Compared to going to see a movie in a theater, netflix and rest are extraordinarily good value most of them time. Given that I watch mostly with my wife, we only have watch several hours of something once a month to be ahead of the theater-going cost. And most streamers have something that we want to see once a month (not 100% of the time, but most of the time).

The Netflix adaptation of "100 Years of Solitude" (part two due out this august) was one of the most astounding bits of visual story telling I've seen in a long time. Entirely the opposite of "disposable background TV".