The Frustration of Home Entertainment

My trip to Hollywood Video yesterday really made me regret that I cancelled my Netflix subscription two months ago. At the time, I thought "Well I've seen every old movie I can think of and I don't rent new releases all that often, so why keep paying $19.95 a month? Besides, when I do want to see another movie I can just go to the video store." Such a moment arrived yesterday and I went in with a list of several movies that I was thinking about renting, with 25th Hour, Comedian and Glengarry Glen Ross at the top of the list. I was baffled to find that the store had none of the above- they were either all checked out or not even carried at the store. It dawned on me that video stores may have finally reached their breaking point. Since there have been about 150 movies released every year for half a century and there's a finite amount of space in video stores, it's understandable that selection will continue to get worse and worse. Right now it's hard enough to find old movies; soon we'll reach the point where Hollywood and Blockbuster will only carry the biggest hits and new releases. That's why online services like Netflix (which presumably has huge warehouses filled with stacks of DVDs) are not only more convieniet but will soon be absolutely necessary to get a decent video selection.