Critical Studies Major Drops Out After Acquiring a Netflix Account

by Matt Abrahamson

Los Angeles, CA – On January 21 Stephanie Klein, a sophomore critical studies major at the University of Southern California, walked of the last class of her college career.  The class was an introduction to French New Wave, a popular movement in film in the 1950s and 1960s that, disappointingly, is not about surfing movies set along the French coast, but where French directors made cheaply made movies about nothing that film professors like to call art.

In her class she watched The 400 Blows, a movie about a kid from France who likes to make trouble and stare at no one in particular at the beach.  Stephanie quite liked the film. She is quoted as saying, “I quite liked the film.”  But Stephanie made a realization on her walk back to her apartment; The 400 Blows could be watched on Netflix.

In fact every single film she watched in one of her classes this semester could be found on the on-demand video streaming service website.  After some in depth research and mathematical formulas, Klein discovered that a $7.99/month subscription was cheaper than the price of her college education.

She decided to drop out and continue her education through watching movies on Netflix.

Stephanie Klein is no longer a student.  She now spends her time creating her own critical studies curriculum and now is watching more content than she ever could have in class.  USC’s big screens and film projectors are now replaced by her MacBook Air screen and professor led discussions are now replaced by reading Netflix customer reviews.

She just finished the fourth season of Friends.