There will be more Arrested Development episodes

Though it’s not official official, as in there have been no press releases officially announcing the return of Arrested Development for another season on Netflix, series producer Brian Grazer — who runs the Imagine Entertainment along with Ron Howard — told Bill Simmons in a podcast interview today that more episodes are definitely coming.

Unlike previous teases, there was no hemming or hawing about timing, or the schedules of the participants. Grazer merely stated, “We’re going to do another 17 episodes. So, stay tuned for Arrested Development.”

Timing, format, participants and other details were not disclosed. In fact, Simmons seemed to completely shrug off the announcement, steering the conversation back to another Imagine Entertainment hit, Empire (the announcement is at the 24:30 mark).

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Promo for Orange is the New Black

House of Cards season three trailer

Netflix's "Wet Hot American Summer" teaser

House of Cards Season 3 trailer

"Wet Hot American Summer" show is coming to Netflix

"Hey, let's all promise that in 10 years from today, we'll meet again, and we'll see what kind of people we've blossomed into." The rumored "Wet Hot American Summer" TV show is reportedly on its way to Netflix, according to Deadline.com Even better, the eight-episode limited series will include most of the original cast.

The reported returning cast includes Elizabeth Banks, Michael Ian Black, Bradley Cooper, Amy Poehler, Judah Friedlander, Paul Rudd, Marisa Ryan, Molly Shannon, Michael Showalter and more. David Wain will again direct.

Rumors that a follow up to the cult classic was coming to Netflix began circulating in May, though few details were known. E! reports rumblings of a sequel had been going around for years, with Wain even saying in a Reddit AMA that the follow up would have the original cast.

Though Netflix would not confirm, Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos had previously teased the "Wet Hot" return. "We're really excited about the proposition of getting that show together," he said during the winter leg of the TCA tour. "Stay tuned."

For more, head to Deadline.com.

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Orange Is The New Black season two trailer

Netflix to spend $3bn on TV and film content in 2014

Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images

Netflix is committed to spending almost $3bn on TV and film content in 2014 and more than $6bn over the next three years, as the cost of securing international rights and commissioning new shows continues to mount on the streaming giant's balance sheet.

The US company also announced this week that it is to raise $400m to help fund this investment in original programming and a major European expansion later this year.

Its annual report, published this week, shows that at the end of 2013, Netflix had run up $7.3bn in "streaming content obligations", which are incurred when the company signs a licence agreement for programming, up 30% from the $5.6bn owed at the end of 2012.

The company said it has to pay $2.97bn of that by the end of 2014, with a total of $6.2bn due within three years.

Netflix made $4.3bn in total revenues last year, a healthy 19% year-on-year rise, growth which has made it a darling of US stock market investors, with its share price surging from $92 to $367 across 2013.

However, total "cost of revenues", of which licensing costs are the major factor, also rose 17% from $2.6bn to $3.1bn.

With another $500m ploughed into marketing, $378m into technology development and $180m in "general and administrative expenses", the US company ended the year with net profits of $112m.

The US movie and TV streaming giant, which is expected to expand into Germany and France later this year, said that it expects to "substantially increase" investment in shows that it makes itself, such as House Of Cards and Orange is the New Black.

"We expect to significantly increase our investments in international expansion, including substantial expansion in Europe in 2014, and in original content," the company said in a Securities & Exchange Commission filing. "As a result, and to take advantage of the current favourable interest rate environment, we plan to obtain approximately $400m in long-term debt in the first quarter."

Netflix has been able to build its business by snapping up relatively cheap streaming rights, the potential value of which had been largely unrecognised by rivals and rights owners.

However, as Netflix has prospered and expanded its operational internationally and faced more competition from video-on-demand rivals, the value of securing these rights has mounted.

Netflix pointed out that despite planning a major increase in its original content budget, it would still represent less than 10% of the company's overall global content expenditure on rights to stream TV and films.

In a press statement, the company added that some of the $400m could also be earmarked for "potential acquisitions and strategic transactions".

Netflix's international expansion is becoming increasingly important to the company's growth plans.

The company's international subscriber base grew by 1.7 million to 10.93 million in the final quarter last year. Across 2013, Netflix put on 4.8 million new international subscribers in total, an 80% year-on-year increase.

Its international operations made $712m in revenue last year, up 148% year on year.

The international operation continues to make a loss, $274m in 2013, although this was a 30% year-on-year reduction.

Netflix launched its first streaming operation outside the US in 2010, when it expanded to Canada.

Latin America followed in 2011, the UK and Ireland in early 2012, and Scandinavia later the same year. The Netherlands is Netflix's latest market, launched in September last year.

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Netflix unveils new tiered plan

AP

Netflix users: Don't freak out, but your beloved subscription service is about to get more expensive.

Netflix's new pricing model is the direct result of what behavior scientists have been observing in human behavior.

For the past two year, Netflix streaming has cost $7.99 per month. In an earnings call last week, CEO Reed Hastings said that while cable and Internet costs have increased, Netflix prices hasn't, meaning the "inflation-adjusted price of Netflix has actually fallen."

"It's not clear that one price fits all," said Hastings, who then said the company will soon offer "good, better, best price tiering" to its customers in America.

So why will Netflix soon offer tiered pricing? Simple. Basically, people don't buy things based on logic, as explained by Derek Thompson's in The Atlantic. Instead, people buy things when they can compare it to something else. Netflix's CFO David Wells explains it this rational:

"In pricing theory there's also a sense that consumers make choices around heuristics. And so $1 might not sound like a lot on a logical basis but consumers may have shortcuts that they make they take the middle or the upper or the low and so that factors into the right course as well."

Behavioral economist Dan Ariely discusses this typical human behavior in his book Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions. Basically, we're prone to comparing similar items to an "anchor" price and that's how we decide in our brains what's fairly priced or expensive. This is exactly what Netlfix is trying to accomplish with its tier-pricing model.

What can Netflix users expect the new prices to look like? Most likely, Netflix will offer three options: (1) a cheap discounted access package, (2) a "premium" package that costs more than $7.99 and (3) a "super premium" package that includes everything you'll ever need and more. This price will be much higher in order to make the price hike in the premium package tolerable.

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The days of $7.99 Netflix may be over

Netflix is finally talking seriously about increasing prices.

For years, the streaming service in the U.S. has cost $7.99 per month. But analystshave said that in order for Netflix to cover its high content and expansion costs -- and more recently, to cover potential increased costs due to net neutrality issues -- it would only be a matter of time before the streaming video service had to increase its prices.

That time may be soon.

In its letter to shareholders on Wednesday, Netflix said that it hopes "to offer new members a selection of three simple options to fit everyone's taste."

Perhaps anticipating a backlash -- something the company's already been through -- Netflix emphasized in bold that price increases wouldn't affect existing members right away.

"If we do make pricing changes for new members, existing members would get generous grandfathering of their existing plans and prices, so there would be no material near-term revenue increase from moving to this potential broader set of options," the company wrote in a letter to shareholders.

When Netflix does start charging more, it may follow what it did in Ireland earlier this month, when it increased its price by one Euro, from 6.99 euros to 7.99 euros per month. But the company said that people in Ireland who already subscribed to Netflix will be grandfathered in to the 6.99 price for two years.

Netflix has been toying with different pricing options in the U.S. over the last year. In April, the company added an $11.99 monthly option that allows people to watch four streams at the same time. And at the end of last year, the company tested different membership plans for new members. They ranged from a $6.99 "individual plan" to a $9.99 plan that allowed up to three people on the same account to watch different streams concurrently.

Charging different prices for varying levels of video quality could be another option. One of the options Netflix experimented with at the end of last year was a "standard definition" plan for $6.99. The company could also use streaming in Ultra High Definition 4K, which is certainly in its nascent stages, as an opportunity to charge more.

In the letter, Netflix emphasized that it is taking its time in designing new pricing plans.

"We are in no rush to implement such new member plans and are still researching the best way to proceed," the company wrote.

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Best lesser-known Netflix shows

It’s a new year, and that means it’s the perfect time to get hooked on a new show.

We know you probably binge-watched your heart out over the holidays, and your queue is likely overflowing with Netflix’s recently added films. But when it comes to being adventurous on Netflix, choosing a new show is harder than it sounds.

You’ll begin by scrolling through Netflix’s TV section, but shortly feel overwhelmed by the copious options at hand. Indecisive, you'll likely give in and throw on an old “Law and Order” or “30 Rock" to pass the time. But that's the old you, and we're here to introduce you to a slew of shows, recent and old, that you've probably never heard of and that you'll definitely love.

With everything from reality guilty pleasures to epic period dramas to cult comedies, we have the best recommendations that you probably never knew existed. Let the binging commence -- and you're welcome!

Reality

"My Cat From Hell"
If you spend the majority of your time watching cat videos, reblogging cat memes and just generally loving cats, then please meet “My Cat From Hell,” your new favorite show. Seriously. This Animal Planet series stars Jackson Galaxy, a self-proclaimed cat behaviorist (yep, that's a thing) with an extravagant goatee, who helps solve conflicts between cats and their owners. He’s pretty much a cat relationship therapist and he’s amazing at it. You'll also learn a surprising amount of useful tips on how to properly care for cats; the puurfect bundle of education, cuteness and drama.

"Pretty Wild"
“Pretty Wild” gives a look at the daily lives of Alexis Neiers and Tess Taylor, the two adoptive sisters behind the teen Hollywood burglaries. Portrayed by Emma Watson and Taissa Farmiga, respectively, in Sofia Coppola’s “The Bling Ring,” these two are more idiotic and dramatic than most reality TV stars. Homeschooled by lessons from “The Secret” (it's worth watching just for that), in denial of their involvement in the robberies (they're just such good people), and drugged up on Adderall (by their mother), Alexis and Tess are so obnoxious you probably won’t be able to stop watching.

"Who the (Bleep) Did I Marry"
Some of the best guilty pleasure television series are reality shows about weddings and marriage or investigative cop dramas. Combine the two and add a big, juicy, real-life secret and you get “Who the (Bleep) Did I Marry.” The show, from the Discovery-owned network Investigation Discovery, follows men and women who discover that their spouse committed a crime while they were married. If that scenario isn’t enough to get you intrigued then we’re not sure what is.

Fantasy 

"The Secret Circle"
Described as “Pretty Little Liars” meets “Charmed” meets “The Craft” meets “Gossip Girl” by one Huffington Post editor, “The Secret Circle” is all the magical girl drama you could ask for. The series, which lasted for a full 22-episode season on The CW, starred Britt Robertson (“Under the Dome”) as Cassie Blake, a 16-year-old who moves to a new town after the death of her mother. Cassie soon discovers that she comes from a long-line of witches and is the final member of her new classmates’ coven. Witches are in ya'll, get with it.

"Merlin"
A handful of series and films have focused on the life of King Arthur, but few have centered on wizard Merlin, and most particularly, on his early life before he became the bearded sorcerer from Disney's “The Sword in the Stone.” BBC One’s “Merlin” follows the life of the young wizard when he arrives in Camelot at a time when magic is banned, and thus, is forced to keep his sorcery a secret. The series also starred John Hurt as the voice of The Dragon (how epic is that?) and all five seasons are on Netflix for your magical viewing pleasure.

"Goosebumps"
While you may remember Nickelodeon's “Are You Afraid Of the Dark?", you might not have known that another horror fantasy series existed in the '90s. Based on the popular books, “Goosebumps” was made into a Canadian television series so all those spooky stories could come alive on-screen. From “Revenge of the Lawn Gnomes" to "The Haunted Mask" to "Say Cheese and Die," “Goosebumps” is full of fun and creepy nostalgia.

Comedy

"Peep Show"
This award-winning cult British comedy follows Mark, an employed average guy, and his roommate Jeremy "Jez," an unemployed slacker whose main hobbies include drugs, sex and talking about sex. “Peep Show,” which is the longest running series on Britain’s Channel 4, is character-driven comedy full of never-ending ridiculous shenanigans. Some standout highlights include Jez poisoning Mark with cold medicine to save a drug party and Jez restraining a burglar by sitting on him. If silly, goofball dude humor is your thing, “Peep Show” will definitely keep you laughing.

"Undeclared"
This cult favorite was Judd Apatow’s follow-up to his acclaimed “Freaks and Geeks” and centered on a group of college freshman in the early aughts. “Undeclared” had a cast full of Apatow staples and comedy favorites, including Seth Rogen, Jay Baruchel, Jason Segel, Amy Poehler, Kevin Hart, as well as Charlie Hunnam. Although the show only lasted for one season, it was celebrated as one of the best college shows that avoided cliches. Nothing beats a good ol' 00s throwback with some of today's best comedians before they reached their prime.

"The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret"
This American-British comedy was created by and starred David Cross (“Arrested Development”) as the title character, an American who takes a job in London running a two-man sales team for a new energy drink. Each episode opens with Todd in an increasingly bizarre, dire situation and flashes black to how he got there. The show aired for two seasons on IFC and also starred Will Arnett and Spike Jonze.

Drama

"Lie To Me"
You may have heard of this crime drama that aired on Fox back in 2009 and it may have seemed like another one of those lousy new cop shows to avoid. But trust us, if you didn’t watch it, you missed out. “Lie To Me” surpasses the typical catching-the-criminals scenario with one awesome gimmick: applied psychology. The show starred Tim Roth as Dr. Cal Lightman, an expert in body language and reading microexpressions, a.k.a he knows if anyone is lying just by their facial movements and mannerisms. “Lie To Me” adds a refreshing twist to the usual cop procedural and will also teach you how to read people -- seriously, you’ll question everyone’s lip quivers and eyebrow raises after a few episodes.

"Lip Service"
The Scottish version of “The L Word,” BBC’s “Lip Service” is the lesbian drama that will (somewhat) satiate your longing for the ladies of West Hollywood. The British series takes place in Glasgow, Scotland and, similar to the Showtime favorite, follows the lives of a group of lesbian friends and their complex relationships and sex lives. The show brought fame to a handful of its actresses in the U.K., but one face you’ll probably recognize is Laura Fraser, who played Lydia in “Breaking Bad.” Although the series isn’t as good as “L Word," it does have a blond Shane-like character, and we figure that's enough to get you watching.

"Spooks"/"MI-5"
“Spooks,” also known as “MI-5” in some countries, chronicles the missions of British Secret Service officers, also dubbed “spooks.” The series, which ran for 10 seasons on BBC and won multiple BAFTAs, starred Matthew Macfadyen (“Pride and Prejudice”), David Oyelowo (“Lee Daniels’ The Butler”), and Peter Firth. Although the final season aired in 2011 in the U.K., the series will continue in the upcoming film “Spooks: The Greater Good.”

Period Drama

"Blackadder"
This comedic BBC series is comprised of four seasons, each of which take place in a different historical time period. Co-written by Richard Curtis (“Love Actually”), the show stars Rowan Atkinson as anti-hero Edmund Blackadder, who in each season is a member of a British family dynasty. Spanning from the British Middle Ages to World War I, Atkinson’s Blackadder characters return each season as descendants of his former characters, each one growing more clever as time goes on. The series also starred Hugh Laurie, Miranda Richardson and Stephen Fry, and had multiple one-off specials.

"Call the Midwife"
This BBC drama set in 1950s London is based on the memoirs of Jennifer Worth, a British nurse, and the midwives and nuns who worked with her at a nursing convent. “Call the Midwife” premiered in the U.S. on PBS in 2012 to much critical acclaim for its cast and poignancy. The first two seasons are available on Netflix and season three will air in the U.K. this year.

"The Forsyte Saga"
Adapted from the novels and the 1967 British series of the same name, “The Forsyte Saga” chronicles a Victorian upper-middle class British family over the course of three generations. The mini-series, which aired for two seasons, starred Damien Lewis of “Homeland” and Gina McKee as Soames and Irene Forsyte. This epic miniseries will certainly please any “Downton Abbey” fan.

Sci-Fi

"Farscape"
This Australian sci-fi series from creator Rockne S. O’Bannon follows John Crichton (Ben Browder), an astronaut who is hurled across space through a wormhole. Crichton ends up boarding an alien starship housing a group of fugitives escaping the militaristic organization the Peacekeepers. The Jim Henson Company worked on the make-up for the show, as well as two of the main animatronic characters. All four seasons of “Farscape” are streaming on Netflix for your intergalactic viewing pleasure.

"Alphas"
In “Alphas,” a team of superhumans with special neurological abilities are led by Dr. Lee Rosen (David Strathairn). These Alphas, which include an FBI agent with super strength and an autistic man who can process information as fast as a computer, work to prevent crimes from being committed by other Alphas. The SyFy ran for two seasons, both of which are on Netflix Instant.

"Firefly"
Joss Whedon’s space drama is set 500 years in the future and follows the adventures of the renegade crew of the Serenity. The show, which won an Emmy for Visual Effects, starred Nathan Fillion, Gina Torres, Alan Tudyk, and Morena Baccarin. Although the short-lived show only lasted for one season, the story continued in Whedon’s 2005 film “Serenity.”

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House of Cards season two trailer

New additions to Netflix to watch

1. Cutie and the Boxer (2013)

Radius

Directed by: Zachary Heinzerling.
About: Ushio and Noriko Shinohara, two struggling artists in an unusual, charged, and charming marriage.
Typical review: “A movie that makes you feel less like a spectator than a guest, a friend welcomed into the home of an odd and fascinating couple.” —A.O. Scott, The New York Times.
Good if you like: Bill Cunningham New York, the comics section of the paper, Exit Through The Gift Shop, pigtails.

2. The Thing Called Love (1993)

Paramount

Directed by: Peter Bogdanovich.
Starring: River Phoenix (in his last film), Samatha Mathis, a young Sandra Bullock, plus a bunch of awesome ’90s country stars like Pam Tillis and Jimmie Dale Gilmore.
What it’s about: An aspiring country singer hits Nashville and finds love (x2) and a little less musical success. Seeing Mathis fall in love with Phoenix IRL captured on film is both sweet and heartbreaking.
Good if you like: Country radio, Crazy Heart, and pearl snap-up dress shirts.

3. The Dick Van Dyke Show (1961–1965)

CBS / Viacom

Created by: Carl Reiner.
Starring: Dick Van Dyke himself, Mary Tyler Moore, Mary Tyler Moore’s capri pants.
What’s it about: This classic ’60s family and workplace sitcom in one is known for “bringing sex to TV.” The greatest joy of the edgy-at-the-time series is still in the chemistry, ease, and delight that Mary Tyler Moore and Dick Van Dyke, as Laura and Rob Petrie, brought to their roles as a young married couple.
Good if you like: Lucille Ball, The Cosby Show, Zooey Deschanel, pretty dresses.

4. Saved! (2004)

United Artists

Directed by: Brian Dannelly
Starring: Jena Malone, Macaulay Culkin, Susan Sarandon’s daughter (Eva Amurri Martino), the kid from Almost Famous who got foxy (Patrick Fugit), and MANDY MOORE.
What it’s about: A totally underrated satire with a heart of gold, Saved! tells the story of Mary, a senior at a super-religious school, who becomes pregnant by her gay boyfriend and has to cope with the escalating judgment that follows.
Good if you like: making fun of things but then hugging it out afterward, cute romantic gestures, Mean Girls.

5. Akeelah and the Bee (2006)

Lionsgate

Directed by: Doug Atchison.
Starring: Angela Bassett, Laurence Fishburne, and the cutest kid ever, Keke Palmer.
Netflix review: “I am 8 years old and I thought this was a great movie. There are some sad parts. There were also some parts I didn’t understand. I really liked what she did for others and what others did for her.”
Good if you like: watching inspiring kids on spelling bees, Little Man Tate, Disney Channel original movies, valuable life lessons.

Best shows to binge watch on Netflix

Here's some breaking news you'll love: Apparently, if you're binge watching TV shows, you're not alone. According to a survey released by Netflix, 61 percent of respondents binge-watch regularly, with 73 percent of respondents defining a "binge" as 2-6 episodes of the same show in one sitting. Better yet? 73 percent of respondents said they had positive feelings about this behavior.

Now that you no longer have to feel guilty about all of this, we've partnered with Netflix to help you pick out the shows you should be binge-watching right now. Since we don't recommend gluing yourself to your couch and rendering yourself friendlessfor say, the 2.2 days it will take to watch Mad Men, we're showing you how to watch responsibly.

So go forth. Your couch is calling.

1. The One-Season Wonder: Freaks and Geeks
WHY WATCH? This cult classic, created by Paul Feig and Judd Apatow, captures the painful humiliations of high school without resorting to high drama. And, of course, it boasts a murderers' row of acting talent in their first big roles: Jason Segel, Busy Phillips, James Franco, Seth Rogen, Martin Starr, and Linda Cardellini.

WHAT'S THE COMMITMENT? It's 13.2 hours too short. Knock it out over a long weekend and fill the void with any of the dozens of TV shows and films these youngsters eventually starred in.

SEEN IT? Try some other low-commitment shows. Joss Whedon's beloved space Western (yep) Firefly and the British version of The Office -- which is technically two seasons but flies by in a sleek 7.6 hours.

2. The Show In Its Last Season: Mad Men
WHY WATCH? Because there's still time! Because you've already binge-watched (or completely missed the boat on) Breaking Bad, and now you'll be perfectly queued up for a monster series finale that everyone will be talking about. If you like handsomely made dramas and handsomely made people, you will like this show.

WHAT'S THE COMMITMENT? We're thinking a good one month of focused viewing at two hours of TV a day. Season 6 isn't yet available to stream, but you'll have your hands full with 52 hours of television -- that's 2.2 days -- for Seasons 1-5. If you watch it all at once, it's a real commitment to a cause. Say goodbye to your friends and be prepared to hear this song in your dreams.

SEEN IT? Try to catch up with How I Met Your Mother before Ted and the gang end things happily ever after, or try Wilfred, the rambling dark comedy that will feature Elijah Wood talking to a man in a dog suit for one final season.

3. The Guilty Pleasure: Gossip Girl
WHY WATCH? Because there's no guiltier pleasure than watching spoiled rich kids social-climb and otherwise gallivant around New York City for no apparent reason. Because you're wearing sweatpants and this is the closest you'll get to a debutante ball. Because of Kristen Bell's gleefully punny voiceover work as the titular Gossip Girl, because the clothing is beautiful and expensive, and because Chuck Bass.

WHAT'S THE COMMITMENT? 121 episodes over 6 seasons x 42 minutes each = 85 hours for a whopping 3.5 DAYS, plus the hangover of shame that comes with noticing every time Blair Waldorf repeats a headband. Which is never.

SEEN IT? Try some other teen soaps like Pretty Little Liars, One Tree Hill, andDawson's Creek.

4. The Comedy Nerd's Delight: Comedy Bang! Bang!
WHY? Because Scott Aukerman's freewheeling, semi-improvised talk show rewards serial viewing, with its endless stream of famous guest stars acting and reacting oddly. Because you truly relish an awkward pause. Because of the wonderful musical stylingsof "one-man bandleader" Reggie Watts.

WHAT'S THE COMMITMENT? Season 2 is in progress, but you can catch up with the first season in a mere 3.5 hours.

SEEN IT? Try these other dark comedies with heart: Arrested Development (duh), the Louis C.K. vehicle Louie, and the hipster-skewering Portlandia.

5. The Just-Under-The-Radar Gem: Life
WHY? We admit that there's nothing weirder than losing your whole weekend to an awesome show that none of your friends are watching. It's like being abducted by wonderful aliens, befriending them, sharing inside jokes and beautiful memories, and then coming back to Earth and trying to explain where you've been. This is what watching Life will be like. The cerebral, deeply absorbing police procedural was canceled in its second season and features Damian Lewis in the lead role. (You may recognize him as Brody from Homeland.)

WHAT'S THE COMMITMENT? Two seasons, 23 hours. You'll be glued to your couch, so you might as well make this one an all-nighter.

SEEN IT? Try the oft-missed post-Cheers / pre-Frasier show Wings and the underrated Don't Trust The B---- In Apt. 23, which stars James Van Der Beek as a fictionalized version of himself.

6. The Cartoon For Grown-Ups: The Boondocks
WHY? Because when when you were a kid, it was acceptable to sit on the couch all day and watch cartoons, and there's no reason to stop doing your thing. Because The Boondocks is a no-holds-barred, politically charged, Peabody Award-winning show based on a popular comic strip by Aaron McGruder. Because it'll make you rethink the idea of cartoons as child's play.

WHAT'S THE COMMITMENT? Fifteen 20-minute episodes available on Netflix = 5 hours of fun and three bowls of cereal on a lazy Saturday morning.

SEEN IT? Try the very funny, very adult Archer or Futurama.

7. The Pretty Popular Show You've Really Been Meaning To Watch: Parks and Recreation
WHY? Because Amy Poehler as the feisty Leslie Knope is awesome. Because it's one of the best ensemble casts on TV. Because your friends have been telling you to watch this show for awhile now, and you just want to understand their jokes. Because Ron Swanson. The residents of Pawnee are waiting.

WHAT'S THE COMMITMENT? The first five seasons are available (Season 6 is on-air now), so that's a good 32 hours or 1.3 days of your time -- plus a heap of emotional validation now that you are finally cool like your friends. If you want to actually keep your friends while binging on this tasty treat, we prescribe approximately two hours of TV a day, five days a week for three weeks.

SEEN IT? Try the buzzy Scandal or Sherlock, the critical darling that stars Benedict Cumberbatch in the title role. Decide for yourself if they live up to the hype. (Spoiler alert: they do.)

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Netflix studying its users' viewing habits

Netflix is trying to better understand your binge-viewing habits.

How quickly will you devour the new season of 'House of Cards'? WSJ's John Jurgensen joins digits with a look at what a recent survey by Netflix says about how we watch TV now.

The company Friday will reveal a snapshot of a phenomenon that is reshaping TV culture—viewers devouring shows in lengthy chunks, episode after episode. Executives say they found a strikingly consistent pattern in the pace at which people binge: In general, about half the viewers studied finished a season (up to 22 episodes) within one week.

"Our viewing data shows that the majority of streamers would actually prefer to have a whole season of a show available to watch at their own pace," said Ted Sarandos, chief content officer of Netflix in a statement.

The data adds to evidence that binge viewing is becoming a social norm. It also shows that no matter what kind of shows are available, viewing patterns are remarkably similar. Netflix wants to send the message that the stream-and-binge model it helped create is here to stay, eroding the stereotype of stupefied couch potatoes.

Providing details not included in Friday's announcement, the company said it looked at the viewing patterns of subscribers who watched 10 "currently popular" shows available on Netflix, both broadcast and cable series. It declined to specify which ones, saying it could affect negotiations with studios and other producers who license programs to Netflix. The company did allow that at least one of its own original series, such as "House of Cards" or "Orange Is the New Black," was included in the study. The size of the viewer pool ranged from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands, depending on the series.

Netflix only examined users who finished a season within the space of a month. For one serialized drama, 25% of the viewers finished the entire 13-episode season in two days, while it took 48% of them one week to do so. The pace was pretty much the same for a very different kind of show—a sitcom with a 22-episode season: 16% of viewers finished the season in the equivalent of a weekend, while 47% completed it within one week.

That pattern—especially the apparent sweet spot of polishing off one season in a week—was similar across various styles of shows in the sample, including those with audiences that skew male or female, younger or older.

Another finding: The majority of viewers only immersed themselves in one show at a time, rather than juggle several at once.

More TV mavens are announcing their binge sessions—proudly, sheepishly, dazedly—in conversation and on social media. Cultural anthropologist and author Grant McCracken, whom the company retained to supplement its data with interviews with avid TV viewers, says guilt about TV consumption continues to linger 52 years after FCC chairman Newton Minow declared television "a vast wasteland." Mr. McCracken's interview subjects only opened up "after it became clear to them that I wasn't requiring them to apologize for binge viewing," he says.

Though "binge-watch" was a runner-up to "selfie" for Oxford Dictionaries' 2013 word of the year, the term had long irked Netflix's leadership, due to connotations of gluttonous or antisocial behavior. But now even Netflix has surrendered to the term.

"We've never been able to come up with a better euphemism," says spokesman Jonathan Friedland.

Typically, Netflix's data analysis is aimed at making the service more user-friendly, and ultimately, keeping subscribers in the fold. This new glimpse of binge behavior could contribute to that effort, or help shape marketing messages and decisions about ordering more original series, says Mr. Friedland. "We're just now getting to the stage where we can come up with some basic truths about how people behave when they have control over how and when they watch stuff."

Netflix launched its streaming service six years ago, but 2013 was the year binge viewing went mainstream. The term was bandied about widely when the company rolled out all 13 episodes of "House of Cards" simultaneously last February (season two premieres Feb. 14). Competition is growing from companies like Hulu and Amazon, both with their own original series and large catalogs of on-demand video. According to a Nielsen survey released in September, 88% and 70% of Netflix and Hulu Plus users, respectively, reported streaming three or more episodes of the same TV show in a single day.

In any case, the stigma is fading. According to a Harris Interactive survey commissioned by Netflix to supplement its bingeing study, 73% of TV streamers said they had positive feelings about binge viewing. Earlier this week, HBO beckoned students to its streaming video platform with a tweet: "After you survive #FinalsWeek, treat yourself to a week of @HBOGO binge watching. You deserve it."

Source

House of Cards: Season two trailer

Netflix picks up "The Killing" for a final season

"The Killing" has been revived. Again. A final six-episode season is coming to Netflix.

The show lasted for two seasons on AMC before getting canceled. Then, it was revived for a third season, only to be canceled -- again -- by AMC. The show's third season was brought about by a deal between the studio and Netflix, but Season 4 will live solely on Netflix.

Series stars Mireille Enos and Joel Kinnaman will return.

“The rich, serialized storytelling in ‘The Killing’ thrives on Netflix, and we believe that it is only fitting to give Sarah Linden and Stephen Holder a proper send off," Cindy Holland, vice president of original content for Netflix, said in a statement. "We are looking forward to offering fans -- both existing and new -- a series that we know is perfectly suited for on-demand viewing."

Creator Veena Sud is also on board the final season.

"It's a true testament to 'The Killing' creator Veena Sud, and the stellar cast led so compellingly by Mireille Enos and Joel Kinnaman, that fans remained so passionate about the show. We’re gratified that our partners at Netflix recognized this, and are giving us the opportunity to complete the story in a way that will be satisfying to our loyal audience," David Madden, president, Fox Television Studios, said in a statement.

No word on when the new season will bow.

Source

Movies the same day as theaters on Netflix?

Netflix made a splash this year by creating its own TV shows and delivering them over the Web. Now it’s toying with the same idea for movies.

This summer, the company announced that it in addition to TV shows like “Orange Is the New Black,” it would start spending money on modest movies — documentaries and stand-up comedy specials — which would debut on the service.

Now Netflix is floating the idea that it will foot the bill for a “big” movie, which would appear in theaters and on Netflix at the same time.

During the company’s earnings call last week, content boss Ted Sarandos said the company was interested in breaking into movies, and that investors should “keep [their] mind wide open to what those films would be and what they would look like.”

This weekend, Sarandos got more explicit. In a speech hosted by Film Independent, the nonprofit behind the indie film Spirit Awards, Sarandos said Netflix could start delivering new movies to its subscribers by doing the same thing it has done with its original TV shows, and becoming a first-run distributor.

“What we’re trying to do for TV, the model should extend pretty nicely to movies. Meaning, why not premiere movies on Netflix, the same day they’re opening in theaters? And not little movies — there’s a lot of ways, and lot of people to do that [already]. Why not big movies? Why not follow the consumers’ desire to watch things when they want?”

Good logic. And hard to imagine how that will work.

But presumably that’s Sarandos’s point — Netflix wants to show that it can do it, at least once, and put pressure on the rest of Hollywood to change.

And there’s some nice symbolism here, too: Netflix started out delivering movies via DVD, which it could do without Hollywood’s permission. It eventually moved into a digital TV show service, at least in part because it couldn’t get the studios to let it distribute their movies over the Web. Wouldn’t it be cool if Netflix could start to end run the system and deliver movies that way, too?

As Sarandos notes, it’s already possible to see some art house movies at home, via distributors like Apple or Time Warner Cable, at the same time they’re in theaters. (Sometimes even before they’re in theaters).

But almost all major Hollywood movies follow a rigid “windowing” system, where they show up in theaters first, then on DVD and “on demand” services, then on pay TV (andsometimes Netflix), etc.

Films studios themselves have expressed interest in tweaking those windows, so movies could migrate more quickly from theaters to other venues, but theater owners, who play a big role in movie marketing, have been fiercely opposed to any changes. (See: “Tower Heist” or “Alice in Wonderland.”)

And I can’t see Sarandos convincing any studio with a traditional blockbuster that needs conventional theaters to change course anytime soon. If you want to see “Thor: The Dark World” on November 8, you’re still going to have to visit the box office.

So perhaps Sarandos has a different definition of a “big” movie in mind. Or maybe some other clever end run around the system.

Feel free to watch his speech below (don’t be scared off the by 44-minute counter on the YouTube clip; his prepared speech only goes 22 minutes, and if you need to go fast you can speed up to the 19-minute mark) and reach your own conclusions. For now, Netflix reps aren’t offering any additional comment.

Scary movies to watch on Netflix today

Happy Halloween everyone!! I hope everyone has a fun (but safe!) time celebrating.

Netflix Streaming can be overwhelming — so many options, yet so hard to actually find — and we here at Vulture have tried to make it easier for you with our weekly and monthly streaming video roundups. Now that Halloween is nigh, it seemed appropriate to weed through every single horror movie currently available to stream on Netflix and point out the good ones, the bad ones, the disturbing ones, and the just plain silly ones.

THE GOODEveryone’s going to have differing opinions on what movies are great, but I think we can all agree that the ones below are more likely to fall in the plus column than the minus.

Scream and Scream 2: For many people under 30, these jokey yet scary Wes Craven deconstructions of the slasher film genre were the first real horror movies that they were allowed to see. The films still hold up, and the first movie’s use of the song “Red Right Hand” introduced me to Nick Cave, a worthy reason to love Scream on its own.

Carrie: Did you see the new film version of Carrie? Did you like it? Did you hate it? It doesn’t really matter, not with Brian De Palma’s 1976 original so easily accessible this Halloween. The movie manages to be both garish and sympathetic, balancing Sissy Spacek’s amazing performance with De Palma’s film geek split-screens and over-the-top use of color and music.

The Evil Dead and Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn: The first is an energetic and genuinely frightening low-budget gem. The second is sort of a sequel, sort of a remake, but bloodier and pitched as a semi-slapstick comedy. Together, they comprise the first parts of what should unofficially be known as the “Bruce Campbell Is a God” trilogy.

Cabin in the Woods: You can look at this one as a combination of Scream and the Evil Dead movies. Produced and co-written by Joss Whedon, the clever movie has the same basic plot as the latter (young people head to the forest) but with the joyful meta-ness of the former. I can’t really write about Cabin in the Woods without blowing it for you, but be assured, if you love horror movies and aren’t too self-serious about that love, this will be a delightful experience.

Tucker and Dale vs. Evil: Not unlike Cabin in the Woods, a movie that completely flips the script, imagining those creepy redneck guys that always pop up in forest-adjacent horror movies as the nice ones, with the typically fragile college students as the aggressors. Witty and bloody.

Rosemary’s Baby: Along with The Exorcist, which came along five years later in 1973, this Roman Polanski film helped kick off the horror boom of the 1970s. It’s still all sorts of messed up. There’s a scene in which the lead character is raped by Satan, for Christ's sake. “This is no dream, this is really happening!”

Event Horizon: Not well received upon its release, I still have a soft place in my heart for this 1997 space-horror movie. Maybe it’s because it stars Sam Neill, who was still riding high in my eyes after Jurassic Park and In the Mouth of Madness. Or maybe it’s because it’s about a haunted spaceship that doubles as the portal to hell! There’s some great nasty, nearly subliminal imagery in this one.

Session 9: The first thing I mention whenever I bring this 2001 movie up is that it has a moment when David Caruso says “fuck you” as perfectly as anyone has ever said “fuck you” in a movie. The second thing is that the movie, about a potentially haunted abandoned insane asylum, is creepy as fuck. Choose whichever fucking reason you want.

The House of the Devil and The Innkeepers: Director Ti West’s movies might not be for the average horror fan. These two in particular are exercises in tension-building, experiments in how long you can “bore” your audience before pulling the trigger. I’d argue that it works better in House of the Devil than in The Innkeepers, but both featured a classical type of horror directing that is rare these days.

Paranormal Activity 3: Blame Netflix’s scattershot movie rights system, but only the third and fourth parts of this found-footage series are available to stream. This entry is the series prequel, directed by the two guys who had previously done Catfish, which fills in the backstory for the two women who can’t seem to shake those pesky demons. Using many of the same found-footage fright techniques from the previous two, this is the film that put a video camera on top of an oscillating fan base, to memorable results.

Let the Right One In: An innocent love story that just happens to be about a young boy and his equally young (if ageless) vampire friend, this 2008 Sweden-set bloodsucker tale, remade for U.S. audiences in 2010 as Let Me In, is a masterpiece that floats between cold Scandinavian storytelling and steaming hot-blooded genre violence.

Hellboy and Ghostbusters: Not normally (ever?) linked together, I’ll do so for the purposes of this Halloween column. Here are two horror comedies, one a superhero tale about a wisecracking demon fighting Nazis and supernatural monsters, the other a beloved Eighties comedy about a wisecracking Bill Murray fighting Walter Peck and supernatural monsters. Horror is a house with many rooms (horror/sci-fi, for example, though The Thing is sadly no longer available on Netflix Streaming) and funny movies take up one significant wing.

The Frighteners: Peter Jackon’s first real Hollywood movie, and the one he directed before setting off on his now decade-plus-long Lord of the Rings binge, 1996's The Frighteners is another horror comedy. This one, however, stars Michael J. Fox as a man who develops the ability to communicate with ghosts. Fox’s presence is no small thing, especially since it was his last major movie role. The special effects, impressive at the time, still charm.

The Host: No, not the movie based on the Stephenie Meyer book; that was no good. This is the 2006 South Korean sea monster movie directed by Joon-ho Bong, and it’s very entertaining. Also, it remains one of the highest-grossing South Korean movies ever.

Slither: Marvel gave director James Gunn its weirdest movie property — the upcoming adaptation of Guardians of the Galaxy, a comic book franchise that most people can’t yet get their heads around. (A talking raccoon? A tree creature?) They likely had noticed his sick sense of humor in 2010’s Super, which starred Rainn Wilson as a psychotic wannabe hero, but also might have taken note of the way he balanced comedy, horror, and science-fiction in his directorial review, 2006’s Slither. Starring Elizabeth Banks and Nathan Fillion, it’s about a town that gets invaded by nasty parasitic aliens. Just really nasty-looking things.

Re-Animator: There haven’t been that many great (or that many at all) H.P. Lovecraft adaptations on the big screen. Perhaps it has to do with the author’s creatures being so amazing-looking that they usually drive people who gaze upon them insane — a high barrier for any movie. But this one adapts one of Lovecraft’s less cosmically grand stories into a wacky and bloody tale about a medical student who just loves to bring dead things back to life.

Pet Semetary: But you really shouldn’t reanimate people, or pets, or anything dead. As Herman Munster himself says in this 1989 Stephen King adaptation, “Sometimes dead is better.” Nowhere near the best King adaptation, Pet Semetary nonetheless rises near the top half of the crop by sheer virtue of the fact that it’s not utterly atrocious.

V/H/S: The anthology film has long been a staple of the horror genre, but this movie had the genius stroke of tagging on to the latest stylistic boom and making all of its shorts found-footage stories. Each segment has a different director and therefore has a completely different style and feel and conceit — making V/H/S completely schizophrenic and all the better for it. Some critics called it out for its lack of cohesion, which seems to run counter to the purpose of an anthology film.

Some other good movies to check out:

Hellraiser (Clive Barker, puzzle box, pinhead); Land of the Dead (George Romero’s first zombie movie since Day of the Dead, starring John Leguizamo and Dennis Hopper); The Bay (found-footage movie about a deadly parasite, directed by Barry Levinson!); Troll Hunter (another found-footage movie, this one a Norwegian mockumentary about the title creature); Night Watch and Day Watch (directed by Wanted’s Timur Bekmambetov, these are the first two entries in an insane supernatural saga — at the time of its release, Night Watch was the highest grossing Russian film ever released in that nation.)

THE CLASSIC CLASSICS

We know they’re all in black and white and a little slow going, but the Universal monster movies — Dracula, The Mummy, The Wolfman, The Invisible Man, and The Bride of Frankenstein (though not Frankenstein), are well worth watching. Same goes for the few silent horror films on Netflix Streaming, though I’m not going to try to convince you here that silent films are great (they are) — that’s for a whole other essay. Still, if you are in the silent mood, there’s the original big bad vampire, Nosferatu (as well as director F.W. Murnau’s Faust), the German expressionist dream film The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari, and Lon Chaney’s spooky and sad The Phantom of the Opera. Finally, there’s the fun and cheesy 1959 Vincent Price flick House on Haunted Hill.

Source (includes some bad and weird movies)

Netflix's "Orange is the New Black" is their best original series so far?

Sometimes it’s hard to figure out what makes a stock move.

But occasionally it’s simple: Netflix shares dropped last night because Netflix added 630,000 U.S. subscribers in Q2 – which is what the company suggested it might do — instead of a number like 900,000 subscribers — which is what Wall Street was hoping for.

Fair enough. If you’re a high-flying story stock, you don’t have any margin for error.

Netflix might win back a bit of investor confidence if it released viewership numbers for its highly touted original shows like “House of Cards” and “Arrested Development.” But it has promised never to do that, and so far it is keeping its word (though J.P. Morgan analyst Doug Anmuth, doing some back-of-the-envelope math, guesstimates that “Arrested Development” may be responsible for more than 100,000 new U.S. subscribers).

If you are looking for something concrete to say about Netflix’s foray into original programming, though, the company was willing to offer one tidbit, which it made a point of mentioning twice during its earnings call: Every time Netflix has rolled out a new show this year, its first-week ratings improved on the previous show.

That is: “Arrested Development” did better in its first week than “House of Cards” did in its first week, both in terms of viewer numbers and hours viewed. That isn’t a huge surprise, because “House of Cards” was a new show, and “Arrested Development” was a reboot of a series with a big fan base.

But “Orange Is the New Black,” which debuted earlier this month, did better than any other show Netflix has released.

And that is surprising.

While “Orange Is the New Black” got glowing reviews, many of which argued that the women’s prison dramedy may be Netflix’s best series to date,* it got very little hype. Especially compared to “House of Cards” and “Arrested Development,” which featured tons of famous names and lots of high-profile marketing.

But unless you know the name of the actor best known for having sex with a pie, you probably won’t recognize anyone in “Orange Is the New Black.” People are either watching it because Netflix suggests it (Netflix said more than 75 percent of viewing comes via its recommendation algorithms) or because people they know are suggesting it.

Again, we don’t know how many people are actually watching these shows, period. So it’s possible that there’s a less-positive explanation for the increases: Maybe “House of Cards” had almost no viewers, so beating those numbers is no big deal.

Still, more viewers are better than fewer viewers, period. And if you’re a Netflix bull, you would argue that more viewers watching a show they know nothing about — except that Netflix made it — is really good.

So is that enough to keep Netflix investors happy?