Well, I think there is some truth to what Slate is saying, but it is carrying out the argument a little too far. I might want to see Wedding Crashers and more "fun" Hollywood movies as often as I do independent/serious/important films, but that does not totally reflect who I am. It's a pretty serious accusation-- but I think Slate is right that over time you might notice some things about people's Netflix choices. Fortunately, I see it as useful as crazymonk has given me some good movie suggestions that I might have otherwise not thought about or overlooked. I wish I had another Netflix friend though who watched movies regularly (my other two Netflix friends are much more casual in the speed at which they watch and rate movies).

I just read the article in its entirety, and it's pretty funny. I like
this part:

"Netflix allows our tastes to flourish in their full, omnivorous, complex human glory, free of shameful image-management and the high/low divide. Earnest Goes to Camp consorts freely with Citizen Kane. It's like a self-portrait in movie titles: Nowhere else is cultural desire so nakedly on display."

Obviously the guy is writing a silly little piece and needs to make grand proclamations, but I did disagree with him on a few points.

First of all, how many people actually rate the films that they watch? I have never been a netflix member, but my mom periodically uses the service and I don't think she ever rates the movies.

Giving two different movies the same star rating is not saying they are equal. We all probably are familiar with Ebert's argument of judging a movie based on what it set out to do. That being said, I'd probably reserve the very highest rating for classic movies that I absolutely adore and the bottom rating for movies that I can find absolutely no redeeming value in.

Maybe this doesn't hold true for friends of a writer for Slate, but wouldn't you imagine that most netflix members have new movies atop their queues. My mother devised the surest way to return a movie to then get a new movie the day it was released.

Onto my mother's queue. From what I remember she filled her queue with new releases and HBO televisions shows. The shows were the default netflix choice. If netflix couldn't send her Crash, it would send her the next few episodes of the Sopranos. Basically the shows filled a void when she couldn't think what else to get. I have this same attitude too, as my girlfriend has a membership at Blockbuster where you always have two movies out. When I can't think of what to get, I just grab more episodes of Deadwood.

After writing all this, I want to get on Netflix.

You'd be surprised at how many people rate their movies on Netflix. I think I read somewhere that the average Netflix member has rated over 200 movies. It's surprisingly easy to do, and it fuels the recommendation engine.

Does the recommendation engine work that well? Or is it like the recommendations at Blockbuster: "If you liked The Family Stone, you'll also enjoy The Royal Tennenbaums."?

It's actually pretty good.

Rodenator: did you ever read the prairie dog article?

Someone mentioned prairie dogs the other day. What is this article?

http://www.rodenator.com/products2.htm#rodenator

http://www.montrosepress.com/articles/2006/09/10/local_news/4.txt

Funny, I always thought of the Rodenator as the boss of the 'bury.

Sims, that is.

Meanwhile I never watch any TV and am behind in my mainstream cultural knowledge to say the least so I recently demoted "Umbrellas of Cherbourg" and other classics to find out what all the craze is about Gray's Anatomy.