Forget affordable streaming video. Forget good customer service. Forget "House of Cards." A Netflix "original series" called "Example Show" is the greatest thing the company has ever done. There's a fountain. There's a guy moonwalking while using a laptop. There's juggling. There's Shakespeare. Honestly, there's nothing missing from this video.
Sometimes Netflix makes videos to test new formats and hides them on the site. The test video for Netflix's new 4K Super HD, released last week, is pretty boring. But it led us to an old test video simply titled "Example Show" that may be the most glorious video to ever grace Netflix's site.
The video was created in 2010 and stars "Actor" and "Actress," according to the video's Netflix page. It is described as "An example of a show" in the page's summary.
What on earth would possess Netflix to create such an absurd video? "That's primarily a video we use to give ourselves and our partners.. a way to test Netflix," Netflix spokesperson Joris Evers told The Huffington Post in an email Monday. So, yes, real people are watching this video of a guy doing cartwheels and running around outside Netflix's office, but it's not meant for regular Netflix users to see. "We would never put this video in suggestions and you can only find it by searching on Netflix," Evers added.
The video is 11-minutes long, so we have an abbreviated version above. What exactly is so bonkers about "Example Show"? Well...
A Mysterious Hand Sets The Scene
Toward the beginning, a strange hand appears and waves around in the water. (1:20)
You'll hear this fountain through almost the whole video. Maybe go to the bathroom before watching it.
There's Running. Who Can Say Why?
Enter: Our star. You'll see him running outside of the Netflix office with a Netflix DVD. (3:25)
Moonwalking Because Duh
Observe him moonwalking while using a laptop! (3:50)
A Brief Juggling Interlude Because...Trance
After a brief interlude with a toy train, he starts to juggle. (6:25)
Angry Shakespeare Monologue Makes An Appearance
Our star then really starts to shine with a monologue from Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar." After which he takes some time to make some noises into the camera. (7:00)
How this guy hasn't gotten his own TV show by now is beyond us.
So how have the masses reacted to this masterpiece? After more than 6,600 ratings, "Example Show" has 3.7 out of 5 stars. Not bad.
"Forget Arrested Development, this is the best Netflix Original series! I binge watched all the episodes in a day... Hopefully Actor will finally reveal plot to actress, but who knows with what Creator did during season 2. All I can say is, this is certainly a show," one reviewer wrote.
"I must say I didn't like it for one simple reason. At 80 years old, when a man hears the sound of running water, he often can not move fast enough," someone else wrote.
"Fantastic work. Creator is in top form here, and definitely got an amazing performance out of Actress. Actor did seem to be phoning it in a little, but from a veteran like that, even a B+ is outstanding. My only other complaint is about the nudity. It seemed a little gratuitous sometimes." Point taken.
Fun fact: If you watch this video with English subtitles, the only thing that appears is "There's no crying in baseball!" over and over again. It's a line from "A League Of Their Own" that isn't uttered once in the Netflix video. We just wish we knew why it shows up here.