Rental Shops were better than streaming.

Media consumption has changed so many times in my lifetime. I've personally never been very big on theater going. I always seem to get a tall person sitting right in front of me, even in an empty room. I do love stories and generally dislike people, so the ability to take in media within my own space is the best. I remember getting my weekend NES game from the local video rental shop or even the grocery store. That then moved into the more franchised options with Blockbuster and Family Video where I would grab a week's worth of DVDs for less than ten bucks. Now we have streaming services that pour into almost every device you have in your home. In recent years though consuming media just hasn't been as enjoyable as I remember from my younger years. So I would like to talk about the things that the streaming wars are losing me with.

Unending Options

We are finding ourself in the midst of the Streaming War, where you have a multitude of companies trying to convince you to choose them for your media consumption. I currently have subscriptions with 5 streaming services, and I still probably have viewed more movies from a rental shop than all services combined. That's the first problem, for all the options they have to choose from it takes me over an hour to find anything to watch. Some of this obviously is on me being indecisive, but it's also to the sheer volume of choices. Netflix alone has over seven thousand titles available. Typically you would think that more is better. That out of all those choices there has to be something for me tonight. Except for most people, too many options can cause what is being called “analysis paralysis.” The inability of a person to make a decision due to overthinking of all the other possibilities. Then multiply this by all the services you subscribe to. I have had some nights where I have spent a half an hour or more on each of my subscriptions and still not found anything to watch. So the first point for rental shops is the fact that they are limited by physical space and stock. I may have spent an hour perusing the shelves on some nights, but it's still easier to parse one or two hundred DVD cases than the tens of thousands on-screen options.

The Un-Watchlist

The other thing that was more likely to happen with a rental shop...actually watching what I picked up. Sometimes I would rent three to four movies to watch in the next five days, and 95% of the time I would watch everything before they were due. Right now my Netflix watchlist has over a hundred things I've looked over and decided that I wanted to watch and I still haven't. That doesn't even count the number of things I've added that got removed before I could find the time to sit down and watch. For me, I think this is because of the subscription model. There is no urgency in checking off items in your list. It feels almost like having the title in a physical library. You have it so you can watch it on your time. Whenever you're in the mood for this specific story it'll be there so what else is available tonight. Then there is no actual transaction to the choice so there is no obligation. When I would pick up a movie from Family Video I knew I had five days to finish my selection before I would have to head back to drop off. So I made damn sure I got my money's worth. With the streaming services it's like I never spent the money to watch something. The money goes missing without me even noticing most months. So what value does my monthly subscription really have if I never get to the things I said I wanted to watch.

Selection Dissection

The biggest issue that I have with streaming services is the contents of the selection. I was going through my DVD collection that I've been accruing for the last few decades. Many of them I bought from rental shops when they were finished with them. I thought maybe I would pull them up on Netflix or Amazon Prime to watch in better quality, and to my surprise many of them weren't available without paying for more than the subscription I already paid. It was actually surprising some of the movies that don't make the cut. Most of the movies that do come up initially on these services tend to be movies that are marketable to the masses. So they all have a very similar feel of consumption. One of the reasons I used to have my rental shop routine was so I could find interesting stories that I had never heard of before. I'm not going to lie and say I always picked up masterpieces of the cinematic craft, but they usually had something interesting about them. Generally speaking I can always find something to take away from a story I consume. Whether it be a theme or message the film is trying to convey, a quote that was impactful, or it was just thought provoking. In my experience projects that may not have had a huge marketing budget are more willing to try to do things you don't find in your average blockbuster. They may be more quiet and contemplative or just batshit off the walls. In the end they just feel more... well they just feel more. I'm not saying you can't find good content on these services, but we have definitely lost something in the titles that didn't make it to the streaming wars.

Maybe I'm over Nostalgic

I don't know if it's because of an evolution not only in the films made today or in the method that we access them, but it feels like watching movies at home is just not the same anymore. There isn't enough time in the world for me to go and search all the streaming services for the kind of movies that I used to enjoy. Most times when I look for a movie, I don't know what I want to watch. Even with algorithmic help from Netflix to point me to what they think I like, nothing feels the same as finding a disc with only a cover and the synopsis on the back to learn that it is an unknown gem. Again I'm not saying there isn't anything good on streaming services, but I just miss the type of stories that I used to find in rental shops. Because of this I'm thinking of going through my physical library and sharing some of those gems here on Vocal. I'm new to writing and I'm not a real film buff or anything but would like to share some of my old favorites that are no longer available in the rough times we call the streaming wars. I just want to help others possibly uncover their next favorite movie.