# Y'know, f\*ck Netflix some more
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yknow-f-ck-netflix-some-more/685495
**Category:** The BBQ Pit
**Created:** [April 6, 2014, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yknow-f-ck-netflix-some-more/685495 "2014-04-06T19:10:32Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 3
### Author:  [@MeanOldLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeanOldLady)
#### Post date: [April 10, 2014, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yknow-f-ck-netflix-some-more/685495/41 "2014-04-10T00:21:01Z")
> [@Shakes](#):
>
> I recall reading in one thread that Netflix, Hulu, and the like don’t count as “Watching TV”.
>
> So the good news is, you can still watch all those shows the lowly TV watchers watch, but at the same time you can feel superior to the TV watchers. And be quite smug in the process.
>
> Win!!
Goddamn it, that’s what I’ve been doing wrong! And I turned in my Smug Card for nothing. _kicks TV stand over and subscribes to Hulu Plus._
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#):
>
> Ah, yes, MOL proves again her inability to read for context. Or comprehension.
>
> Go re-read all those threads and come back with an essay on the difference between \*television \*and selective viewing of content on ad-free streams. Or not. But I haven’t been particularly cryptic about it.
Request to backtrack: Denied.
---
### Author:  [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)
#### Post date: [April 10, 2014, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yknow-f-ck-netflix-some-more/685495/42 "2014-04-10T12:45:21Z")
I don’t see why people are confused when I say “I don’t watch movies.” It should be obvious that I specifically mean “I don’t go to movies at the cinema.” Of COURSE I… ah, observe films… on DVD, on Blu-Ray, on television, on streaming video, on planes, and so forth. That’s totally different, because there’s no ticket stub and no expensive popcorn. Seriously, why is this so hard to understand?
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### Author:  [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)
#### Post date: [April 10, 2014, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yknow-f-ck-netflix-some-more/685495/43 "2014-04-10T12:56:37Z")
> [@MeanOldLady](#):
>
> Request to backtrack: Denied.
You got him to spend like three paragraphs trying to define “television.” I’m impressed and entertained.
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### Author:  [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)
#### Post date: [April 10, 2014, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yknow-f-ck-netflix-some-more/685495/44 "2014-04-10T13:03:24Z")
> [@VinylTurnip](#):
>
> I don’t see why people are confused when I say “I don’t watch movies.” It should be obvious that I specifically mean “I don’t go to movies at the cinema.” Of COURSE I… ah, observe films… on DVD, on Blu-Ray, on television, on streaming video, on planes, and so forth. That’s totally different, because there’s no ticket stub and no expensive popcorn. Seriously, why is this so hard to understand?
Because “I don’t go to the movies/the theater” and “I don’t watch movies” usually mean different things?
---
### Author:  [@Strassia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Strassia)
#### Post date: [April 10, 2014, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yknow-f-ck-netflix-some-more/685495/45 "2014-04-10T13:12:09Z")
> [@VinylTurnip](#):
>
> I don’t see why people are confused when I say “I don’t watch movies.” It should be obvious that I specifically mean “I don’t go to movies at the cinema.” Of COURSE I… ah, observe films… on DVD, on Blu-Ray, on television, on streaming video, on planes, and so forth. That’s totally different, because there’s no ticket stub and no expensive popcorn. Seriously, why is this so hard to understand?
Would you be confused if I said “I haven’t been able to go to the movies since my two year old was born” and yet had seen Iron Man 3?
---
### Author:  [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)
#### Post date: [April 10, 2014, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yknow-f-ck-netflix-some-more/685495/46 "2014-04-10T14:03:09Z")
I would. But then I haven’t been able to watch a movie since my four-year-old was born.
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### Author:  [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)
#### Post date: [April 10, 2014, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yknow-f-ck-netflix-some-more/685495/47 "2014-04-10T14:49:19Z")
> [@VinylTurnip](#):
>
> I don’t see why people are confused when I say “I don’t watch movies.” It should be obvious that I specifically mean “I don’t go to movies at the cinema.” Of COURSE I… ah, observe films… on DVD, on Blu-Ray, on television, on streaming video, on planes, and so forth. That’s totally different, because there’s no ticket stub and no expensive popcorn. Seriously, why is this so hard to understand?
> [@Acsenray](#):
>
> Because “I don’t go to the movies/the theater” and “I don’t watch movies” usually mean different things?
Actually, this frames it pretty well, VT. It really boils down to a semantic issue championed by those who are butthurt because they think they’re being dumped on.
“I don’t watch movies” is a specific statement: it means you don’t watch the entertainment genre of long-form film/video entertainment. At all. “Movies” is not a catch-all term; it’s an art/entertainment form as specific as “books” “sitcoms” “cop shows” “Broadway musicals” or “live strippers.”
“I don’t go to movie theaters” is an entirely different statement - it means you don’t go to movie theaters. It has nothing do do with whether you watch movies.
“Television” is the opposite: it IS used as a catch-all phrase for whatever pours off a video screen, expanded in recent years from the original meaning of ‘whatever poured off general broadcast video screens.’ That’s not what the term means to me and I don’t think it should mean that to anyone in this highly complex entertainment world we now have. Using “television” to mean “all video entertainment” has been out of date since the first home video options, about 40 years ago, and it’s now as absurd as calling people who sit and do calculations “computers.” (As they once were.)
“I don’t watch television” does not mean you never look at moving images on a video screen; it means you don’t sit in front of a video screen watching what any particular channel or service cares to deliver to you on its own terms. It does not mean you don’t watch [del]movies[/del] television programs.
The only gloss I’m putting on anything here is that I maintain that no matter how or where you watch it, if advertising delivery and timing are still under the control of the delivering party, it’s “television.” If you have the option of watching the program and nothing but the program, under your own time and schedule control… it might be a television program you’re watching, or a movie, or a documentary, or a recording of pole dancers… but it’s not “television” in the sweeping sense of “going to a movie theater.”
So you can either accept this sorting out of a discussion, and the definitions above, and make an attempt to understand my position (whether you agree or not), or you can stay over in the ranks of the butthurt and insist that “television” is “watching anything at all on a video screen” and arguing the intellectual superiority of who watches what.
Other than specific comments about specific shows, which I’m as entitled to as anyone, I’ve never said that people who watch one program or another are superior/inferior.
I have said, in more than one way and multiple times, that people who watch television, as I’ve defined it above - the outpouring of ad-wrapped content under someone else’s control intended primarily to deliver the ads to eyeballs - can and should do better.
Others have turned it into an intellectual superiority game over “watching TV” and “not watching TV.” I haven’t. I’ve said what I’ve summarized above - and I know I did because this is all part of a much larger context and I don’t pull these posts out of my ass.
---
### Author:  [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)
#### Post date: [April 10, 2014, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yknow-f-ck-netflix-some-more/685495/48 "2014-04-10T15:16:58Z")
Your smugness comes from the fact that you can’t be bothered to watch commercials.
Not watching commercials is fine, but the fact that you need to preach that to everyone, comes off as smug.
FTR, most of what I watch is ad free, but I still just call it “Watching TV”.
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### Author:  [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)
#### Post date: [April 10, 2014, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yknow-f-ck-netflix-some-more/685495/49 "2014-04-10T15:20:48Z")
> [@Shakes](#):
>
> Your smugness comes from the fact that you can’t be bothered to watch commercials.
Interesting verb. “Can’t be bothered.”
> [@](#):
>
> Not watching commercials is fine, but the fact that you need to preach that to everyone, comes off as smug.
So you think watching TV commercials is some kind of cultural asset? Or that we’re obligated to, on some level? Or that pointing out they can be avoided is “smug”?
[zero snark here] Truly fascinating. I run into a lot of responses, but rarely one that defends commercial viewing. Are you in the media/marketing/ad field?
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### Author:  [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)
#### Post date: [April 10, 2014, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yknow-f-ck-netflix-some-more/685495/50 "2014-04-10T15:40:54Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#):
>
> So you think watching TV commercials is some kind of cultural asset? Or that we’re obligated to, on some level?
I’m trying real hard to understand how you extrapolated from my previous post. I have no idea what you’re on about.
> [@](#):
>
> Or that pointing out they can be avoided is “smug”?
In certain contexts, yes. If I tell you I had Chili’s for lunch today and your response was “Oh I don’t eat at chain restaurants, the M&P joints are where it’s at.”
While your point would be valid, it still comes off as smug.
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### Author:  [@Stoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stoid)
#### Post date: [April 10, 2014, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yknow-f-ck-netflix-some-more/685495/51 "2014-04-10T15:51:29Z")
What I find very sad is the way both “sides” have completely missed/avoided/ignored the opportunity to have a genuine exchange about something vitally important by focusing on this silly blather about the terms for watching television. What’s really being talked about is something so much bigger, perhaps the only way many people CANtalk about it is by approaching it from such a remove, and it is how each of us is spending the most precious thing we have or will ever have: our time. **That** is the actual topic, and if approached face forward, directly, it could be an extremely satisfying and even helpful discussion for everyone.
Sigh…
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### Author:  [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)
#### Post date: [April 10, 2014, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yknow-f-ck-netflix-some-more/685495/52 "2014-04-10T15:53:08Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#):
>
> So you can either accept this sorting out of a discussion, and the definitions above, and make an attempt to understand my position (whether you agree or not), or you can stay over in the ranks of the butthurt and insist that “television” is “watching anything at all on a video screen” and arguing the intellectual superiority of who watches what.
Your sorting is stupid, your definitions are stupid, and you started this whole thread because _you_ are butthurt about Netflix.
I’m honestly surprised that someone who gets as butthurt about ads as you do watches TV even on netflix because you still get advertised to in the form of product placements.
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### Author:  [@Stoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stoid)
#### Post date: [April 10, 2014, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yknow-f-ck-netflix-some-more/685495/53 "2014-04-10T15:53:16Z")
> [@Shakes](#):
>
> I’m trying real hard to understand how you extrapolated from my previous post. I have no idea what you’re on about.
>
> In certain contexts, yes. If I tell you I had Chili’s for lunch today and your response was “Oh I don’t eat at chain restaurants, the M&P joints are where it’s at.”
>
> While your point would be valid, it still comes off as smug.
100% Sincere desire to have a better understanding: does smugness bother you, and if so, why?
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### Author:  [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)
#### Post date: [April 10, 2014, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yknow-f-ck-netflix-some-more/685495/54 "2014-04-10T16:10:41Z")
> [@Stoid](#):
>
> 100% Sincere desire to have a better understanding: does smugness bother you, and if so, why?
Are you trying to bait me? Because I’m pretty sure you’re smart enough to know why smugness is off putting. That’s something like 99% of the people on this planet knows.
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### Author:  [@ISiddiqui](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ISiddiqui)
#### Post date: [April 10, 2014, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yknow-f-ck-netflix-some-more/685495/55 "2014-04-10T16:30:41Z")
> [@Inner\_Stickler](#):
>
> Your sorting is stupid, your definitions are stupid, and you started this whole thread because _you_ are butthurt about Netflix
Exactly. It isn’t a “semantic issue championed by those who are butthurt because they think they’re being dumped on.”. Instead its a semantic issue championed by **AB** for no particular reason other than to be semantic. Other people read through the lines and realize the only reason for someone to be this ridiculously stupidly semantic is because that person doesn’t want to be associated with watching “television” and therefore has redefined “television” so they can disassociate themselves from it - therefore the people who think you are dumping on them are probably more correct about the matter than you are.
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### Author:  [@Stoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stoid)
#### Post date: [April 10, 2014, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yknow-f-ck-netflix-some-more/685495/56 "2014-04-10T16:33:51Z")
> [@Shakes](#):
>
> Are you trying to bait me? Because I’m pretty sure you’re smart enough to know why smugness is off putting. That’s something like 99% of the people on this planet knows.
Actually, I think it is truer to say that most people know that smugness is off-putting, but I strongly disagree that people really ever examine or otherwise come to understand why. I think they should, because I think most people, if they allow themselves to ponder it with an open mind, they will eventually come to understandings that will allow them to be free of any irritation in the face of another’s smugness.
None of which should be taken as anything like baiting.
---
### Author:  [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)
#### Post date: [April 10, 2014, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yknow-f-ck-netflix-some-more/685495/57 "2014-04-10T16:34:20Z")
> [@Stoid](#):
>
> \
> (Alphabetical…if it was quality and brilliance, breaking bad would be spots 1-5)
> Amber
> American Horror Story
> Bates Motel
> Being Human UK
> Being Human US
> Big Love
> Boardwalk Empire
> Breaking Bad
> Broadchurch
> Call the Midwife
> Colbert Report
> Daily Show
> Damages
> Deadwood
> Dexter
> Downton Abbey
> Enlightened
> Entourage
> Flipping Out
> Friday Night Lights
> Game of Thrones
> Getting On
> Girls
> Grey’s Anatomy
> Hannibal
> Hell on Wheels
> Hemlock Grove
> Hit & Miss
> Homeland
> House of Cards
> In the Flesh
> In Treatment
> Inside Men
> Jimmy Fallon
> Justified
> Kidnapped
> Law & Order Criminal Minds
> Les Revenants
> Lost
> Louie
> Luck
> Luther
> Mad Men
> Masters of Sex
> Nashville (silly trash, but very entertaining)
> Nurse Jackie
> Orange is the New Black
> Orphan Black
> Parade’s End
> Person of Interest
> Pillars of the Earth
> Prisoner’s Wives
> Rectify
> Resurrection
> Ripper Street
> Saving Grace
> Scandal (downright insane, but again, very entertaining)
> Seth Meyers
> Sherlock
> Sons of Anarchy (Another slice of crazy entertaining insanity)
> The Americans
> The Big C
> The Blacklist (Spader RULES!)
> The Bridge
> The Fall
> The Good Wife
> The Hour
> The Killing (Original Danish)
> The Killing (remake)
> The Newsroom (second season, first was intolerable)
> The River
> The Shield
> The Wire (right behind Breaking Bad)
> Top of the Lake
> True Blood (Fun as hell at first)
> True Detective
> United States of Tara
> Vice
> Walking Dead
> Web Therapy
You missed “Suits,” the best thing on tv right now.
> [@Drunky\_Smurf](#):
>
> \ If you honestly think watchin GoT on Netflix constitutes you not watching television then you have no right to be posting on the smartest website on the internet populated by the smartest internetters.
I’m totally putting that on my resume - “Internetter.”
> [@steveroo](#):
>
> I have no idea what you do for a living, **Amateur Barbarian** , but you are missing your calling as a writer for _The Onion_. The only thing missing from your post is an “Area Man” headline, such as **Area Man Pauses “Game of Thrones” For Twenty Minutes To Explain That He Is Not, Per Se, “Watching Television.”**
>
> 😃
I think you nailed it - excellent parody of a parody.
---
### Author:  [@MeanOldLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeanOldLady)
#### Post date: [April 10, 2014, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yknow-f-ck-netflix-some-more/685495/58 "2014-04-10T16:38:41Z")
Hey guys, can we all just ignore **Stoid**?
So here are some quotes from our friend here.
[QUOTE=This Fucking Guy]
I won’t say I’m better than you for not watching TV, but I will say I’ve had a hell of a lot of time to do other things that I think are more productive, more “enhancing” and sometimes even more restful that zoning out in front of the box.
[/QUOTE]
But that was only the beginning. This post was only halfway stupid. It gets better!
> [@](#):
>
> I can think of arguments for the superiority of not watching [television] (the baseline one being that it leaves more time for more worthwhile things - and yes, I think ‘worthwhile’ is an absolute here), but I can’t think of a single one for the superiority of watching, except for the social validation of participating.
When asked why would he say something so fucktarded:
[QUOTE=Hurr Durr]
Because the derived value from TV is so low that a good nap probably beats it in the worthwhile category. And because it’s not a sometime thing for most people, like drinking or playing solitaire or other activities of questionable value; the majority of people watch hours of TV every day. It’s not a trivial use of individual time.
If that’s how you choose to spend your time, it’s your choice - but I can’t see ANY argument that it’s a virtuous or positive one except in the vaguely libertarian “I can do any goddamned thing I want to” sense.
[/QUOTE]
When told there’s good stuff to watch on TV:
> [@](#):
>
> The most intensely educational hour on PBS is equivalent to about ten minutes of reading. The content of most programs could be read in about a minute. Other than being able to sit back and have it spoon-fed to you, I see no great amount of value to spending that hour slowly absorbing a small amount of information.
> …
>
> So if you think sitting in front of the TV to have information fed to you at a 50:1 rate or worse is a valid use of your time, be my guest. If you think watching only the very finest drama programs with commercials zipped is worth hours of your day, ditto.
“Don’t watch TV! Read instead.” Because anyone who does both is wasting their time. And he has no idea why anyone says he sounds like a giant hypocritical asshole for shitting all over TV and TV-watchers, then throwing a tizzy because he wants to watch TV RIGHT GODDAMN NOW, GODDAMN IT! But, like, on the internet.
When countless people said, “Dude, whatever, I watch a lot of good shows on TV and you’re just being an asshole,” his response:
[QUOTE=This Fuckin’ Retard]
I dunno. When the participants on this board aggressively defend not just the right to watch TV, but the right to call anyone who doesn’t a snob, I can only weep for the species.
Oh, look, your show’s back on.
[/QUOTE]
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### Author:  [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)
#### Post date: [April 10, 2014, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yknow-f-ck-netflix-some-more/685495/59 "2014-04-10T16:47:53Z")
Yeah, HBO is basically your best no-advertisements model for for-profit content, and you’re complaining that it’s too expensive. Ad-supported TV is a pretty damn good deal in my view.
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### Author:  [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)
#### Post date: [April 10, 2014, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yknow-f-ck-netflix-some-more/685495/60 "2014-04-10T16:59:43Z")
> [@Stoid](#):
>
> Actually, I think it is truer to say that most people know that smugness is off-putting, but I strongly disagree that people really ever examine or otherwise come to understand why. I think they should, because I think most people, if they allow themselves to ponder it with an open mind, they will eventually come to understandings that will allow them to be free of any irritation in the face of another’s smugness.
>
> None of which should be taken as anything like baiting.
Is this like one of those “Looking the mirror” moments? As in, if I really analyze smugness, I’ll come to the logical conclusion that I find it off putting because of my own shortcomings?
Nah, it’s nowhere near that deep.
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