Netflix

I generally have a love-love relationship with Netflix. Their deliveries are prompt. The Instant View is getting better all the time and has loads of TV shows so I don't have to take up valuable queue space with oodles of non-movie discs. Earlier this year, they finally got the Nintendo Wii hooked up with streaming capability. In the end, I pay just over a dollar a rental and that's not taking into account the unlimited Instant View.

I've gotten so used to singing Netflix' praises (I'm going to get my parents subscribed one of these days), that I was quite surprised at how angry Netflix made me recently. Right on the heels of Starz' cancellation of Party Down, Netflix indicated that Party Down would only be screening until July 9th (I forget the date, but that seems reasonable and I'm going to stick with it for the sake of this post). It didn't make sense to me since so many other shows were on Instant View, but I went with it believing I still had time to watch it (I'd already seen the entire series, but was rewatching it with my girlfriend, who hadn't).

We only had a few episodes left, so it didn't seem like such a big deal. Half hour shows are easy to blow through. However, we didn't have time on Wednesday night to watch since I work until late. Thursday was taken over by Goldeneye on N64 (!) and a new episode of Futurama (I'm a huge nerd, apparently), so we only watched one episode. Then, Friday came. The 9th. I went to check Netflix on what I thought was the last day of possible viewing, but Party Down was gone!

Perhaps there was an error in my interpretation, but when I read, "available until July 9th," I assume that the phrase is inclusive. It will be available on that day and at the end of said day, it will be gone. If they really wanted to be clear, they should have said, "unavailable July 9th." Then I'd have gotten the picture.

So, not only did the take Party Down from me, but they took it away a day early (in my interpretation)! Those bastards! To follow that up, I just got a disc that wouldn't play! Normally, I'm OK with that since it's understandable that the mail will knock DVDs around and people don't take the best care of them. But since I'm already miffed with Netflix, this is just piling on.

Damn it, Netflix! Shape up!