LOL: The Reality Of Mail Order Movie Rentals

The online comic strip Chuck & Beans takes on the phenomenon of Netflix Guilt. Hit the jump to see the strip.

Newsweek once explained Netflix Guilt as follows:

"City of God," the award-winning 2002 Miramax film about the slums of Rio de Janeiro, is the most expensive film I've never watched. By my calculation, it cost me $66. I hear it's great. Perhaps you're familiar with the following dynamic: film is highly recommended; film appeals to intellectual and aesthetic sensibilities; film is added to the Netflix queue, and soon appears in the mail in that unassuming but somehow pushy red-striped envelope. Temperament, timing and ambiance is never quite right for film's subject matter—in this case, brutal and depressing. Film sits on TV for a year, taking up valuable space on Netflix queue and inflicting pangs of guilt and regret. Said intellectual and aesthetic sensibilities are called into question when "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" is watched and quickly returned. I had "City of God" in my possession for 11 months, during which I paid $18 a month for a three-DVD-at-a-time Netflix subscription. Finally, I returned the movie in defeat while delusionally re-adding it to the end of my queue. By that time, my wife and I were talking about a dangerous new force in our lives: Netflix guilt.

Read more Chuck & Beans comics on Shoeboxblog.com.