Netflix Watch Instantly Recommendation Thread

anybody mentioned the Judah Friedlander special? 12 minutes in and I'm all about this guy

I've been bingeing H&CF all week and loving it, just made it to the start of season 3. Everyone's right, it does massively improve in the 2nd season, although the last few of the first season are pretty good too.

Anyway I love all the cast (even Lee Pace!). I've binged a lot of very watchable shows, but nothing for a while that's invested me so much in the characters.

Also I wasn't aware of Toby Huss's previous work, so his sudden outing as the comic relief in season 2 was a nice surprise.

I dunno if he still does it but he used to a live cabaret-style show in LA as a Sinatra-inspired character called Rudi Casoni

https://laughingsquid.com/actor-toby-huss-croons-california-uber-alles-as-rudi-casoni-frank-sinatras-bastard-son/

only other thing I've seen him in is a bit part in the movie The Invitation. He's amazing throughout this show in any case.

oh hey i remember huss from his mtv commercials in the '90s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3veAHvjRpFk

"we live in an oligarchy. but with the humidity it feels like a dictatorship"

To me he'll always be...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1AAEtH4Rzo

The Coltrane documentary is on Netflix now. Dubious about it, but will have to give it a watch.

With Halt and Catch Fire, what is the best strategy: Make it through the first season but let my wife know that apparently it gets better, risking that she might not want to see the second season if she doesn't like the first? Or skip right to the second?

tbh it’s a ten episode season, I’d recommend she just pay half attention and you can fill her in on any gaps

Watch the first few episodes of season 1 by yourself. When you reach a scene where Lee Pace gets his shirt ripped off - congratulations, you have reached the worst scene! From thereon it gets better and better. At the very least I'd get her to join from episode 7 or 8. The second season will still make sense, but a lot of the fun comes from seeing how the dynamic between the characters has changed since S1.

This is the kind of quality entertainment assistance you only get on ILE (no sarcasm).

it can be daunting. no, really, you have to watch the first 11 episodes of Bojack and then it gets REALLY good. but with H&CF it is totally true. though i didn't hate the first season or anything. american psycho is kinda the hardest to take in season 1. but he definitely just gets more weird and interesting as times passes.

true! I kept thinking, this guy is a sociopath, get him out of the room

ha, we tried the first episode last night and thought it was totally fine! will keep an eye out for shirt-ripping nadir.

as someone who lived through the era (my dad was a Kaypro dealer for a while) I appreciated the well-done references, Byte magazine, Compaq, CP/M, etc.

Oh shit, Byte magazine! I remember that!

^yes H&CF shows a level of research in the details that is quietly impressive. They also do a great job of coming up with business models that are realistic for the era but aren't straight copies of actual historic companies (afaik). That said, I have never totally loved it (watched through season 3; will def watch 4)--imo it remains somewhat flawed but increasingly worthwhile, and I especially like that each character gets a little turn at being the most interesting out of the bunch. Lee Pace, for ex, is much better when he's not the ostensible lead.

the convention stuff is some of my favorite stuff in the show. Windows dis is so funny.

I've had an old paperback of Soul of a New Machine on my shelf for 15 years, think I'll finally read it once I'm through with season 4.

Season 1 of H&CF isn't as bad as people say it is, and you're probably not gonna enjoy it anymore if you treat it like homework. It's just a show that takes a few episodes to find its voice, but that first season tells a very, very satisfying standalone story, one probably worth watching even if the show never got renewed for several more much better seasons.

The point of H&CF is the journey of the characters becoming better/sane people, it's not as satisfying if you don't see where they start from.

that’s a good point

I've heard from so many people (as well as the ones in this thread) that H&CF gets really good, but jesus christ I just could not get along with the (first half of) the first season at all

Lee Pace, in particular, made my skin crawl

it's not THAT good

anyone watch 1922? another king adaptation. it was p schlocky but i enjoyed it. good performance by the main actor. i think there's good scope for netflix to make more interesting short story type movies, almost like freedom from massive budget and the associated pressure and compromise.

it’s not one of the greatest series, but I love trash and middlebrow stuff (although H&CF never aims at the middle, quite) and I support all viewers to move on to that series’ thread because it’s short, relatively spoiler free, and now a viewing club

i'd never seen nirvanna the band the show until the shout out in this thread. funniest show i've seen in a good while

anyone watch 1922? another king adaptation. it was p schlocky but i enjoyed it. good performance by the main actor. i think there's good scope for netflix to make more interesting short story type movies, almost like freedom from massive budget and the associated pressure and compromise.

― Bein' Sean Bean (LocalGarda), Friday, November 17, 2017 8:38 AM (six hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I liked this but it was on the meh side. I agree that Netflix is particularly good for these kind of small-scale adaptations.

Gerald's Game, the other King adaptation though! My god, that was an intense watch. It does kinda fall apart a bit in the last five minutes or so, but I mostly blame the book for that. Carla Gugino is awesome in it too.

Godless is really good. Jeff Daniels is a proper villain. Plus, Scoot McNairy for you Halt & Catch Fire fans. It's 7+ hours long and incredibly bingeable.

i am getting good at spotting Brits now in American period t.v. I could tell that Alice, Roy, and Whitey were Brits even though i didn't know who they were.

also, i love Denise from the Walking Dead in this and i hated her on the Walking Dead. it's nice to know that she is just a really good actor who made me hate her on the Walking Dead. she should definitely get bigger/better roles just for her part in this.

Friday theyre putting out a doc on that nyer gay talese voyeur motel thing

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt7588790/?ref_=nv_sr_5

I watched a trailer for the new Black Mirror thing, and was amused to see a comment under it saying "This is the dumbest show on earth." I thought, this person must not have seen Len Goodman's Partners in Rhyme.

Is anyone watching USA's Damnation? I'm intrigued by the premise.

/anyone watch 1922? another king adaptation. it was p schlocky but i enjoyed it. good performance by the main actor. i think there's good scope for netflix to make more interesting short story type movies, almost like freedom from massive budget and the associated pressure and compromise.

― Bein' Sean Bean (LocalGarda), Friday, November 17, 2017 8:38 AM (six hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink/

I liked this but it was on the meh side. I agree that Netflix is particularly good for these kind of small-scale adaptations.

Gerald's Game, the other King adaptation though! My god, that was an intense watch. It does kinda fall apart a bit in the last five minutes or so, but I mostly blame the book for that. Carla Gugino is awesome in it too.

American President Biography: Benjamin Harrison Documentary From Early Childhood to After Office

can i really be the only person watching LA REINA DEL SUR?

^^^

I watched a trailer for the new Black Mirror thing, and was amused to see a comment under it saying "This is the dumbest show on earth." I thought, this person must not have seen Len Goodman's Partners in Rhyme.

To the Ends of the Earth is pretty good. Cumberbatch looks 14 in it. It's also fun to watch Sam Neill and Jared Harris giving him shit.

We started Godless last night, seems like a good time.

wow that Gay Talese bio on the Voyeur

i want to see that! good?

Joan Didion doc is good

NYT review of Voyeur was very dismissive; would love to hear other opinions.

The Talese / Voyeur thingy left me pretty puzzled. It felt like it was setting up a twist that never came, before ending quite abruptly (when they realized no twist would come)

watched the first few eps of "dark" last night, german supernatural type thing. i'd read good reviews but i thought it was extremely derivative, parts of the french "the returned", the killing, all those terrible uk copycats of the killing etc. some nice music and cinematography, i guess i'll watch the other 7/8 episodes but i won't feel proud of myself after and there's always the likelihood it just makes me stop watching it via overload of stupid scenes. a LOT of terrible exposition so far too.

Kantaro Salaryman is both one of the most delightfully ridiculous shows whilst at the same time being a usefully guilds the traditional desert shops of Tokyo.

recalling the New Yorker article as best I can, the twist is that the guy likely made most of it up

theres no way to know, gay actually visiting & watching on one occasion is enough that theres some truth. the holes & the last fact that made gay initially disavow the bk doesn't make me think "most" of it is fiction

yeah my impression from the article was that the guy spent literally years in his creeper attic, saw a bit of boning but otherwise discovered that ppl are actually super boring so made a bunch of stuff up. I’m def curious abt the doc, will watch this week