I stitched a tiny bit and I have a bit of a Netflix rant (that isn't so tiny)

I think, with an extra day off this weekend, I just got too bored of watching nothing on TV and needed an outlet, so I ended up stitching a bit on Monday. My arms got really tired, really fast (and I had a lot of trouble focusing), but at least I did something. It's kind of amazing how hard it is just to pick up stitching after a long lapse...it is more physically strenuous than most people give it credit for. I worked on Faces of Faery 167, by Jasmine Becket-Griffith:

I left off here on March 11 of 2018:

I made it here after a few hours of work:

It does look like I did a lot more than I did now that I can see the two pics side-by-side, but it is a VERY small piece (it will only be 7x7 when finished), so it was hard to tell while I was working on it that I was even making any progress! But as you guys keep telling me, something is better than nothing, right?

We'll see how the week takes me and I'd like to say I'll keep going with stitching, especially since I have COMPLETELY exhausted everything on Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime there is to watch as of now, so I should have the time to stitch. I need a good stitching show, aka something that can run in the background and I don't have to really watch, just sort of listen to (usually because I've watched it so many times already). But I don't want to go back to "Once Upon A Time", "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." (AOS for short) or "Supernatural" because I'm trying hard to curb my OCD tendencies and those are my worst triggers and I get stuck in those loops for months on end. I cleared season 3 of "Riverdale" between Friday night and Saturday morning, spent the rest of Saturday watching two seasons of another show called "Very British Problems" (and yes, it confirmed that I am indeed British and not Southern, despite my area of birth and living), I watched horror movies on Sunday (as is my typical Friday night practice, but "Riverdale" distracted me), and I watched so much crap on Monday, I literally couldn't tell you what most of it was. I have now hit the dregs of all streaming platforms and was just grasping at the proverbial straws trying to find something good to watch and I can now confirm I have literally "seen it all", or at least all in the genres that I typically watch.

Now I need to rant a bit (or at lot, depending on my mood)...despite Netflix's constant urging, I will NEVER watch "Friends" or "Grey's Anatomy" and now, their newest recommendations, various zombie shows and Asian subtitled movies. I would sure LOVE to know how how these streaming services' algorithms work, Netflix being the worst about it. A viewer, who only watches horror (but NEVER zombie movies), action/superhero adventure-type movies, the occasional fantasy genre, and yes, a teen romance or two (or a dozen), would somehow love those particular shows or movies? Sometimes, and this REALLY gets me, they recommend "Riverdale" or Once or even AOS, which I already watch and they have record of it in my viewing history, so why not keep it in the list of "shows you've already watched" or "watch it again" list...why move it to the "recommended for you" list? I've gone back and made sure it was still in my viewing history just because I was questioning their practice on this, but yep, all views still there...so what the literal bloody hell?

Yes, I watched Once and AOS, which are both ABC shows, so that qualifies me for Grey's? Just because Disney owns ABC, doesn't mean ABC gets a free pass, even in my book. Right now, AOS is the only ABC show I currently watch because everything else kind of sucks now that Once is gone. There is no Disney or Marvel-related anything really left on ABC right now, so I don't spend much time on Hulu except for AOS. And, when it comes to Grey's, do they secretly know I own all 15 seasons of "ER" on DVD and, if so, how? It is the only American medical show I ever watched (and only because I was obsessed with Anthony Edwards back in the day and then Shane West), but I work in the medical field and I don't want to go home and watch it on TV, even though I work with a lot of people who watch every medical show on TV for some weird reason. I want escapism, not more of what I spent all day dealing with. Plus, I'm not a fan of procedural anything (unless it's British), because I also work in I.T., which is constant procedural everything. Not all medical shows are created equal, and "ER" holds a special place in my heart because I literally watched it on TV from the beginning to the end (as I did Once), besides, "ER" is on Hulu if I wanted to watch it streaming, so Netflix you're out of luck and I would never watch Grey's anyway...I am not a fan of most of those actors and I'm also not a fan of unhappy endings (which that show has a lot of).

I don't ever watch situation comedies (at least not American, and Netflix doesn't have the British ones, those are on Hulu and I have them all on DVD anyway), so why recommend "Friends"? I hate every single main actor on that show (a recurring theme with me apparently) and have rarely watched a single movie with one of them in it (if it did, it was by accident and I always delete it from my viewing history just to keep further "Friends" recommendations from popping up on other streaming sites). Matter of fact, I rarely watch a comedy film either. As close as I ever got to "Friends" was "Coupling", a British show which is often compared to "Friends" for some strange reason (which I own on DVD and, as far as I know, I've never streamed), but I see them as two completely different beasts, so what would give them the idea that "Friends" is a good fit for me? This horror-loving, America's Ass-worshipping, teen-angst driven, British comedy-watching viewer? Good question!

I watched "To All The Boys I've Loved Before" (more than once...well, probably more than high double-digits, but still) and it had a lead actress who is of Asian/American descent as well from a book series that was written by the same, but how does that constitute suddenly bombarding me with a plethora of Asian subtitled-language films? It also stars an Italian American, but I don't have any Italian recommendations (at least, not yet). Yes, I do watch the occasional French subtitled film, but that's FRENCH, not ASIAN...not that there is anything wrong with Asian or Italian films, they just aren't my cup of tea and, are they saying that all foreign films are the same? I think not. But again, the same thing happens every time I watch a French film, all foreign films suddenly get added to my recommendations list, all languages BUT French, that is. Amazon Prime has the same problem confusing French and Bollywood films. I have never watched a Bollywood film on Amazon, and yet, after watching one French film, I suddenly got bombarded with Bollywood recommendations to the point I had to clear out my history just to stop it (and no, I don't typically watch musicals either, so it couldn't have come from that). Again, nothing against Bollywood films, they just aren't for me (and yes, I've seen a few in my day). I like French films because there was a time I could speak it (sort of), I can watch one without reading the subtitles (most of the time unless their accents are heavy) and they tend to be extremely moody and dark, especially with their horror.

Speaking of which, when it comes to the big "H", I'm EXTREMELY picky about my horror...ghosts/hauntings and demons/possessions only, with vampires and werewolves only in the context of teen romance, so why recommend zombies when I've never even hovered over anything zombie-related? I'm even careful to stay away from too many apocalyptic movies for the same reason, they confuse the two quite frequently (even when one usually has nothing to do with the other). Do I suddenly have zombie recommendations because there were zombies in season 14 of "Supernatural" and I just finished it a couple of weeks ago? Or is it because Rose McIver (Tinker Bell) and David Anders (Dr. Frankenstein) from Once are in "iZombie" (which was also created by Rob Thomas of "Veronica Mars" fame, which is another one of my shows) and they are linking apples to oranges? But since I've never streamed "Veronica Mars" other than the digital copy of the movie, which I own, then how do they know that is one of my shows? Or are they just connecting dots? I don't think gore is scary...again, I work in a path lab, I see "gore" all day long and it doesn't bother me. As as a matter of fact, I tend to find gory movies quite funny because they never get it "right" and who is going to be scared of a creature that walks slow and constantly declares it wants to eat your brains? No thanks.

Then there is the alien side-effect...shows like "The X-Files" or any "Roswell" variation (both old and new) will automatically put every single alien documentary on the planet in a viewing queue for you on EVERY streaming site. I am watching FICTION here people and now you think I'm interested in documentaries? Yes, I guess one could surmise that most of those alien documentaries are "fiction" anyway, but still, I watch Mulder/Scully and Liz/Max for the romance, not the alien part of it. Yes, I do watch documentaries, but they tend to be of the historical/ghost/artistic nature, never on aliens. But alien shows are often also considered zombie horror for some very weirdo reason (although a case could be made for some episodes of "The X-Files", at least in the horror category, I will NEVER understand the zombie connection to ANYTHING alien). Me personally? I categorize it as fantasy/romance, but that's why I gravitate towards those two shows in particular. Maybe aliens should have their own category?

And, as an aside, and this is being really picky, but I do find it annoying that they keep recommending all the DC shows mixed in with everything else superhero/action. They should be able to tell that I'm obviously a Marvel girl and, like horror, not all superheroes can be categorized the same, so I do cringe when I'm looking for a Marvel movie and I have to dig through a huge list of DC shows and movies I'll never watch (even if Shane West is on Gotham now...yes, I'm aware, just disappointed he went with the "other side"). Just because they have the "because you've watched..." and it's Marvel-related, doesn't mean I'll watch anything DC. Yes, there are some DC exceptions, but those are few and VERY far between and, as best as I can remember, never on Netflix.

So, here is my letter to the recommendations department of various streaming services:

Dear Netflix and Amazon Prime (Hulu gets a pass for reason listed below),

Please stop with your stupid recommendations based on what you probably pay the most for and what YOU want me to watch and actually consider my past viewing history and what I might actually want to watch! Or, here's a thought, give us a chance to deny a recommendation as a "I would never in a million years watch something like that, try again" kind of thing, and modify your recommendations accordingly. Learn from your mistakes, correct them, and make actual recommendations that are helpful, give me choices I might actually pick from, and NOT make me spend long periods of time searching for movies by "remote typing" in the search box (and no, I don't want to have to hook a keyboard up to my TV, thank you very much).

As a general rule you can go by, I don't do American comedy or American drama without the benefit of horror, fantasy, superheroes, or teen angst or teen romance, I only do foreign films if they are French, I hate movies that make me cry and don't have a happy ending (unless it's a horror movie or certain notable exceptions which can be counted upon one hand), fiction genres shouldn't lead to documentary recommendations, not all superheroes are created equal, and last, but surely not least, I don't do zombies EVER. Most of your self-produced, over-priced shows I don't watch since your Marvel defection (although some of your teen romance movies are quite good, so keep those up), and are CERTAINLY not worth the price increases you keep inflicting upon us, so you might want to watch out when Disney+ comes out (although Hulu doesn't have to worry much since Disney owns them) because most all of your content will be leaving for both of them and you just might be in trouble! I checked, and most everything I've ever watched is either Disney or Fox, as well as most of your content I don't watch, so you better have a few new aces up your sleeve or else you're going to lose a customer that probably logs more streaming hours than any other full-time employed person on the planet and, as far as she knows, probably holds the viewing record for the most streams of "Once Upon A Time", despite owning the Blu-Rays!

Oh, and Netflix, please stop forcing your ads for these self-produced, over-priced shows on us, or at least allow us to turn them off, for that matter, allow us to turn off all the ads/trailers overall. Allow us the option of watching them like Amazon does. And Amazon, please stop forcing us to watch your ads and trailers for your self-produced, over-priced shows ahead of some other thing we've picked to watch. If we wanted to watch those trailers, we would have chosen to watch those trailers.

Thank You,
An annoyed, but still loyal (as of now), viewer of all three streaming services (but anxiously awaiting Disney+ behind your backs)