I believe the phrase is "jumped the shark"

[cellio]

We just watched the end of season two of True Blood. Season one was quite good, though rather dissimilar from the books (Dani says; they're in my reading queue). Season two continued that dissimilarity but got just plain weird. Spoiler warning, in case it matters: Really, a supernatural being who locks the entire town under mind control toward the goal of summoning Dionysius so she can marry him? And the way to any god's heart is through, well, sacrificial hearts? Ew. I believe we shall both give season three a pass.

I think I'll go scrub that out of my brain with some Stargate: SG-1.

(And a minor Netflix kvetch: I do not want to separately manage DVD and instant-view queues; I want the latter to be auto-generated from the relevant subset of the former. Unlike with DVDs it isn't really a queue; I can watch anything at any time, so it's just a matter of navigation. It wouldn't matter if things available via streaming stayed available, but they seem randomly become unavailable, at which point I have to move them over to the DVD queue. That could be easier.)

Comments

[tashabear.livejournal.com]

You don't have to manage them separately, unless I'm not understanding you. Your instant-view selections are also on your DVD queue; at most you'd have to keep them shoved to the bottom so you don't get the DVDs by accident if you don't want them. Then if you want to see your instant-view stuff, you can click over to that list. I don't bother putting them in order; I watch as the mood strikes.

[cellio]

When viewing a DVD in their catalogue, I can click on one link to add it to my DVD queue or another link to add it to my instant queue. How do I have just one queue, with the subset that's instantly available showing up automatically on my Netflix-ready device?

I have definitely added things to my instant queue without them showing up on my DVD queue, and then when they stop being available via streaming I have to add them to the DVD queue.

[siderea]

I have observed that adding things to the DVD queue autopopulates the instant queue if they have instant available.

I'm getting the impression the relationship between the two queues (and some of the AJAX) is buggy, as in "Hadn't I already thrown this off my queue already? How did it get back here?"

[cellio]

I've noticed the Ajax being quirky in that way if I navigate back to a queue via the browser "back" button, but if I go there fresh (or force a reload) the thing I deleted is properly gone.

I'm not getting auto-population of the instant queue. :-( And while I wouldn't really expect them to get this right, when something that is in my DVD queue later becomes available for instant viewing, it sure doesn't show up there.

[tashabear.livejournal.com]

Have you looked at your queue on a computer? I can't speak to Netflix-ready devices, as my Roku box just shipped today. ;-)

I see these two tabs:
(http://www.flickr.com/photos/tashabear/5213117479/)

and then when I click on the DVDs tab, I see this:
(http://www.flickr.com/photos/tashabear/5213712992/)

I could shuffle that stuff around, but if I click on the Instant tab I see this:
(http://www.flickr.com/photos/tashabear/5213724170/)

so there's really no point.

If you add something to your DVD queue, it automatically shows up in the instant queue, so you might as well add them to the DVD queue and keep them at the bottom. Then if it disappears off the Instant queue, it's still on the DVD queue and you can bump it or not. Watching something on the Instant queue doesn't remove it, though, so you may need to keep an eye on that.

What you see on whatever device you're using may differ; thus far I've only streamed via computer.

[alienor.livejournal.com]

If you add something to your DVD queue, it automatically shows up in the instant queue,

That isn't how mine is working. If I add a DVD, even if it has instant play availability, it does not show up in the instant queue.

Plus, on the PS3 (I don't know about other boxes), while you can browse through all available movies/shows, or you can browse through your instant queue, you can't browse through your DVD queue. So I have to stick the shows I want to watch on the instant queue (or suffer through searching from a TV remote, since we haven't bought a keyboard for the PS3).

[cellio]

Hmm, I'm not getting that behavior; if I click "add to DVD queue" and it's also available for streaming, it does not automatically go onto the instant queue. I have to add it. (I do see the "play" buttons next to relevant entries in the DVD queue.)

Hmm, I wonder if DVD sets behave differently; a season of a TV show is one entry in the instant queue but one entry per disc in the DVD queue. Which leads to another frustration -- I want better management for multi-disc sets. I don't want an entry per disc; I want an entry for the series and an indicator of what disc is next.

But thanks for the tip to always add things to the DVD queue, and instant if applicable. At least that way the one is a proper subset of the other, at the cost of some extra maintenance of the DVD queue (remembering to remove things from both queues). I can handle that until they get around to adding a "remove from both" option.

[http://users.livejournal.com/merle_/]

You also don't want just one queue, especially when sharing an account, because sorting becomes insane. I prefer the two views, except I have not found a good way to ask Netflix "so what things would I like that are instantly available?".

As for "True Blood", yeah. I was dismayed by the HBO-ism of it during the first season, and the second deviated wildly. The third.. well, I made it about four or six episodes in (not sure) and lost interest. I have all of them but they're just sitting around taking up space.

[cellio]

I would like the queue to also have more of a database-like front end, yes. I want to be able to sort on genre (particularly TV versus not), user-created tags, and if sharing an account (I don't), whose choice it is. I would also like it to collapse TV seasons down to one entry (like on the instant queue), not one per disc. Really, only the top few slots in my DVD queue function as a queue; the rest is just a bucket of candidates. I want a better interface than control-F or scrolling for that bucket.

I have not found a good way to ask Netflix "so what things would I like that are instantly available?"

Yeah, I would like that functionality too.

[http://users.livejournal.com/merle_/]

I would also like it to collapse TV seasons down to one entry (like on the instant queue), not one per disc.

It does that for me on the Roku, just not in the Netflix DVD queue. But sometimes a week will go by without me even looking at the latest disc: I use the service now primarily for streaming (and if they do not offer it, there are other means).

Supposedly they offer an "upgrade" to a streaming-only account for an additional dollar. How they justify charging more I do not know, unless they provide an upgraded interface where you only see streamable content. If they did I might be willing to pay the usurous surcharge.

[dvarin.livejournal.com]

While I could believe that of others in that pantheon (eg, Hades), hasn't the usual way into Dionysus's heart been to get everyone royally drunk?

[cellio]

In HBO's mythos, the being attempting this caused people to become wild and crazy (with a fair bit of sex and mayhem involved), so that at least fits. But the culmination, supposedly, was to sacrifice another supernatural being and offer its heart as a way of summoning the god and wedding him. Er, right.