Condensing my Netflix Queue: And So Can You!

How long is your Netflix queue?  Really, how long is it?  Look at what's coming up next in the mail, or what is supposed to be your next movie to stream?  Have you given that movie any thought in the last month?  If you have, good for you.  If you looked at what's next, and thought "Well, I don't really want to see that," or "Who the hell am I going to watch that movie with?", or "Have any of my friends seen this movie and can I talk about it with anyone?"  If not, it's time to UNCLUTTER your Netflix queue.

Okay, let's start with a few suggestions of how to properly clean up your Queue:

1. Do you share your Netflix Queue with more than 1 person who watches about as many movies as you do?  If so, you might need to do this with them.  Spend some time and figure out if you REALLY NEED to see that documentary about oil drilling or the one about which kinds of foods are killing Americans (I'm not surprised there isn't an instructional video on how to make a food-umentary with all the other spawns of Super Size Me out there).  But seriously, go through each movie together and find the ones that you added to your queue when you were drunk or you just HAD TO SEE based on recommendations from the Netflix algorithm.  
2. Find any and all TV Shows that you've seen on the Netflix front screen for the last year or so, and put those toward the bottom.  Netflix is able to get the contracts to most TV shows since the licensing deals are easier to acquire.  The licensing process for movies takes a while to get because movie studios are a bitch to work with (I'm just assuming from the point of view of Netflix).
3. Follow InstantWatcher on Twitter (if you have a Twitter).  This website is devoted to showing what's moving and what's soon to be expired on Netflix.  They show what's coming soon, how many days are left on each movies contract, and whether or not people are watching these movies currently.  It's a great website.  I don't know why Netflix hasn't overtaken such a website, but it's beyond me why Netflix does anything that it does.  But InstantWatcher can show you lists of NYT's critics picks, Rotten Tomatoes Fresh movies, as well as many other movies.
4. Have a personal policy in place for WHY you would want to see a movie.  For comedies, it's obvious that you would want to see a movie that makes you laugh.  You can apply that to any genre really (horror-you want to be scared, documentary -you want to learn, etc.)  But for other genre's of movies, you should have a reason why seeing this movie is worth your time.  Now I've seen my fair share of Indie movies, but they rarely come up in conversation.  I do talk with a couple of people who are avid movie-watchers like myself, but the discussions of certain movies don't extend beyond that point.  So, if you have a movie in your queue that you don't think your friends will ever talk with you about, it might not be a movie worth your time at the moment.  For instance, let's take a movie like Safety Not Guaranteed.  It's an Indie movie that has some rising stars like Aubrey Plaza, Jake Johnson, and Mark Duplass.  I enjoyed watching it, but none of my immediate friends have seen it, or probably will see it.  Indie movies might not be the movies that your friends talk about, but you like everyone that stars in the movie.  Having a policy like, I'll see this movie because I like the stars in it, or I won't see this movie because my friends won't ever see it thus it's pointless as a discussion topic.  Now, I saw this movie, but I knew that a couple of my friends would have seen it.  Thus, I didn't think it was a waste of my time.  

Now, there are some people out there who are cinephiles or completists who want to watch every kind of movie based on who the director is or who is the starring character.  By putting a personal policy in place for my own tastes, I've cut my Netflix queue down from 160 to 30.  I cut out BBC shows that are no longer on TV that I could watch later, all high-and-mighty documentaries that are just a vehicle for promoting a ridiculous cause, shows that I've already seen every episode of, movies that are too long, and movies from the 1960's or older that carry no significant importance in today's world.  Inversely, I've managed to not bother with movies that are of a bigger vehicle e.g. I haven't seen Thor or Captain America because I saw The Avengers in theaters, thus making it useless to see both and try to connect the two.

I hope these tips help out with uncluttering your streaming life and improve your social capabilities.