We've had Netflix now for a few years. Initially, it was good value - pretty much immediately there was "Star Trek: Discovery", which was soon joined by "The Witcher", "The Good Place", and a bunch of others. But it has gradually been winding down in use and thus value. Worse, it has lost Discovery, and will soon be losing the rest of Trek, and it has been getting fewer and fewer interesting new shows.
The truth is, it has just begun to be overshadowed by Disney+ (which is extremely good) and even Prime. And now, with Paramount+ coming on-stream, and with Now TV scooping up most of the best films, the offering is looking increasingly threadbare.
The upshot is that I think we're now closer to the end of our time with Netflix than to the start. It's not time yet, but the time to cancel is coming.
What that means in practice is this:
For the time being, we'll keep it, and continue watching the shows we're currently watching. However we won't start watching anything new on a whim - unless there's something that jumps out at us as "you must watch this!", of course.
Over time, that means that the list of shows we watch will gradually drop - they'll move to other services, come to their end, or drop in quality. If nothing new is being added, and things are ending, it will fall from use.
And every so often we'll need to ask ourselves whether it is still worth the money. As long as that remains a "yes", we'll keep it (and, for the moment, it's a "yes", although not by much), but when the time comes that that changes, it will be time to pull the plug.
Of course, all that said, I'm more or less minded to think that the best approach to all these streaming services is actually to be quite mercenary with them - drop in for a few months, binge a bunch of stuff, and then move on to the next one. Right now, Disney+ seems to be the only one that really justifies a permanent spot.
#20: "Kobold Guide to Monsters", by Kobold Press
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