KD^3C^3 - 20241208 I don't need a rationale
The Stack of Shame
I own a lot of movies. If you’ve followed my shenanigans For any period of time, you have probably heard me one about the joys of physical media. Some might argue that t’s just a version of the sunk cost fallacy whereby I have bought a lot of movies and tv shows on disc, so therefore I’m going to post hoc justify the decision. And that might be true, but I think the argument doesn’t hold as much water when you see how much I also watch things on streaming.
Side note: The best streaming service right now is Dropout, and the second best is Hulu (and technically Disneyplus, which is slowly merging with Hulu). Netflix is like 7th or 8th on the list and it’s not even close. I think N Netflix is still seen as a juggernaut not because they’ve kept the game high, but rather because they were there first. Netflix’s catalog has changed from feeling like “almost everything” to only netflix originals that got cancelled after 2 seasons, or movies staring comedians that were popular in the 90s.
Ok, this side not has gotten longer than I meant it to. I dropped a bunch of streaming services into my favorite sorting tool, Monkey sort and here’s the list that came out. The actual mechanism/sorting algorigthm that monkey sorties is kind of cool, so if you want to read about that you can do so here: https://leonid.shevtsov.me/post/a-human-driven-sort-algorithm-monkeysort/ it’s a modified version of quick sort, where the user input comes when it runs into an unknown comparison) From best to worst the list came out as:
I own a lot of movies. If you’ve followed my shenanigans For any period of time, you have probably heard me one about the joys of physical media. Some might argue that t’s just a version of the sunk cost fallacy whereby I have bought a lot of movies and tv shows on disc, so therefore I’m going to post hoc justify the decision. And that might be true, but I think the argument doesn’t hold as much water when you see how much I also watch things on streaming.
Side note: The best streaming service right now is Dropout, and the second best is Hulu (and technically Disneyplus, which is slowly merging with Hulu). Netflix is like 7th or 8th on the list and it’s not even close. I think N Netflix is still seen as a juggernaut not because they’ve kept the game high, but rather because they were there first. Netflix’s catalog has changed from feeling like “almost everything” to only netflix originals that got cancelled after 2 seasons, or movies staring comedians that were popular in the 90s.
Ok, this side not has gotten longer than I meant it to. I dropped a bunch of streaming services into my favorite sorting tool, Monkey sort and here’s the list that came out. The actual mechanism/sorting algorigthm that monkey sorties is kind of cool, so if you want to read about that you can do so here: https://leonid.shevtsov.me/post/a-human-driven-sort-algorithm-monkeysort/ it’s a modified version of quick sort, where the user input comes when it runs into an unknown comparison) From best to worst the list came out as:
- dropout
- hulu(and disney)
- criterion
- max
- paramount
- peacock
- prime video
- nebula
- Apple tv
- Netflix
So netflix is even worse than I expected.
But the fact that netflix is bad isn’t the point of this, or it wasn’t when I started.
The point is that I would rather cancel all of those services instead of giving up my media collection. My own media collection is personalized to my tastes, curated by me, and never is at risk of losing a beloved entry because of the whims of an executive in a corner office somewhere. Plus, it only gets bigger over time, while the cost remains steady. There’s no chance of a subscription price hike or ads being shoved into a service I already pay for.
I can admit, however, that there are some shortcomings to my collection. Not the things that are missing, which can be rectified, but the thing that are there and remain unwatched by me.
I call this sub-collection my backlog, or if I’m feeling less generous, the Stack of Shame. It’s not actually a stack, foe what it is worth, nor do I feel that much shame about it (hence writing about it on the internet) but I like the alliteration.
There’s a wide variety of movies and tv shows in the stack, and I’m going to share some of them today.
The latest entry is The Keep, which is a movie I only just acquired, making it possibly the least shameful selection in the Stack. This is a movie by famous director of “dad movies” Michael Mann. I should say I don’t use the term dad movie with any sense of disdain, but rather that Mann directs movies that appeal to a certain class of hypothetical dad. Movies like Collateral, and Thief, and Ferrari, stylish movies about cool dudes doing cool things like driving an assassin around in a taxi, or being a thief or inventing the Ferrari. His movie are stylish, and grounded and look effortlessly cool. Except The Keep. I bought this movie on the recommendation of some friends and have done as little research about it as possible. I have no idea what the story is, but I do know it was quite a departure from what the rest of Mann’s oeuvre would become. It’s supposed to be visually impressive and much weirder than his other movies, and just recently there was a 4k restoration that a certain sector of film nerds was incredibly excited about. So I picked it up. I’ll watch it sooner than later probably.
Fishing With John is a 30 minute long tv show where musician John Laurie goes fishing in exotic locales with other famous people like Dennis Hopper. It’s not exactly a travel show, although it looks like one from the outside. It’s also only got six episodes and it’s the sort of thing I could knock out in an afternoon, but I haven’t done so yet. I couldn’t tell you why.
License to Wed is a movie that I’m pretty sure Amy bought on DVD before we were even a couple. But also, I haven’t seen it yet, so it’s part of the stack. All I know about this one is Robin Williams plays a priest and John Krasinski (people’s sexiest man alive) is going to fall in love with Mandy Moore. It feels like a real low-effort production by all involved, and that it came out of a machine that was just slapping premises and actors names together back in the 2000s. It is directed by the same guy who made Sesame Street’s Follow That Bird, so it can’t be too bad, right?
The Rockford Files is perfect for Saturday afternoons. James Garner plays Jim Rockford, a PI who often gets in over his head, and has trouble getting paid by his clients. At some point I feel like they stopped making shows like this, so I’m kind of savoring the chance to still have new episodes. But any time I throw one on, I smile the whole time I’m watching it.
Possible the last movie I’ll watch in the stack of shame (ha, as if the stack will ever disappear) might be Un Corazon Para Dos (one heart for two) a Spanish movie about (I think?) romance involving a heart transplant. I’m not entirely sure where I even acquired the movie, but it might have been a gift given to me in college. It’s not that I don’t want to watch it, but rather it’s on Spanish and doesn’t have English subtitles. It’s also a rare enough film that nobody has made (as far as I can find) a fan translation. For some perspective, the most popular 2023 movie on movie logging website Letterboxd (Barbie) has 4 million logged views from users. Un Corazon Para Dos has 28. I may just throw it on anyway and see what I can gleam. I watched live theater in Czech, I can probably get something out of it.
I’m actually going to spend some effort shrinking the stack in 2025. I don’t make New Year’s resolutions, but I do sometimes set goals for myself. This one feels achievable. I’m on track to watch 365 movies this year, so even if I don’t keep up that pace (I probably won’t) and even if I leave space for other movies, (I probably will) I can probably get the stack down by a significant margin. I’d be real happy if I can get it to under half its current size.
But the fact that netflix is bad isn’t the point of this, or it wasn’t when I started.
The point is that I would rather cancel all of those services instead of giving up my media collection. My own media collection is personalized to my tastes, curated by me, and never is at risk of losing a beloved entry because of the whims of an executive in a corner office somewhere. Plus, it only gets bigger over time, while the cost remains steady. There’s no chance of a subscription price hike or ads being shoved into a service I already pay for.
I can admit, however, that there are some shortcomings to my collection. Not the things that are missing, which can be rectified, but the thing that are there and remain unwatched by me.
I call this sub-collection my backlog, or if I’m feeling less generous, the Stack of Shame. It’s not actually a stack, foe what it is worth, nor do I feel that much shame about it (hence writing about it on the internet) but I like the alliteration.
There’s a wide variety of movies and tv shows in the stack, and I’m going to share some of them today.
The latest entry is The Keep, which is a movie I only just acquired, making it possibly the least shameful selection in the Stack. This is a movie by famous director of “dad movies” Michael Mann. I should say I don’t use the term dad movie with any sense of disdain, but rather that Mann directs movies that appeal to a certain class of hypothetical dad. Movies like Collateral, and Thief, and Ferrari, stylish movies about cool dudes doing cool things like driving an assassin around in a taxi, or being a thief or inventing the Ferrari. His movie are stylish, and grounded and look effortlessly cool. Except The Keep. I bought this movie on the recommendation of some friends and have done as little research about it as possible. I have no idea what the story is, but I do know it was quite a departure from what the rest of Mann’s oeuvre would become. It’s supposed to be visually impressive and much weirder than his other movies, and just recently there was a 4k restoration that a certain sector of film nerds was incredibly excited about. So I picked it up. I’ll watch it sooner than later probably.
Fishing With John is a 30 minute long tv show where musician John Laurie goes fishing in exotic locales with other famous people like Dennis Hopper. It’s not exactly a travel show, although it looks like one from the outside. It’s also only got six episodes and it’s the sort of thing I could knock out in an afternoon, but I haven’t done so yet. I couldn’t tell you why.
License to Wed is a movie that I’m pretty sure Amy bought on DVD before we were even a couple. But also, I haven’t seen it yet, so it’s part of the stack. All I know about this one is Robin Williams plays a priest and John Krasinski (people’s sexiest man alive) is going to fall in love with Mandy Moore. It feels like a real low-effort production by all involved, and that it came out of a machine that was just slapping premises and actors names together back in the 2000s. It is directed by the same guy who made Sesame Street’s Follow That Bird, so it can’t be too bad, right?
The Rockford Files is perfect for Saturday afternoons. James Garner plays Jim Rockford, a PI who often gets in over his head, and has trouble getting paid by his clients. At some point I feel like they stopped making shows like this, so I’m kind of savoring the chance to still have new episodes. But any time I throw one on, I smile the whole time I’m watching it.
Possible the last movie I’ll watch in the stack of shame (ha, as if the stack will ever disappear) might be Un Corazon Para Dos (one heart for two) a Spanish movie about (I think?) romance involving a heart transplant. I’m not entirely sure where I even acquired the movie, but it might have been a gift given to me in college. It’s not that I don’t want to watch it, but rather it’s on Spanish and doesn’t have English subtitles. It’s also a rare enough film that nobody has made (as far as I can find) a fan translation. For some perspective, the most popular 2023 movie on movie logging website Letterboxd (Barbie) has 4 million logged views from users. Un Corazon Para Dos has 28. I may just throw it on anyway and see what I can gleam. I watched live theater in Czech, I can probably get something out of it.
I’m actually going to spend some effort shrinking the stack in 2025. I don’t make New Year’s resolutions, but I do sometimes set goals for myself. This one feels achievable. I’m on track to watch 365 movies this year, so even if I don’t keep up that pace (I probably won’t) and even if I leave space for other movies, (I probably will) I can probably get the stack down by a significant margin. I’d be real happy if I can get it to under half its current size.