My Tivo thinks...

It's a common scenario with Tivo users: you tape a few things that are outside of your normal viewing range, and the next thing you know, your Tivo is suggesting that you fit a certain stereotype.

For instance, let's say that you have a thing for Michelle Williams. You start by taping TBS' daily dose of Dawson's Creek. Then, you realize that HBO is running both If These Walls Could Talk II and Brokeback Mountain. Add those to the list, and don't be surprised when your Tivo gives you a season pass to Queer Eye for the Straight Guy!

Thankfully I don't have Tivo. I shudder to think what types of shows it would recommend after it discovered my penchant for the Law and Order franchise, Homicide: Life on the Street, and all those reality crime docs on A&E. What I do have, however, is a new Netflix account (yes, I know, welcome to the 21st Century). And if my current top ten is any indication of my personality, then I'd have to guess that my Netflix account thinks that I'm an 80 year old British woman.

Actually, knowing the tastes of the last 80 year old British woman I knew, they wouldn't be far off....

Aside from the last disc of The 10th Kingdom (it came highly recommended) and The X-Files: Fight the Future, (I'm officially hooked now), the top 10 is full of classic movies that I always intended to watch, but never quite got around to. There's Lover Come Back (Rock Hudson and Doris Day), I Was a Male War Bride and People Will Talk(Cary Grant). I'd have thrown in The Philadelphia Story (Cary Grant AND Jimmy Stewart!!) except that it's always on AMC (and yes, I always watch), so why waste the pick? Then, there's How Green was My Valley? (post WWII Welsh village), The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer (a movie that I've tried to watch for years and can't seem to catch anything but the last half-hour of), Bobby, Little Children (finally, two modern picks), Interstate 60 (an indie from 2002), and Happenstance (because I love reading my movies when they star Audrey Tatou).

I'm also admitting to the Netflix people that I have yet to see several films that are considered "required" viewing amongst human society of a certain age. Like The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Where Angels Go, Trouble Follows (which is NOT to be confused with Angels with Dirty Faces -- a different movie entirely) and The Journey of Natty Gann (which I may have seen years ago, but I have virtually no recollection of -- strange because you'd think I'd have remember a Jon Cusack movie!!).

So, obviously, it's going to take me quite a while to get through these, and I've got items on the list that aren't even out on DVD (like Grace is Gone and Stephanie Daley). In the meantime, I'm seriously enjoying learning about movies that Netflix swears I'm going to like and trying to psycho-analyze its psychoanalysis of me. For example, did you know that just because I liked Casablanca, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, and It Happened One Night, I was going to LOVE The Day the Earth Stood Still? Neither did I, but I don't think I'm going to find out any time soon. After all, Fox Mulder aside, you guys know how much I hate UFOs!