3 things Netflix needs to stop doing on their streaming service

The viewer experience needs a few corrections and deletions.

Netflix is great. Let’s toss that dagger deep into the ground here before I lay into a few of their long-standing bad habits. If I had to chop every streaming service but one, it’d be the awards savvy and redundant entertainment shack (both can exist inside one house).

Ever since Blockbuster bluffed and didn’t buy Netflix way back in the day when it was small, it’s grown from a movie delivery service to a behemoth in the Oscar and big budget movie arena. With that expanded space and platform parking spots, the streamer OG has welcomed all kinds of films and shows, both new and old.

Navigation has become extracurricular at times, trying to avoid starting four movies before finally settling on one clear choice. Now that I’ve greased up the positives of a service that isn’t going away anytime soon, let’s get into three things that are bugging me to the tenth degree.

3) Please don’t auto-start a trailer before we can read the synopsis and examine the poster.

It’s like being throw into a tub of cold water with only a few seconds to save it from your “continue watching log.” Maybe this has been fixed, but Netflix needs to learn how to slow down. They can’t wait for us to decide what to watch because they figure we may leave. This locked on trailer play mode only strengthens that notion.

2) Don’t just auto start a movie after we just finished one!

After draining 121 minutes of time on an action thriller that put our phone-scanning powers into action instead of actually thrilling us, here’s a new flick to fall into. Or let’s say you reached the credits on a gut wrenching drama like Ben is Back with Julia Roberts, and your nerves are as shattered as the Undertaker’s knees. The mind and emotional endurance are shot and here’s a similar movie starting about drug addiction and what not. Slow down, Netflix.

It’s like being attacked by an entertainment guru with a personality disorder. Five minutes in, and you’re ready to rip the buttons off your remote and flip to volleyball on ESPN 3. Just allow the credits to finish first, or let it get to the Best Grip and catering division, and then sync the previews.

1) You don’t need every movie ever made in your collection.

There’s a big library of movies, and then there’s 16 things for everybody and their favorite aunt as well. Old, new, adapted, readapted from a past adaptation, and sorta new movies and shows. At some point, every movie ever made will pass through Netflix. You’re no longer the destination spot for a rental; more like a place for everything. It takes away from the prestige a little from the awards savvy collection, and buries a curious mind in the eighth page of a simple browse.

Maybe there’s better things to complain about, but a pandemic ally and goldmine don’t go unpunished. After immersing ourselves in your entertainment home for too long while the outside world battled a virus and the aftermath, we have some notes. Yeah, I’m not alone here with these demands.

If there’s one thing that connects us on this rock, it’s the need for entertainment of our choosing at a moment’s disposal. Now that many streaming platforms are at our disposal, Netflix needs to fix its own bugs and trim the library.

Bonus Thing: Please, before considering any of the above options, give us another season of Mindhunter. It’s a critical error. If you can drop $90 million on a Will Smith alien flick, cut Mr. David Fincher a blank check. I’m sure he could be convinced.

Bonus Thing #2: Please adjust and fix your sound mixing software. A dialogue scene will turn into a full-fledged shootout, making you bite down hard into your freshly air-fried pizza roll and turning your throat up to Freddy Krueger temperature. That’s on your system, not the 44 different homes I’ve viewed your product in. Don’t forget about the little things.

-DLB out!