Show of hands: Who remembers when Netflix was a DVD-by-mail service? (If you said, “What’s a DVD?”, I officially hate you.) Has any other company pulled off such a dramatic — and successful — transformation of its business model? Today’s Netflix is synonymous with streaming, with the largest subscriber base of any service and some of the most notable original shows of the 2010’s and 2020’s.
However, it’s also synonymous with price increases, with Standard and Premium plans rising eight times in the past 12 years. And in 2023, the company infamously banned password-sharing, meaning family members outside your home could no longer share your account — unless you paid an added fee. How’s that for treating loyal customers?
A more realistic question: Is Netflix worth it? With plans as high as $25 per month and fewer breakout shows than in the early days, the service may seem more like a luxury than a necessity. So what’s the story? Here’s my Netflix review.
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Rick Broida/Yahoo
VERDICT: The seminal streaming service remains the most popular service for a reason — great original content and plenty of good other stuff as well — but the non-stop price increases are getting old.
- Expansive library of quality originals and popular movies and TV shows
- Lots of stand-up comedy
- Subscription includes 80 ad-free mobile games — good ones
- Very good interface overall
- Numerous size and style options for closed captions
- Frequent price increases, and the most expensive Premium tier of any streaming service
- Basic plan doesn’t include the full Netflix library
- Very little live content
- A few interface annoyances
Netflix: What it costs
Like cable TV before it, streaming was supposed to save us from commercials. But here we are, with Netflix, Max, Hulu and most other services now charging extra if you want ad-free viewing. If you don’t, Netflix Basic with Ads costs a very reasonable $7.99 per month. It’s the big jump to the first ad-free tier, Standard, that feels egregious: $17.99 per month, a 125% spike. And then there’s Premium at a jaw-dropping $24.99.
Unfortunately, you can’t get a price break by prepaying annually, and if you want to share your account with someone not at your address — a kid away at college, for example — it’s $6.99 extra with ads or $8.99 extra without.
There’s also an unexpected gotcha with the Basic plan: It includes only “most movies and TV shows.” In other words, some content will be locked out. According to What’s on Netflix, the missing programming comprises only about 2% of the library, but that includes notables like House of Cards (Netflix’s first breakout hit, ironically), Peaky Blinders, It Ends with Us and Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire.
It’s also worth noting that if you want 4K streaming, you’ll need the Premium plan; the other two tiers top out at 1080p. Check out Netflix’s plans and pricing page to learn more about what’s included (or not) in each plan.
Here’s one unusual benefit to being a Netflix subscriber: mobile games. At any tier (including Basic), you get full access to around 80 premium ad-free games, most of them available for both Android and iOS phones and tablets. (Some can be played on PC as well, and about a dozen work on Roku devices, with your phone serving as the controller.)
It’s a pretty impressive roster across all the major categories: action, strategy, puzzle, arcade and so on. A few examples: Monument Valley 3, Civilization VI, Exploding Kittens and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. To get them, just look for the Mobile Games row in the Netflix app on your device.
This is a rather odd perk, one unmatched by any other streaming service (though technically Amazon does offer free PC games to Prime subscribers, who also get Prime Video). If you’re into mobile games, there’s a lot to enjoy — but I suspect I’m not alone in thinking I’d gladly trade them for lower subscription prices.
Netflix: What’s on?
Netflix is home to an especially large selection of stand-up comedy. (Rick Broida/Yahoo)
Where to start? Netflix is arguably most famous for its original shows, starting with massive hits like House of Cards and Orange is the New Black, leading to the buzzworthy likes of Stranger Things, Black Mirror and Bridgerton, and more recently followed by The Diplomat, A Man on the Inside and plenty more.
That’s a remarkable pedigree, but am I alone in thinking the service hasn’t had a real juggernaut, a real breakout hit, in a while?
I mention that only because many people will likely subscribe for only a month or two at a time (owing to the price), the better to get caught up on hot new shows — but my impression is there are fewer of them now than in the past.
That said, I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out some personal favorites that are available only on Netflix: Atypical, Beef, BoJack Horseman, Dead to Me, Derry Girls, Fisk, Kim’s Convenience, Murderville, The Kominsky Method and Travelers. OK, I did not set out to make a list that long, but it also reinforces my point: The majority of those shows are at least a few years old. Very little from 2024 or 2025 has made my must-watch list.
Of course, a lot of this comes down to personal preference. You might be rabidly in love with new shows like Adolescence and The Residence. To each their own. And of course Netflix is home to much more than just originals: There’s a rotating selection of movies and TV shows across all genres. Just don’t expect a lot of classics; at this writing, the oldest movie here is 1973’s The Sting.
If you’re into stand-up comedy, Netflix offers plenty, having hosted two Netflix is a Joke festivals, and it’s currently home to dozens of comedians’ stand-up specials.
However, you won’t find any live channels, though the service has been dipping toes into live content: talk show Everybody’s Live with John Mulaney, for example, and the recent Screen Actors Guild Awards broadcast. As for sports, for now it’s limited to WWE Raw, which airs weekly on Mondays, as well as a slate of Christmas Day NFL games. But the infamous Mike Tyson-Jake Paul fight was a bona fide blockbuster, and the service has signed the upcoming Women’s World Cup, too. In other words, expect more live content on Netflix going forward, not less.
All told, it’s impossible to declare Netflix has “better” content than, say, Max or Paramount+. It’s up to you to decide whether you like what’s on the menu. And speaking of menus…
Netflix: How’s the interface?
The Netflix interface is logically designed and easy to navigate. I especially like that it gives you info about the selected option without you having to “click through.” (Rick Broida/Yahoo)
As with other streaming services I’ve reviewed recently (see full list at the bottom), I tested both the Google TV and Roku versions of the Netflix app. They’re nearly identical, starting with your sign-in options, which include a QR code you can scan with your phone. Very quick, very easy, especially if you have the Netflix mobile app installed. A couple taps and you’re in.
Both apps also have the traditional left-side menu with options like Home, Search, Movies, Categories and My List. Roku adds as a Games option here as well; as noted above, a smattering of Netflix’s mobile games can be played on your TV. For now, however, Google users are out of luck.
For the most part I find the Netflix interface visually appealing and easy to navigate. The upper half shows details about whatever you’ve selected in rows in the lower half — no need to “click through” to get a description of the movie or TV show. And the cursor always stays in the same spot instead of moving across the row; the title cards are what scroll horizontally. (Sorry if that’s confusing; just trust me when I say it makes navigation a lot more intuitive.)
That said, one thing that has long annoyed me about Netflix’s Home menu: It seems like the My List row often relocates itself. Sometimes it’s the third one down, sometimes it’s 26 rows down (or somewhere in between). I realize I can access My List directly via the side menu, but I typically navigate via Home and just wish it was consistent. This is true of the Continue Watching row as well, and on occasion I’ve noticed that that one has disappeared altogether (only to return the next time I open the app).
I like the Netflix screensaver (which kicks in after five minutes of inactivity) that’s basically a slideshow of other available content — though it would be nice if it included a “watch now” or “add to my list” button so you could easily check out something that looks interesting.
It’s weird that there’s no Settings menu. If you want to disable, for example, the annoying auto-play feature that shows previews while you browse, you have to do it in a web browser. Same goes for accessing parental controls. And if you decide you don’t like that screensaver, the only way to turn it off is via a very obscure setting (“Test participation”) buried in the Security menu.
Netflix has a streamlined search function, but the results seem mysterious at times. What does “Detroiters” have to do with Tom Cruise? (Rick Broida/Yahoo)
Want to log out of your account? Again, with no Settings menu, there’s no obvious way to do so. You have to visit the Get Help menu, which I find confusing; I’m not looking for help, I’m looking to sign out. (Weirdly, this lengthy menu of mostly informational items does contain one actual setting: an on/off toggle for HDR.)
Finally, Netflix’s search function works very quickly, displaying results dynamically as you click letters, but it doesn’t indicate what you can actually search for. Just movie and TV titles? Actors as well? Genres?
Turns out it supports all those parameters and more, including languages and things like “Atmos” (as in Dolby) and “UHD” (Ultra High-Def). But how would you know that?
When I typed in “Tom,” with the intention of looking up Tom Cruise movies, I saw no matching results in the title cards on the right. But in the text matches that appeared below the search keyboard, there were numerous “Tom” options: Cruise, Hardy, Hanks, etc. That made it easy to select the one I wanted without having to type further. (For the record, Netflix currently has not a single Cruise movie — but there are several for Hardy and Hanks fans.)
Netflix: Should you subscribe?
I will make that argument that Netflix has lost a bit of luster over the years, in part due to increased competition and in part because the blockbuster well seems a bit dry. There’s also the matter of seemingly endless price increases, which make the service harder and harder to afford (unless you’re willing to sit through commercials).
On the other hand, Netflix has a ton of content — most of it good, some of it great. Will I forgive it for cancelling The OA and Travelers after just two and three seasons, respectively? No. Am I excited for the returns of Stranger Things and The Diplomat? Absolutely. As with so many streaming services, this one really depends on what you like to watch. And there’s no shame in subscribing in binge-spurts, which is how I’m doing it these days. (I might reconsider if there was an annual discount. Anyone there listening, Netflix?)
