Netflix: Because Movie Viewing is now a Communal Doing

Netflix—You Gotta Get It To Get It—“Proposal”

There are times when you find those who are unable to articulate themselves endearing. The lack of sophistication in their character strikes you as pure. A demonstrable trait of simplicity and sincerity.

A smile inducing little stutter. A wish to protect them from their faltering. Their lack of sophistication nostalgic of childhood innocence.

That nostalgia quickly evaporates when the truth comes to light: We are a society plagued by an inability to articulate. Worse, instead of addressing the issue, we are now glamourizing it. Smiling upon it. Gazing at it with benevolence as if it were a sweet child and not a strange sickness.

What does this commercial intend? To rally up those who struggle to communicate? To suggest that life’s expression, defined by a script, played out on a two dimensional screen, is acceptable? Or is it a social commentary on the fact that as we become more prone to movie going and less inclined towards reading and conversing, we are becoming subject to a creative paralysis? As every life event, experience and circumstance is scripted on the silver screen, our personal experiences are no longer spontaneous, but have become subject to those depictions?

Probably not. It is, after all, a commercial encouraging movie viewing. So why bring up such issues? Perhaps Netflix didn’t mean to. Perhaps that’s just how the end product came out, without regard for the error of its ways. Or maybe I’m just reading too much into it. Taking offense where offence isn’t intended. Even so, if I was a parent, I would reconsider my subscription to Netflix, following this commercial. That being said, clearly the commercial isn’t intended for an audience with children. So who is it intended for? And what truly does it intend to convey?

May I suggest that this commercial is intended for an entire generation of people for whom film viewing isn’t merely a pastime, an occasional sojourn into the make-believe, but for whom it is well and truly a creative and emotional outlet in and of itself. A generation of people who experience film not as a solitary experience, but a communal one. Cults are created to honor imagination and ingenious. Celebrities become the objects of congregational worship, their fans circumambulating their media made personas. Movie moments become iconic cultural references.

But you can only understand the value of an icon, by breaking the code in which it is embedded. The code of culture. And that can only occur once you embrace that culture code. Hence the ‘You Gotta Get It To Get It.’

You, madam/sir, are not subscribing to a movie service, but an actual cultural experience, an entire culture, ensconced in a virtual space. Join the communal gathering area where you can not only watch the film, but also share the film. Suggest it via the Netflix site to facebook friends and family. Watch other films based on your viewing habits and movie ratings. Absorb the experience. My friend, it is an experience. A culturally pervasive experience customized to your personal goals, problems, dreams, issues and general life’s occurrences. A culturally sacred space in the comfort of your own home, shared with those whom you deem worthy of your circle. An online common room of films and filmic references.

Anthropologists insist that a culture cannot be truly understood unless the one who seeks to understand it is immersed in it. Well then. Isn’t it obvious? You gotta get it, to get it. Well, I got it. And I get it man, I get it. Even so, centuries from now, when future archaeologists dissect our lifestyle and they come upon this commercial, they might become confused and come to believe that we were a nation oddly inarticulate and incapable despite all our progress. Camps will form arguing our abilities and/or decided lack thereof. Ultimately, because of this commercial, they’re going to fail to understand us as well as our movie loving culture. But then. Well. They’ll have to get it to get it. Netflix that is.

Nice. No?