Netflix (NFLX) is one of the most polarizing positions in the Freedom Portfolio for me. As I’ve mentioned before, despite being an early believer in the company and despite it being my biggest winner by almost any metric, it’s also indisputably my biggest investing mistake. Those 610 shares that I owned in 2004 would be worth (after splits) nearly $1.5 million dollars had I held onto them until now. In other words, I might’ve been able to retire by now had I simply not touched those shares for 15 years.

At the same time, just because it was a huge winner in the past, it doesn’t mean Netflix will be a huge winner going forward. One of the things I struggle with is separating how I feel about Netflix as a company now from my fear of missing out on it being a big winner (again). Netflix is my second largest holding, bouncing between being an Enterprise level and Babylon 5 level holding depending on the day. That’s rarefied air and should be reserved for the companies that I have the most conviction in. Does Netflix really have the second brightest future ahead of it out of all my positions? Or am I anchoring too much on the past success the company has had? Am I just fearful of making another massive mistake? Netflix appears to have already captured the crown of streaming video leader not just in the US, but probably the world as well. Where else can they go?

Around 3 years go, I remember discussing investing with a coworker. He asked me what stock I was most excited about and had the most conviction in. I told him Netflix (apparently a good choice, seeing as it has roughly tripled since then). He was surprised and asked why. My response was that I believe that Netflix, despite already being as revolutionary as it was for upending the video rental space and essentially creating the video streaming market, could go even further. I thought that they could be at the forefront of a movement which transitioned power from the networks and studios to the viewers.

What do I mean by that? Network television has traditionally been an ad-supported business. Viewers don’t pay money to watch The Big Bang Theory because advertisers are paying big bucks to put their advertisements in front of as many eyeballs as possible. The job of the networks was to create shows that attracted as many viewers as possible so they could charge advertisers the most. This led to an abundance of safe shows that were aimed at having appeal to the largest groups of people. This was reinforced by the scheduled nature of television where each channel could only show one program at a time. This introduced opportunity cost as a factor. A low rated show airing at 8 pm was doubly bad because not only was it getting low ratings, but it was also taking up precious airtime that could be used to show something else that might get higher ratings.

Things shifted a bit with the introduction of cable television and the hundreds of channels it introduced. That allowed more shows catering towards niche interests like cooking, home renovation, old game shows, and unusual sports (think of “The Ocho“). But viewers were still at the mercy of scheduling. Interested in watching more than one episode at a time? Better hope some channel is randomly airing a marathon. Your favorite show moved to the same time as your pottery class? Better reschedule the class. Good luck if there’s a specific episode you wanted to watch. DVRs and DVDs helped, but were still an imperfect solution to the problem.

Netflix is helping to lead the way towards solving many of those problems. Instead of having to watch television on a schedule dictated by networks, viewers are increasingly able to watch shows on-demand. Want to watch 12 episodes of Friends in a row? Knock yourself out. Desperately want to watch the Scott’s Tots episode of The Office? Now you can. Work odd hours and only have time to watch TV at 4 am? You’re no longer restricted to choosing between Oxiclean or Flex Tape commercials. Sure, Netflix doesn’t have everything, but they have a lot, and it seems like every day they’re adding more. And because Netflix doesn’t have a schedule where they can only air one show at a time, it lessens the impact of opportunity costs and allows them to support shows which might not have broad appeal, but instead pulls a smaller and much more dedicated fan base.

But the question now is: Are Netflix’s disruptive days behind it? Blockbuster Video has been vanquished. The threat of Red Box is subsiding. Cable cutting seems to be an irreversible trend. They’ve shown the model can work not just in the United States, but worldwide as well. They even have a market cap that rivals the gold standard in media: Walt Disney (DIS). What more is there for Netflix to do?

Maybe the answer lies in the past.

When I was growing up, NBC was fond of using the slogan “Must See TV” to describe nights when they had their most popular sitcoms on. To me, it always felt like an attempt to stoke a “fear of missing out” in people. With such a large percentage of the viewing public watching these shows, how would you be able to keep up with the water cooler talk at work tomorrow if you missed them?

I had assumed those days were over. In this new Golden Age of Television, there just seemed to be too much content with audiences being hopelessly fragmented. When there are hundreds of cable channels and dozens of streaming services, how can it be possible to reclaim the shared experience of “Must See TV”?

That’s why I have been constantly surprised by how often Netflix has been able to have the most buzzed about movie or show that people are talking about. They made waves with Ellen’s DeGeneres’ return to stand-up comedy. Bird Box was watched by nearly a third of Netflix users in its first week, but it also got extra media coverage for the warnings over partaking in the bird box challenge. Discussion of the boldly experimental “Choose Your Own Adventure” episode of Black Mirror seemed to permeate the news and social media for a few days. Now, Tidying Up with Marie Kondo is what everybody seems to be talking about, whether it’s for thrift stores being flooded with donations or controversy over how criticism of her might be racist. They’ve even managed to make news for pairing a Ted Bundy based drama with a documentary, which reminded me a bit of their Making a Murderer series as well. They even ironically get publicity when they’re beaten to the punch on a buzzed about topic, like when it happened regarding a documentary about the Fyre Festival.

According to some metrics, Netflix has 19 of the top 20 streamed TV shows in 2018. While there’s a number of caveats, including the qualifier that it’s “streamed” TV shows, that’s still pretty incredible. It’s hard to think of a more apt description of “Must See TV” than a company that can credibly claim to have 19 of the top 20 streamed TV shows.

Maybe Netflix’s next disruption isn’t finding a new way to push us into the future, but is instead about drawing upon the past. In an age with hundreds of channels, dozens of streaming services, and other forms of entertainment like Youtube and Fortnite demanding our attention, can Netflix disrupt the entire entertainment industry by bringing back Must See TV?

Stay tuned to find out.