Groggy only began to describe his morning.  This was confusing because this was the morning after he was given the gift of time.  One whole hour to use as he saw fit.  Like any good American, he used the time to watch movies he’d already seen.  Not movie, movie-zz.  He had just read Joseph Conrad’s seminal Heart of Darkness for the first time on Friday, so afterward he was motivated to re-visit Francis Ford Coppola’s seminal Apocalypse Now: Redux.  Unfortunately, he didn’t possess the staying power to make it through the additional 49 minutes this version contained Friday night, so last night was the night to finish that off.  Next, he felt like regretting that his relationship with his brother wasn’t that great, so he turned on Warrior.  It worked.  And it gave him hope that maybe someday he and his brother could have some metaphorical fight which causes them to live happily ever after until the credits scroll.  Wanting to immerse himself deeper in hope, he decided–for a reason he’s never going to explore–to run with a desire for more Tom Hardy and naturally began watching TDKR.  (Mother: that’s the latest Batman movie–you know, the one that came out on my birthday last year).  Taking great pride in his level of discipline, even before the caped crusader made his first appearance, he realized it was late, and went to sleep.

Opening the laptop this morning then, he stared at Netflix’s homepage.  Then it happened.  Nirvana.  The sound of his jaw hitting the floor was the only thing that brought him back.  Excited beyond belief, he saw staring back at him in Netflix’s personalized “Top Ten for Pete” category Miley Cyrus and Demi Moore’s LOL.  How does Netflix do it?  He didn’t even know LOL was out, and yet Netflix knew to place it where he couldn’t miss it.  Immediately, though, not wanting to give Netflix too much credit–they were still just a group of flawed individuals doing their best–he began unraveling the mystery.  After all, he did watch Mission Impossible’s 1-4 in a ten hour window that one night.  Oh, and There Will Be Blood has streamed down to his screen more than a few times.  Now that he really thought about it, anyone who has watched The Avengers is sure to have a Demi Moore poster or two on their bedroom ceiling.  Now he was starting to actually reconsider whether he should so readily praise Netflix.  And come to think of it, he did recently read that the people behind Mel Gibson’s latest film, Get the Gringo, were coming out with a similarly flavored mother-daughter how-did-you-become-such-a-screw-up-when-I-put-all-my-energy-into-raising-you-to-not-be-just-like-me-even-though-I-am-still-a-screw-up-to-this-day chick-flick starring two females who people actively hide their children from.  It seemed there was no mystery to Netflix’s methods after all.

Resigned, he closed the laptop and took his cereal bowl to the counter.  “I’ll get around to it,” he thought to himself, preempting the angel that was about to tell him to just put it directly in the dishwasher.

Falling into the couch, he shed a tear.  Like every other company, it seemed that Netflix was succeeding by simple logic.

****

Incidentally, if you’re not aware, here is a link to a third party site that connects directly to Netflix and actually makes sense.  www.instantwatcher.com