Is this * how * we reach The Baby-Sitters Club?
Image: netflix
As for blatant ads, this one is pretty good.
On New Year’s Day, Netflix invited subscribers from far and wide to complete 2021 by calling in a hotline for recommendations – presumably staffed by celebrity operators ready to help you. Netflix has announced the service (one we have been providing for years, thank you very much) with a musical number posted on Twitter that re-introduces ‘Auld Lang Syne’ as a national anthem.
You can reach the hotline at 1-866-NYD-2021 to go through the experience yourself, or comment this Twitter thread to request a personal recommendation. If you just want to know what happens when you call, read on. I went through the whole phone tree (which is actually the hotline) and transcribed some highlights.
Happy New Year! We’ve put together a team of celebrity experts to help you find the perfect thing to watch today!
Just tell us what you fancy, and we’ll get you started. You can also call our recommendations hotline at 1-866-NYD-2021 🎉 pic.twitter.com/vYmDczd4ph
– Netflix (@netflix) 1 January 2021
“Hello and welcome to the Netflix New Year’s hotline, which Netflix brought to you in 2021,” says an overly captains operator. “2021: at least, it’s not 2020. If you’re wondering why Netflix brought back the phone line, it’s because Hollywood likes a recharge.”
‘Speaking of Hollywood’, then the voice instructs you to introduce the extension for ‘your celebrity operator’ – if you assume you know it.
To find celebrity extensions, you can guess the input and call a pre-recorded message. (For example: dial “666” and you will get it Chilling Adventures of Sabrina stars Kiernan Shipka and Gavin Leatherwood recommend ghostly shows.) But if you don ‘t want to guess, get a full guide to celebrity extensions on Netflix’s official Instagram story. There are messages from Jimmy O. Yang, Gabriel Iglesias, Rahul Kohli, Michelle Buteau and more.
If you skip the celeb Easter egg hunt altogether, the operator will offer you nine options that match the keyboard:
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“1” for “if you want something brand new on Netflix”
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“2” for “if you are hungry”
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“3” for “if you have violated all your New Year’s intentions”
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“4” for “if you have a deep sense of existential fear and want to embrace it”
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“5” for “if you have a deep sense of existential fear and want to avoid it”
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“6” for “if you’re actually optimistic about the coming year”
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“7” for “if you wanted to order a pizza but accidentally dialed this number”
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“8” for “if you’re looking for something to watch with your family”
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“Do not press ‘9’ under any circumstances”
Of course, if you hit 9: “I see you’re quite the rebel who does not like to obey the rules. Well, you’ve reached the part of the hotline where I’m 99 TV shows and movies that are all streaming on Netflix right now. All right, here we go. ‘
The operator is indeed going through a monologue of 99 titles, and if you are still at the end of the game, he will say, “Are you still there? What the breed? “and take you back to the menu.
Go through the other eight options and you’ll get some decent jokes about drinking, parenting and the coming year – plus some solid (though biased) recommendations for streaming.
UPDATE: January 1, 2021, 11:49 PST This story has been updated to include new information about the hotline’s extensions feature for the hotline.