NetFlix = lame

[muckefuck]

So monshu was in need of some escapism tonight and we thought Ong Bak: The Thai warrior would be just the ticket. But they fucked us again: It wouldn't play either on the DVD player or his computer. That's two discs out of the last seven. I seriously suggested testing each one that comes in so we can send back the duds immediately. He'd already watched Eating Out 2: Sloppy Seconds which he said was "okay". Now if the GWO tells you that a gay sex comedy was "okay", then you know it sucked; good thing I dodged that bullet. That left Dil Āpnā Panjābī, which I knew would be no Vāris Shāh but had hopes for all the same. Unfortunately, the broad village comedy (oh, those rascally boys! Always stealing corns and being forced to imitate chickens!) soon grew tedious for monshu, so we fast-forwarded to the dance sequences, but even they weren't all that and a basket of roti. He called it a night and I plopped myself down in front of the Littlest God to watch an Irish-language short instead.

I read something earlier today which claimed that the nine songs on the Ramones Rock 'n' Roll High School have between them all only 200 distinct words. If we're allowed to count all inflected forms of a single lexeme as a single "word" for this purpose, then that seems a likely ballpark figure for almost the entire bhangra songbook. Heck, take bhangṛā, muṇḍā, kuṛī, nācṇā, išq, yār, pagg, Panjāb(ī), and a handful of interjections and function words and you've got half the lexicon right there. Not that I'm really complaining--after all, I started learning Panjabi in order to sing along to my favourite bhangra numbers. But it did mean monshu spent a lot of time reading the subtitles and grumbling "These lyrics don't make any sense." Trust me, big guy, it's not that much different in the original.

Comments

[mollpeartree.livejournal.com]

Do you find that it's mostly the discs for the foreign titles that don't work? I've found that Netflix is hopeless at sending out playable Hindi films more than half the time. I once decided to just see how many defective copies of Main Hoon Na they had on hand by requesting immediate replacements each time, and it turned out to be three, plus the (playable but pointless) special features disc they sent me on the fourth round, when I gave up and started using Zdag instead. I've noticed that a lot of popular Hindi movies aren't even available on Netflix, and think they probably just don't bother to replace their copies of Hindi films when they wear out.

[qwrrty.livejournal.com]

The scratched disc problem is annoying but it's not exactly Netflix's fault. People are much more careless and inconsiderate with rental property than they are with their own. I used to have the same problem all the time with Blockbuster too. So when I get a scratched disc, I curse a little, drop it back in the mail and mark it as damaged on the web site so they know they need to replace it.

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

You're right that it's a little unfair to fault them for the Lantana disc that came cracked almost in half. But Ong Bak looked perfectly sound--we've certainly had scratchier discs play fine--and still wouldn't play. (monshu's PC complained of a problem with permissions.) Like mollpeartree, I've noticed more trouble with foreign films that standard fare, so I think she may be onto something about them not bothering to replace worn discs as often as they should.