Diagnosing Severe Netflix Anxiety (SNA)

Washington, D.C.

It was pretty exciting when Netflix sent me “Walk the Line last May. Not having gotten a chance to see it in the theater — and reading rave reviews from all who did — I was pumped to see it right away. But something came up and “Walk the Line” stayed in its little red envelope that week. And the week after that. And the week after that.

My Netflix queue came to a halt and I was torn: do I send it back or hang onto it? I chose the latter. So, there it sat. When November rolled around and I moved to my new apartment, Reese and Joaquin still sat on my nightstand. After all this time though, I couldn’t just send it back. I had to watch it. So, I threw it in a box and brought it with me.

Fast forward to February of this year. I’ve now had “Walk the Line” for 9 months. And, believe it or not, I’m finally in the mood to watch it. And you know what? It was pretty good.

I was thinking about this whole incident last night and came across an old Newsweek article discussing the same “disorder.” In the story, it’s given a name: Severe Netflix Anxiety. And, it made me thankful: at least I’m not former Netflix employee, Crystal Trexel. Trexel received the indie flick “Maria Full of Grace” in December 2004.

She finally returned it 20 months later.