Netflix is great. It may have fewer things that I’ve been waiting for and want to see these days, but they at least make up for it by churning out 1200 original shows and specials every day, so some of those are bound to be decent to watch. Maybe?
Anyway I’d like to propose some new features for Netflix. I think that giving us tiny things that we never asked for will make up for not having King of the Hill, Psych, Seinfeld, or anything else that we want to watch. Although, my mom thanks you for all the new Barbra Streisand.
I would pay $1 per month more each for the following features to be added to my account. I would love to be able to turn them on and off individually month to month, like an insane person. I think that with all the media about how we have no attention spans lately, all of these features will help distract us more and more consistently from whatever we intended to do at the beginning of the day.
Skip Intro
Wait, they already added this? I swear it was my idea first. (Everyone’s idea, really.)
Skip Recap
This would be pretty different depending on the show. For some, the recap on a show only happens partway through a series. Suddenly you are five seasons into a show and they want to tell you what happened last episode. So many of these last too long and are especially nonessential when you are binge-watching on Netflix. I know what just happened, I just watched it!
If you’re watching anime, this would cut the show length roughly in half, so be careful when approaching this button, or the idea of it.
Pop-Up Video
We need, NEED, a “Pop-Up Video” option for Netflix. It’s essential and I can’t believe we’ve gone this long without it. First done by the infamous VH1, this would show trivia and fun facts about music videos while they played, and was a very highly rated show. Netflix should at least be able to get this on their originals, or at least have access to all the facts and trivia necessary; they could even add quotes and behind the scenes info and little blooper arrows. Most likely they should do it for famous shows like Friends or whatever people watch, but I imagine that’s harder because “rights” or “licensing” or something.
I know they wouldn’t be able to roll this out on all of their shows at once, or even necessarily ever, but I would be pretty satisfied with some. Let’s be real, I would pay for this on one single show, even if I had no prior plans to watch it — I’m all about TV trivia and other nonsense. Tell me any fact about that TV show! Put it in a cartoon bubble and I will be doubly happy. Although I’m not so interested in the actors, I imagine some people care. Toss it all in.
Random
Clearly we all need a random episode button per TV show. After watching It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia so many times, I don’t care which episode I play, but scrolling through the episodes within each season can be a drag. So I end up watching many of the same episodes earlier in seasons, or just starting at the beginning.
Also I would love a choice to have a button for a random episode within the chosen season. Sometimes you really just don’t want to watch that season 2, ya know?