Netflix Deliveries Are Slow, Slow, Slow.

The delivery time for movies has really gotten bad. I've been a Netflix customer since October 2002. DVDs used to arrive at Netflix the day after I mailed them back and I'd get a new DVD the day after. No longer.

Now, it routinely takes 2-3 days for a DVD to arrive at Netflix's site. Last week I returned a movie on Friday, another on Saturday, and a third on Monday. All three arrived at Netflix on Wednesday. This is typical for me now. The shipping delay is becoming unacceptably long.

Here's part of the problem. The Netflix distribution sites are only open Monday through Friday. Yet the mail is delivered on Saturday. Think about that. Even the Post Office is open on Saturdays but Netflix isn't. What kind of American retail operation is closed on weekends? Netflix should be open on Saturdays to receive and ship DVDs. That they aren't is positively un-American.

-tdr

Technorati: netflix.

Jack Bauer's Black Sheep: Baa Baa Humbug.

Okay, 24 is now officially a joke.

The Cyborg Master of 24, who's been pulling major strings as a bad guy for two seasons now, turns out to be Jack's brother. The brother's wife still loves Jack. Her son is probably not her husband's but is instead her love child with Jack. As if these family dysfunctions weren't enough, Jack's estranged dad may be helping the terrorists.

Meanwhile, back at the White House, the President is in way over his head and his advisors spout insufferable speechettes that sound as if they were written by high school political science students.

On the plus side, Jack is completely out of control this season, and the Islamist Jihadis still have several nukes left and 19 hours left to blow them up real good.

-tdr

Technorati: 24.

TV Is King.

The new television season is starting up strong.

24 got things off to a fantastic start last week with four hours of non-stop action and thrills. In a concession to the real world this season's terrorists are Islamist Arabs, including a sleeper terrorist. Not to worry, however, previews for tomorrow's episode showed Jack pushing around one of the Cyborg Masters (sans bluetooth earpiece) from last season. The real villians of 24 may yet turn out to be white international businessmen pushing pawns around for megabucks.

And tonight, Battlestar Galactica returned. For the first time in a long while, the producers dropped their artistic and social commentary pretensions to give us a straightforward science fiction TV show about humans far away from Earth in great big cool spaceships fleeing from killer androids and robots. Thank the gods!

-tdr

The Jack Bauer Neck Pinch.

Of all the ways 24's writers have devised for Jack Bauer to kill bad guys, tonight's Dracula imitation is the funniest. It was laugh out loud funny when Bauer, all tied up, strapped to a chair, and helpless, leaned over, bit a hapless terrorist in the neck, lifted a key from the guard's dead body, and freed himself. Bauer's escape was truly worthy of 24's status as an adult version of the old Saturday morning serial.

-tdr

Technorati: 24.