Netflix Watch Instantly Recommendation Thread

I think they used to tag things where they had exclusive streaming rights in an area as an "exclusive" and now they're just tagging "Netflix Original" on almost everything.

Annihilation is a weird case because they had exclusive rights for every country other than North America, where Paramount still had movie theater distribution

The Sinner was shockingly good. I was really surprised. There's some stuff about the "troubled" cop that's not overwhelming and definitely the least interesting thing about the show but otherwise I really liked it.

Yeah, most of the glut of 'troubled detective investigates disturbing crimez in shady town where nothing and no one are quite what they seem' procedurals are decidedly not for me, but I dug The Sinner.

It very much subverted the tropes of that subgenre, albeit subtly.

I thought it could have been shorter by maybe one episode, but other than that I really had no complaints

I appreciate that by the end of the second season they've presented the roots of Pullman's pathology and that they opted for a relatively believable tragedy/trauma instead of going for something OTT twisted and televisual.

Turn Up Charlie ended really abruptly.

I liked the first two episodes, mainly because I thought there would be more comedy being mined from his loser position, and because I was pleasantly surprised that he wasn't inept with the kid and she didn't hate him. But then it just stopped being funny and started being a sort-of lighthearted drama about a character I realized I wasn't remotely interested in.

Yeah, I wasn't quite sure what to make out of it. We had it on kind of in the background this weekend and all of a sudden it ended and I was like, that was it?

Just watched ep1 of Polish alternative-history drama, '1983', which was promising. Anyone able to comment?

Not yet, but will have a look-see and get back to you.

Good lad.

Watched it months ago - I enjoyed it but wasn't blown away. I liked the premise and the actors were uniformly good, but it just kind of devolved into your average police mystery/conspiracy drama in a Soviet setting.

It's not on there yet, but 'The Edge of Democracy' by Petra Costa is great. Tells the story of the last few years in Brazil, but more than that, it really makes you feel like you're there in a situation spinning out of control. Made me think of 'Battle of Chile' and 'The Hour of the Furnaces'. Yeah, it's - almost, probably - at that level.

Have been watching a lot of Lemony Snicket the last 2 weeks. It took me a little bit to warm up to it (never read the books and I also don't like Neil Patrick) but it's really really good. Now on 3rd season. That baby is the best baby ever.

The baby is totally the best baby! :D
(Also, my brother worked on this show and said the babies irl are also the best!)

i just about died when i saw the trailer for THE SILENCE

https://diezukunft.de/sites/default/files/styles/shop_schaufenster/public/Redaktion/silence-bg.jpg?itok=QT3wTde1

give me good non-shitty examples of apocalyptic end of the world horror films where there's a subplot involving society's vacuum being filled by a fresh new cult of believers in the new world order.

Hearing actress Kiernan Shipka plays the lead character, a deaf ****** who ******* *******. Shipka learned American Sign Language for the role, and director John R. Leonetti said in an interview, "She learned to sign for the film, and now she's flawless, like she's been signing her entire life. She seems to have an almost innate sense of what it's like being a deaf person." Deaf celebrities Nyle DiMarco and Marlee Matlin and other members of the deaf community criticized Leonetti for saying that Shipka learning to sign was synonymous with knowing the culturally deaf experience and for undermining deaf representation by casting a hearing actor. DiMarco also criticized Shipka's ASL grammar, and others pointed out plot holes related to her character being deaf.

thanks everyone who recommended The Sinner - binged the first season over the weekend and thought it was really good. I definitely wouldn't have checked it out otherwise based on the trailer alone.

Don't know how to explain what made it stand out from all the other darkly-lit "troubled cop investigates mysterious murder in a small town" shows, but it was really compelling from start to finish. Jessica Biel was pretty good in it too - never really paid any attention to her before.

Finally watched High Flying Bird and it's so fucking good. The iPhone imagery is just a consistent delight through it all, and the plot, with it's talk of disrupting big organizations through small innovative content, obviously matches it perfectly. It's like a 'Sex Lies and Videotapes' for the streaming-age, makes it seem like Netflix could be a worthwhile creator of movies with their own aesthetic, even.

And then I saw last years winner of the Golden Leopard, 'A Land Imagined' by Yeo Siew Hua, and that's a film that should have been shown on the big screen, but now never will. And that's going to be much more of what they do...

One of the things that makes the sinner stand out is other than some silly scenes it really doesn’t care that much about the detectives dark inner life. And it not a whodunnit filled with red herrings. Both things that made the Killing so annoying.

Also all of those other shows suffer from a chronic lack of Bill Pullman. It's a real problem.

The Shhhhh Silence movie was not good. I almost turned it off but then only 30 minutes were left so I just finished it. I hope everyone got paid well.

xpost Gah, I also loathe cults/religious fanatics popping up in apocalypse movies. My next hatred is a movie suddenly becoming about aliens. I am still angry from seeing Signs in the theater and it turning out to be about aliens.

That's what made you angry about Signs?

Yeah. I distinctly remember becoming super angry that it was becoming about aliens. Maybe I passed out from blind rage because I don't really remember much about the movie besides Mel Gibson being in it.

a movie about crop circles featuring aliens

shocking

It's probably for the best that your rage coma wasn't exacerbated by the knowledge that the aliens were deathly allergic to...water. Sorry for spoilers.

There is a widespread internet theory that it is not about aliens at all, but demons.

And that the water was ... holy water.

Internet giving Shyamalan way too much credit imo.

ugh i remember the thing about the water now. This is my fault for going to movies that I have no clue what they are about. Like, when The Revenant came out I really did think it was just about Leo getting raped by a bear because that is all I kept hearing. Imagine my confusion.

imagine my disappointment when the revenant wasn't just one 156-minute take of a bear using leonardo dicaprio as a fleshlight

Would that more of the pitch-black early Onion material were adapted into major motion pictures.

Oddly enough my friend I went with also thought this is what the movie was about. We kept whispering "when does he get raped by a bear?" Even after he got mauled.

wasn't that one really dumb reviewer who made that assumption based on his own weird sense of projection, then it got turned into a meme?

Yeah, I think it was circulating. It got both our expectations up mistakenly.

so many dejected cinema managers handing out refunds to irate customers who paid their ticket money solely to watch the star of j. edgar be subjected to unwanted ursine advances

what's humping gilbert grape

it was the 2010s equivalent of viewers flocking to Meet Joe Black to catch the Phantom Menace trailer.

the brownbearball diaries

what's humping gilbert grape

ha ha

The Burial of Kojo was good - beautiful scenery, great music.

Beyonce's Homecoming is pretty amazing.

this chris lilley show has its moments

of gross racism, and lunatic ego such that no other performer is allowed to contribute anything substantial? because

not racism, no. (he doesn’t portray himself as another race, contrary to the controversy engendered by the trailer.) some of the bits about what being a social media celebrity can do to people are funny.

I haven’t seen the trailer, but that’ll make his first show in 14 years that isn’t dumbfoundingly racist

(I’m giving WCBH a pass that it may not deserve; he definitely yellowfaced in it but may have only reached the level of “well-meaning stereotyping”)

Anyone else tried Black Summer yet? The first few episodes seem promising and I definitely like the very scant use of dialogue.

I really don't know how I feel about Black Summer. I am on episode 7. I was telling miccio that I got aggravated by neverending bad decisions. There are a lot of weird choices too that I don't think are realistic. I really love zombies though.