work. You’d turn on a game, read a book, play a game, or go out somewhere.
In the end, is that really worse than scrolling endlessly through whatever “recommendations” Netflix, Amazon, or Max decides to throw at you now? As I think about it more, I’m convinced: we actually had it better back then.
