Earlier this year my wife and I watched (or, as we later figured out as we saw familiar episodes for a second time, mostly re-watched) Arrested Development. We DVRed all of the episodes that were run over the summer on IFC in advance of the Netflix release of the fourth season of the show.

We figured at some point we'd get Netflix and watch that fourth season, and I hoped that it would happen before the end of the calendar year so it could be a New Thing.

That, as you might imagine, was looking pretty unlikely with December coming to a close.

And then my brother gave us our Christmas gift.

Surprise! It was a six-month subscription to Netflix!

This is something I thought about for a really long time - friends had been talking up Netflix to me for a really long time.

I was never really interested in it when it was the DVD-through-the-mail business (it was, right? I'm not imagining that?), but once it started the streaming stuff I was intrigued.

I've written about this numerous times - I'm not a huge movie guy. If I'm spending a few hours on something, it's going to be sports. But I do watch a lot of TV, and I'm interested in good TV when I hear about a show that's worth watching.

So I'm not sure what kind of use I'll make of Netflix.

We're starting with Arrested Development, that's a sure thing. Saturday night we did our first Netflix watch, dialing up the first episode of the fourth season. (It took me a minute to figure out Netflix - I clicked on Arrested Development and the pilot started playing, so I had to figure out how to navigate the site.)

As we were driving back from New York, though, I was thinking of other ways I could use Netflix. These next six months (and beyond, because let's be honest - I have a feeling this will lead to us ordering a subscription - I think it's going to be great) could be a great opportunity for me to watch all of these movies that I just haven't watched in my life. I immediately searched for Mel Brooks stuff - but that's not on there.

I'll have to make a list of movies and shows I should catch up on or know about and then search to see if they're on there. I'll start with shows friends have raved about for a long time - Bob's Burgers is one that comes to mind. Then I'll work my way up to some movies.

The timing of this gift is perfect. Sure, we're watching a lot of Modern Family on DVR these days, but the NFL season is winding down and I don't generally watch a lot of winter sports. It's a good time for me to explore Netflix.

I'm excited about it…and if you know me you won't be surprised to learn that I'm also a little overwhelmed.

If you have suggestions for what I should watch, let me know.