Netflix Watch Instantly Recommendation Thread

"Toys..." is actually pretty interesting once you successfully hold your nose through the opening credit sequence.

yeah "Toys" somehow smuggles a pretty damning exposé of toy companies' sleazy corporate practices and gross channelling of children's imaginations into irrational consumerism under chipper "I <3 the 80s" breezily glib narration. The obligatory final minutes of hagiography read as deeply ironic in each case, though I have genuinely no clue what the creators were actually trying to achieve. A friend got me to watch it by describing the He-Man episode as "chilling." Recommended if you are 39 years old.

the sexism and xenophobia of the guys who started the lines is blatant as hell too

a fact i did not know until last night: the star wars toys have made more money than the movies and lucas approached the creation of the films with primary interest as a toy line. i had NO idea he got a direct cut of sales off the toys; that's got to be unprecedented.

lucas approached the creation of the films with primary interest as a toy line. i had NO idea he got a direct cut of sales off the toys; that's got to be unprecdented

I don't think the first part is true but yes, the merchandising deal was unusual

The Barbie one has a lot of sleaze too! One of the creators was fired from her own company for fraud; the other got a Star Wars-size royalty agreement, married Zsa Zsa Gabor and built a castle with 150 telephones and a railway and orgies.

life aspirations

Started watching Lovesick this morning
already blown through 1st season
it’s very good - reminds me a lot of late 90’s shows like Cold Feet or This Life. Def resembles This Life the most tho - Dylan definitely has Egg qualities ie terminally cute. It’s very well written. Lots of layers

I've been watching SUBURRA: BLOOD ON ROME, and it's a lot better than the film. I'm still a little weirded out how they turned the novel's primary antagonist "Samurai" from a guy who--as written in the book--seems more like a slightly effete version of David Carradine in Kill Bill than he did this sort of professorial sociopath. The recast of the role works wonders though; in the film the character seemed a bit more worried all the time rather than a guy people should worry about, whereas here he seems as dangerous as everyone makes him out to be. Nothing in the series quite jibes with the simplistic and easy manner in which the characters shared with the film come to their fates, which makes me wish they'd never made the damn movie in the first place because everyone in the series is more interesting, even the same characters played by the same actors.

Claudia Gerini is exceptionally good, probably the best out of a great cast overall (aside from the guy who plays Spadino maybe.)

yeah i liked him

just getting started with the gomorrah series

alyssa bringing to mind sheryl lee when she changes her hair in the show

I'm enjoying Voltron: Legendary Defender way too much, on the basis of 1. Rhys Darby, 2. Chunk's dialogue and 3. I kinda married Pidge IRL

"I'M A LEG!"

Somehow I really enjoyed The Indian Detective despite being lukewarm on Russell Peters's standup act and recognizing the predictability of the storylines. The shots of Mumbai are great and it does a good job of representing a lot of nuances about India that tend to not get represented in most Western media ime. I like the subtle running joke that people keep staring at Peters's character like he is a moron every time he emphasizes that he is from Toronto "in Canada" ("all this time I thought it was in Finland") or compliments them on speaking English well.

Agreed, I had pretty low expectations but it was an enjoyable show.

search tool

http://flixable.co/

Is it just me, or is this season of Grace and Frankie not very good?

i have been enjoying Episodes. i'm kind of afraid to know what people here think of it. you guys can be weird. but i have laughed out loud more than once watching it. i don't know the british stars of it at all. all the hollywood people are really funny to me. and i will always be fond of Joey. that show is definitely a harbinger of weinsteins to come.

i don't know the british stars of it at all

I guess you haven't seen Green Wing or Black Books then, two great British comedy shows (although both may appear somewhat dated now).

I think I watched the first season or two of Episodes and really enjoyed it but then it jumped all over the schedules over here and I kind of lost track of it. Not even sure if the latest seasons have even aired on British TV.

For those who like/can stand anime, Devilman Crybaby is *incredibly* highly recommended. It's created by Masaaki Yuasa (Mind Game, Ping Pong, Kaiba, a solo Adventure Time episode, etc), and while in the early going it feels like it's just doing the standard shonen anime wish-fulfillment thing (with an extra helping of sex and violence that wouldn't pass muster for broadcast TV), it goes to some truly unexpected places as it goes on. It helped that I wasn't familiar with the Devilman Family of Products and tried this out solely because of Yuasa's involvement, because jesus, the ending is a punch in the guts.

Episodes is a low-key joy, and it stays pretty funny for most of its run. Really a testament to LeBlanc's chops and range that his character never gets old

Also enjoyed The Vault, a B-movie about a bank robbery gone wrong... because the vault they're robbing is haunted. It lives down to its premise

Recently watched and enjoyed:

I Don't Feel At Home In This World Anymore
Season 4 of Black Mirror
Planet Earth II

Thought these were OK, but ymmv:
Raw
Gerald's Game
Blue Jay
The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected)

Watched Icarus, what a fascinating movie. What was supposed to be a Supersize Me becomes a Citizenfour

Icarus is amazing. Extra amazing that just a few days ago the IOC decision was twisted to allow 100+ Russian players to compete. What the doc didn't convey really well (unless I missed it) was whether any of the athletes were in on it, or if they were secretly dosed. There is something about putting the drugs in drinks, but it's not clear if they knew what they were drinking. Similarly, they show his very detailed dosing regiment. I know Russians drink a lot, but how could you administer a measured regiment of PEDs without the players knowing? For that matter, were any of them forced?

Either way, it's so fucked up that cheating in the Olympics could in any way be connected to people getting killed.

I don't think they talk about that in Icarus but I have to imagine most athletes were aware of it. There was a Russian athlete whistleblower a couple years ago. The director also mentions in the movie how he can feel the difference with doping. I saw a recent interview with him where he said he still does that kind of doping himself!

Isn't there a scene, as he struggles with his bike race, when he says the drugs made no difference? That was unclear, too. No difference because his bike broke or no difference physically?

He cleared it up in an interview, it was slightly confusing in the movie. He felt much different with the drugs. One difference he mentioned was that after the first race he was out of commission for like a month, but not so the second time

Why am I trying to remember this interview, let me just link it for ya, it's well worth a read: http://www.vulture.com/2017/12/icarus-bryan-fogel-russia-doping-scandal-olympics-netflix.html

give me the athlete drugs

"Episodes is a low-key joy, and it stays pretty funny for most of its run"

i love the cast. the actress who plays carol could be really really amazing at times. don't remember seeing her in anything before. and her whole character arc was insane too. i liked all five seasons. i can't believe myra is british.

and i have seen black books but i didn't recognize her from that. its a very clever show. and i loved how believable matt's game show was.

also, this show had the best character names. Merc Lapidus, Andy Button, Castor Sotto, Elliot Salad.

if anyone here hasn't seen it and is looking for some primo binging...only 7 or 8 episodes a season. so, not the rest of your life.

the sex therapist scene made me laugh harder than i have in a long time.

maybe its my old LOST habit kicking back up, but i really enjoyed DARK, even if it did unravel a bit in the final ep

also, loved this part so much:

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

i want to try Dark

i didnt know fran from Black Books was in Episodes -i’ll give it a look!!

episodes video there is basically adult swim in a nutshell

Myra's face is classic

it really is. so crazy to have to play that character for that long and make that face the whole time.

ok i’m in
that clip was hilarious

episodes was great! totally worth it

okay, i have to post this since its online. i'm going to watch this whenever i'm down in the dumps. just kills me...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8knZMHuTg_8

omg

one more because Matt is so good in this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4JTU5lRTOg

Also enjoyed The Vault, a B-movie about a bank robbery gone wrong... because the vault they're robbing is haunted. It lives down to its premise

― Evan R, Monday, January 22, 2018 1:18 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this sounds like extremely my shit

my wife and i have been ploughing through neo-a-team series scorpion which is total, total garbage but oddly watchable

ohhh yeah that is primo velveeta tv
terrible but great if you don’t have too much too often

we watched National Treasure the other night & i said to mr veg it plays like a really long episode of scorpion

i need to add a recommendation for good quality A+ movie

Tracks - 2013 Australian movie starring Mia Wasikowska & Adam Driver, directed by John Curran. - true story of a woman who walked 1700 km solo (with camels) across the Australian desert in 1977. It’s SO good.
If you were kinda meh about “Wild” but love shit like Kontiki etc this is your movie. (I love ppl vs nature stories)

i kinda want happy to get her own show tho, she’s def the best character xp

otm

ok so The Vault was kind of a fun way to spend part of an evening

Boy, Gerald's Game sure was some rough stuff, and one two minute sequence in particular is perhaps the most difficult to watch scene I've ever squirmed through, but the leads are great (Bruce Greenwood is always good, Carla Gugino under the radar for too long, for no good reason) and the story very timely, in its way.