Signed up for NetFlix. Am surprised.

A couple of years ago I subscribed to Acorn, until I had watched everything I wanted to see at least three times. (I know every line, every cadence to every line in every one of the Foyle’s War episodes.)

Then I went on to BritBox. This month I realized I’d watched everything I wanted to see three times. At least. I was overdosing on all the Jane Austen series. (Do you know how many Prides & Prejudices were filmed for TV? And how many Senses and Sensibilities? I do.)

You can never get enough of Austen. But you can take a break. (Besides, I am continuously re-reading the novels. Currently, I’m re-visiting Mansfield Park.) So I canceled BritBox and subscribed to NetFlix.

Friends and family had been raving about several documentaries on NetFlix and I was looking forward to sitting in my chair of an evening, thoroughly absorbed in fascinating factual matters involving, oh, octopuses, and other animals. We all know I’m in love with animals and news about them.

Instead, something odd happened. Seems I backed through a secret door into a cavern of assassin movies.

I’m still trying to figure out how this happened. When NetFlix initially asked me to give them an idea of the kind of stuff I liked so they could fine tune their offerings to my tastes, perhaps I erred in naming thrillers and action films. Because I am now offered a possibly endless queue of assassin movies. Moreover, they are movies I’ve never heard of. I doubt they have ever been in theaters, although the casts are weirdly strong. Some big names are running around slicing and diceing villains. And some big names are the villains. (Last night I found myself saying out loud, “Is that Richard Dreyfuss?” It was.)

I have noticed these films are based on comic books or graphic novels, whatever they are. They are not Austen, for sure. So much blood! So many kicks to vital organs! There are plenty of sociopaths in Austen, but not a lot of blood.

Now, the violence itself does not appall me. Indeed, several friends said I was “sick” to watch violence. Here I’m announcing to everyone that I do not enjoy sadism. But violence against sadists? Sure, why not? Yes, I get it: the sadism is used to set up violent vengeance, so the violent vengeance seems sort of ethical. So, sure, I’m being manipulated.

I dunno. I’m finding NetFlix somewhat intimidating in their push to get me hooked into one genre. But I am simultaneously awed at the number of assassins racing around the highly fictionalized world killing horrible people and at the number of big-time actors who are playing assassins running around the world killing–…

Is this because of the great and deserved success of the Bourne movies? Which, if I find them on NetFlix (I don’t really know how to find anything on NetFlix) I will be re-watching over and over and over.

Jason Bourne is my kind of assassin. Even if I know all his moves.

 

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