Netflix Has Gone Evil!

I love movies. I grew up on movies the way that most people grew up on TV shows. When I was young we didn't have TV in the house. We had TV sets of course, but there was no cable and we didn't use rabbit ears. My mother took issue with both the bombardment of advertisements and the content of the news (given what I've seen since having TV myself I can hardly blame her.) As a result we watched movies, tons of movies. We had a wall worth of VHS tapes and rented from the local video store almost every week. So when I was given a subscription to Netflix in 2003 by my future brother in law I was ecstatic.

Netflix had a business model that at first seemed odd, though the brilliance of it became evident fairly quickly. Being able to basically rent as many movies as I wanted for a monthly rate rather than having to fork over cash for every rental opened up a whole new world of films. When I had to pay to rent a movie every time it basically forced me to be even pickier than I normally am (those who know me can tell you that's saying something.) I didn't want to plunk down cash for something that was going to be terrible. While it's true Netflix isn't free, the idea that I could just keep getting new movies all the time broke that mental block and let me try a few more risks on movies I didn't know or hadn't been totally sure about.

However there have been some minor shifts in Netflix over the years. Obviously there's now the Instant View option for certain movies to play on a computer or gaming console, and I certainly have no complaints about that. However for the newest releases you still have to wait for the disc in the mail. And that's fine, but the discs aren't what they used to be. When Netflix first started they were essentially sending you the exact same disc that you'd get if you went out and bought the movie. That's not the case anymore. Now they have special rental copies most of which have the Netflix logo or the word "Rental" right on the disc. These are stripped down versions, lacking in most if not all of the special features that would be on the retail release.

While these rental copies are slightly annoying they're also understandable. By stripping out the special features it makes it less likely that somebody would steal the discs. The studios releasing the movies also benefit because even after renting from Netflix there's the added incentive of special features to lure consumers to buy the movies they enjoyed for themselves. So I get all of that, it's kind of irritating that these discs have been loaded up with 10 minutes or more of previews at the front end (which sometimes can't even be skipped over) and no special features at all, but I get it.

Now here's where things got a bit evil. Earlier today I watched my Netflix copy of "Despicable Me." I rather enjoyed the film and was pleased to see that there was an listing of special features on the main menu. I went into the special features expecting to only see the theatrical trailer and maybe one featurette about the voice acting. To my surprise it appeared to have a nearly full list of the special features. So I happily selected the first one on the list. What I got wasn't a special feature. It was white text on a black screen informing me that "This rental copy does not have the special features. If you wish to see them, purchase this film on Blu-ray or DVD." What... the... heck?

After getting over my shock it struck me how mean this is, to dangle the special features in front of customers and then just go "yoink" and take them away. However what truly makes this evil is that they did this to a kids movie. Stop and think about that. If I had been watching with a child and they got excited about seeing the special features only to be told there weren't any I could well have been treated to extended whining and moaning which would practically force me to go out and buy the thing. Now fortunately for this scenario I don't have any children (yes I know it's a kid's movie... I'm an animation junky... shut up!) However I shudder to think of all the unsuspecting parents who've been guilted by their kids into movie purchases thanks to a little mean spirited nudging from Netflix rental copies.

Now to be completely fair, it's probably Universal Studios who made the call to create this evil little set up and not Netflix themselves. However they did create the situation that allows Universal to pull this crap. I only hope they use their clout to get studios to knock it off before it becomes common practice. And I know they have enough clout to fix this, just the fact that there are rental copies with the Netflix name imprinted directly on the disc is evidence of that. So Netflix, please do the right thing. Don't become evil.