Throttling, and stupid criminals

If you haven't heard, Netflix is throttling you. Well, maybe not you, but someone you know and care about. And they're doing it openly, and without fear of reprisal.

What is throttling? If Netflix thinks they are not making enough profit on your subscription, they withhold popular releases, sending them instead to new customers, or those with lower return rates. These customers are likely paying less per month than you are. Now, don't get me wrong, I love Netflix. I signed on in their first month of operation, and have been faithful ever since. But this reminds me of the 'bad boyfriend syndrome.' It's great in the beginning, but then, when he knows he has you wrapped around his finger, he doesn't call as often, he doesn't try as hard. He basically just does not deliver.

Meanwhile, I have become very self conscious about my rental activity. Am I sending back too soon? Does someone else have my copy of ____? (Am I calling him too soon? Is he seeing someone else?) I knew I was being throttled when I added The Best of Youth to my queue - a subtitled Italian film that runs 6 hours long. It immediately said "SHORT WAIT." Huh?

So last night I watched Ice Harvest. I LOVE stupid criminal movies. The best stupid criminal movie ever? Lock Stock and 2 Smoking Barrels. Out of Sight, Welcome to Collinwood, Snatch, Big Trouble - you're a stupid criminal movie? You're going in my queue. So, Ice Harvest is released on Tuesday -it's already in my queue. For some mysterious reason, I am not throttled for this new release. I think, wow, my complaint letter worked.

But... no. This was the worst movie I have seen in a long time. Nothing wrong with Jon Cusack or Billy Bob - but take away Connie Nielsen's hair and she could have been one of the androids from I, Robot. Stiff and basically non-human. The story was lame, predictable, and done many times before. The one bright spot? Oliver Platt plays a great drunk, and he was drunk almost the whole movie.

So, do I send it back? Or hold onto it for a week. Sigh. I promise to rent only German existentialist flicks for 2 months straight. Unpopular German existentialist flicks.