Netflix – Robert Writes About…

Article: Wait a Minute, Mr. Postman!

Up next in my “Fool Revisited” series was a piece based on some news at the time. Back in September 2011, there were some worries that the US Postal Service was going to default and shut down. Could you imagine if that had actually happened? It’s almost like the current Congress continually pushing off a government shutdown for four weeks at a time because they can’t figure out how to get anything done. That would probably not happen in a developed democracy or anything…

I used the news of the potential USPS closure to take about Netflix (Nasdaq: NFLX), who at the time still delivered movies via the mail (such a quaint time in our nation’s history!). And while I believe you can still sign up for its disc-by-mail service, the majority of Netflix’s customer have moved to streaming, spending hours upon hours staring at an endless array of movie and shows every night before finally deciding to just watch old episodes of something that you have seen hundreds of times… or is that just me? Continue reading “FR: Wait a Minute, Mr. Postman!” →

Note: This post contains mild spoilers from the Netflix series “13 Reasons Why,” as well as some talk of suicide and sexual assault. Reader discretion is advised.

“13 Reasons Why” is the latest Original Series from Netflix. Based on the novel of the same name, the series begins after the “unexpected” suicide of high school junior Hannah Baker (Katherine Langford) and follows Clay Jensen (Dylan Minnette) after he receives a box of 13 tapes anonymously. The tapes outline the “13 reasons why” Hannah committed suicide, with Hannah narrating 13 distinct events, perpetrated by classmates and others, over the previous year that led to her taking her own life.

The subject person of each tape has listened to the series and passed them on to the next person, mainly because of unspoken consequences enforced by Tony (Christian Navarro), a friend of Hannah’s with promises to keep. Whereas the previous recipients of the tapes had simply listened and passed them on, Clay takes a special interest in the tapes in an effort to eliminate some of his own feelings of loss over the death of Hannah, but also in an attempt to hold the others accountable for their actions. This doesn’t make him very popular with the other folks on the tapes, who pressure him to just get through them and get to the end and put it all behind him. This culminates in a conclusion that is just, yet open-ended enough to potentially lead to future seasons of the show. The true fallout is just beginning to be felt by the end of the 13th episode, and many loose strings are left untied. Continue reading “13 Reasons Why – A Review” →