Purpose

The purpose of this blog is to give viewers of Netflix streaming media access to good information and a little bit of an opinion about some of the hidden gems that Netflix offers through their streaming subscription service.   If you are anything like me, you may find the vast offerings on streaming sites overwhelming at times.  Netflix does do a good job of listing the movies available and rating them and making suggestions based on each user’s preferences and viewing choices.  However, what I do not like about Netflix listings is their descriptions of the movies they offer and recommend.  First of all they are very brief – too brief.  This is good in the sense that there is little chance for any spoiler information being revealed.  But, the descriptions often do not do the movies justice, and very frequently I find the to be ill-informed and even misleading.  They often will concentrate on a one or two sentence “sound bite”, which focuses on some minor aspect in the story line, to entice the viewer.  I presume they think this will attract viewers, but the problem  I found is that often their description has very little to do with what the movie is really about, and I found myself hesitate or postpone choosing to view a film which I end up really loving – and I realize that it was their description which kept me away.To remedy this I am offering longer descriptions so, hopefully, to touch on all the important and pertinent themes and story lines in a film.  In the descriptions I often include a brief opinion or interpretation of the films that I am describing – a mini review if you will.  This is perhaps a bit of self-indulgent vanity, but what review is not.  After all, when you read my descriptions you are depending upon the reliability of my interpretation of what is important and what the film is about. However, since my  intent is to give an accurate description of the offerings so that Netflix subscribers can make a more informed viewing choice, I do try to keep subjective comments to a minimum, and to make sure that my personal views appear as opinions, and to make the majority of my presentation as objective as possible.  Also, I have tried very, very hard not to reveal too much or give away any major twists or endings.  To that end, I have imposed a 500 word limit on these descriptions.  Most films are easily described and reviewed in much fewer words, while other, bigger and more complicated narratives present more of a challenge in being adequately described within that restriction.  Even though I rarely come close to it, I have found that by imposing a limit it forces me to be aware of presenting my information in a concise yet readable manner.  If you feel you find an example where I have failed at this or revealed too much, please let me know.  Such criticism will only help to make me better and make this blog a more usefully tool.Lastly, my initial inclination was to not assign my rating to the listings, but to rather just pass along the Netflix rating.  However, Netflix assigns two ratings to movies: one based on an average of all their viewers ratings, plus one that is their best guess of what you (each individual user) would rate it.  One problem with using either of these ratings is that they both change over time as additional viewers ratings are factored in or as your viewing history increases.  Therefore I have assigned my own star rating to each review, but at the end I have also enclosed a link to a Netflix listing of each film or show, where a viewer can see the Netflix ratings plus feedback from other viewers.

ONE BIG FOOTNOTE:                                          

My intent is not to review everything I stream on Netflix.  As I stated above, the purpose here is to give “good information and a little bit of an opinion about some of the hidden gems that Netflix offers.”   Therefore, I will only include movies or shows that I enjoy and want to recommend.  I want to inform others about offerings that I think they might be missing, and that I think are worth watching, and tell them why I think they are worth watching.  You may notice that I include a lot of foreign films in my listings.  This is because I think that mainstream Hollywood movies are fairly well-known by the general viewing public, but many foreign films are not and that is where many of the gems are hidden.  This also probably is due to my own personal preferences – I have always liked foreign films.  However this blog is not intended to be limited to any one category and I encourage others to contribute and to add their preferences and expand the scope of these listings.  Anyone who would like to contribute can check out more information about this on the SUBMIT page.