The Neverending Streaming Service Dilemma

Have streaming sites gone too far? Or are there just too many?Perla LunaThe Santa ClaraApril 6, 2017I can tolerate a lot of nonsense. But one thing I will not stand for is paying $9.99 a month just so Netflix can take down “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” midway through my rewatch. As the instant gratification millennial that I am, that is simply unacceptableEvery month I have to google “Netflix shows and movies leaving this month” so that I can have some warning of when Netflix is going to take “Pride and Prejudice” away. But then, it will pop up a week later on Amazon Prime Video where it’s promptly taken away within a month. (Seriously, who’s holding “P&P” hostage?).And look, I get it. There’s a lot of licensing deals and contracts at play that I don’t understand and also should not have to understand. Netflix’s whole argument for slowly having less and less licensed content is that they’d rather spend the money making original content. And it’s certainly worked out for them thus far. There’s not a month that goes by without some Netflix Original becoming the most talked about show of the season.But college students are broke. We’re simple creatures who rely on bribes of free food to go to events and most of the time we only have the energy to binge a couple hours of “Chopped.” We just want to crawl into bed after a long day of lectures and note taking and endless, endless readings. Which is why it’s so frustrating when even Netflix lets us down.We could always use Amazon Prime Video or Hulu or even Yahoo Screen (if that’s still a thing). But that’s at least another eight to ten dollars per service, which quickly adds up. And anyway, I shouldn’t have to be a subscriber to all of these services in order to see both “The Path” (Hulu) and “Transparent” (Amazon). The point of not having cable is getting to pick and choose. Now that Santa Clara has so generously (and suspiciously, considering our recent budget crisis) provided us with Xfinity, that’s another streaming service to add to the pile. There’s just too much good TV to watch and we’re quickly approaching a plateau of entertainment. Gone are the days of eagerly awaiting the next episode of our favorite series. I love binging as much as the next person (probably more, if I’m being honest) but there’s a reason why college students prefer it. We can ignore the saggy middles and be less invested in character development when we know whatever horrible, plot-murdering event took place will be undone by clicking the “up next” button. Am I still going to worship at the altar of the Netflix gods who gave us such gems as “Stranger Things” and “House of Cards?” Yes. Am I also going to complain about having classics like “Boy Meets World” readily available? Yes. How we can consume media has always been important. It shapes our society and it seeps into our culture—so the future of streaming is one that will affect us all. Especially those of us who just want to see Buffy stake some damn vampires. Contact Perla Luna at pluna@scu.edu or call (408) 554-4852.