Netflix Watch Instantly Recommendation Thread

I think that was part of what she learns, there is more to her dad than she realized or paid attention to! I do definitely agree that the mom character doesn't even get that kind of revelation though, which does suck.

I was really hoping Thor Ragnarok making fun of "bet you're wondering how I got here *record scratch*" would kill this off

I also hate this, and it's so pervasive. So many book club "literary" novels do it too. Just start the story at the start!

Someone suggested that so many of these films centre on the dad/child relationship because dads are the ones who bring the kids to the cinema. I'm not sure that's true, but I think it is true that mothers will sit through any shite about ponies or whatever and just tune out, whereas dads will only go if there's something in it for them. (Sweeping generalization, I know.)

I really enjoyed the film while I was watching it, but agree with all these criticisms.

xp
Yeah the father-daughter conflict didn't really make sense to me. He's worried about her choosing an artistic life (at the very start of college? ok) because he failed as an artist--his chosen medium being a single log cabin? Which they moved out of when they had kids? I guess? Also he doesn't like technology, so he's literally never watched a single one of her movies? Quite possible I missed something there.

I kind of pity animated screenwriters. You're writing for a medium that means you can literally depict anything imaginable—and this movie does have some awesome stuff in it, no doubt--and what we get is movie after movie telling you to believe in yourself and love your family.

Wrote that before jon's posts. That's an interesting point about it being from the daughter's less than generous POV, thanks (though yeah I think that makes the mom's non-arc even worse).

trishyb: I can't remember where it was now, but I read an article the other day about this phenomenon. The most depressing part was an anonymous quote from a screenwriter that studio execs now demand the nonlinear beginning trope and ask for rewrites to make it happen. Sad to hear about it spreading to books as I can see the economic logic for streaming entertainment (get them hooked), but books have a different level of investment to them.

In media res dates back to ancient epics, e.g. Iliad and the Odyssey.

Also gotta imagine that the whole in media res things helps with streaming services' need to grab eyeballs immediately.

right, that's the economic logic I meant

Not sure how seriously to take Leee's point, but I'm not saying it's brand new or cannot be done well. Just that it's becoming ubiquitous and hacky/cliched, and in this particular case it totally undercut one of the things the script did well, which was letting a robot apocalypse unfold in the background of a more conventional family drama before erupting into the foreground. Also the actual substance of the prologue was bad: my family is so weird: I make movies on my phone, and my little brother likes dinosaurs, an incredibly unique interest for a child

Also gotta imagine that the whole in media res things helps with streaming services' need to grab eyeballs immediately.

This is exactly where it comes from in books, too. I've been on a fair few writing courses, and they'll all tell you that only established writers can get away with a slow buildup. If you're new, you need to record-scratch that first paragraph in order to grab an agent, then a publisher, then someone who looks at the sample on Kindles.

We watched ET the other day, and that film starts so slowly. And so creepily, too. Imagine if it had started with them all on their flying bikes, then cutting to Elliott going "And I thought letting the frogs go was bad!"

lmao

If your movie opens with any more buildup than The Naked Kiss, I'm already bored.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AU3QDnpFm8

lol

Lupin back June 11

Nothing worth watching for a month huh? Finished Lupin, goofy fun, last episode could've been a bit less stupid.

Oxygen is a pretty tight high concept thriller, I did twiddle my thumbs or get a bit exasperated once or twice but the two big reveals are well worth it imo.

Halston was good! It was entertaining!

iirc people now post Netflix takes mostly to the "But is it on Netflix? thread for non-Netflix services" thread. that said, it does seem particularly weak as a service this year. I think I've watched more Jeopardy than anything else

I'm three episodes into Sweet Tooth and it's pretty good so far. Quite a refreshing change from the usual post apocalyptic fare.

Lots of talk about Bo Burnham's Inside on the Eighth Grade thread, though not positive

Netflix is basically Crackle now, except they still have a lot of money so they're bringing you 1000x as much Crackle.

Lupin is among the best things they've done imo. And very much looking forward to the third season of Sex Education which is one of my favourite TV shows ever. It's a low hit rate admittedly but the hits are outstanding.

Not sure about Lupin. It's good fun but the stupidity of the finale detracted somewhat from my enjoyment and the twists were all fairly predictable this time around.

thought it was frequently dumb but very fun, we binged it in a day.

Ragnarok s2 was kind of a drag though. Lol @ their Loki basically just playing Scandinavian Tom Hiddleston.

Been watching older shows mostly - rewatching old seasons of Community, finally checking out Line of Duty, Trapped, Borgen etc.

Still scared to check out Inside - loved Eighth Grade but Bo Burnham's whole schtick seems exhausting. I also hate musical comedy.

Would definitely recommend ignoring 100% of Burnham’s specials then.

I watched twenty minutes of Inside and couldn't stand it anymore.

On Becoming a God in Central Florida has shown up on Irish Netflix. A more aggressively unpleasant drama series I have not seen since the super-depressing days of Breaking Bad. Stupid, desperate people doing stupid, desperate things, with a weird sort of baddie who appeared to have been modelled on Pierce's dad from Community. I watched it thinking it would get better (because it got good reviews in the US), but it got worse instead. Obviously Kirsten Dunst was solid gold as always, but that's about it. But what do I know, I don't even like Midnight Diner, which everyone else seems to love.

Had difficulty taking Lupin seriously when in the very first episode he manages to fake an identity well enough to trick the Louvre by...creating a fake wikipedia page.

tbf I don't think you should take Lupin seriously! I enjoyed S1 but haven't felt immediately compelled to watch the second; my Lupin hot take is that the kids' animated reboot of Carmen Sandiego is both better and pretty similar.

Well, "seriously" - I see it as a cool heist show and within that I would like my heists to be clever.

I'm also kind of meh on Lupin, but the last season of Carmen Sandiego that I watched was a real drag -- the first few seasons are pretty good, though.

Lupin feels a lot like Sherlock, where implausible details keep piling up, but it's still a fun experience.

I liked the first five episodes a lot but am kinda bogged down after episode 2 (7) of this current batch.

needs more heists

main dude is very charismatic though

he’s great in intouchables too

There's a good profile of him on the New Yorker's site. (I don't know if they're still on strike, thus making reading their articles Bad, but there it is anyway.)

BREAKING: We have averted a strike! After more than two and a half years of negotiations, @newyorkerunion, @p4kunion, and @ars_union are proud to announce that we have reached an agreement in principle on our first contracts. Here are some of our wins: pic.twitter.com/gBzOwbKpqI

— The New Yorker Union (@newyorkerunion) June 16, 2021

he’s great in intouchables too

he's fine but that is a cursed movie if I've ever seen one, horrible memories of watching it w/ right wing french acquaintance who delighted in its portrayal of black people and the disabled as Somehow Human Too?

yeah it doesn't bear a lot of scrutiny. he just has this way of sweeping all doubts away through his magnetism.

Story of my life.

Rewatching the first season of Black Summer as Season 2 has just dropped.

Forgotten how tense those first few episodes were

needs more heists

Yep. Part 1 was great fun, this one not as good but had its moments

On Becoming a God in Central Florida

this show was a mess in several ways but I still really liked it, I think? Dunst obv was the best thing about it but I also liked her coworker who got sucked up by the MLM. I dunno, I thought it was fun in general and was at least not a super tired retread of other shows. I'd have been happy with one more season.

I liked it fine, nothing more than that, and at the same time was glad it was not renewed.

Sometimes I think about how Netflix gave us the money and creative freedom to make those recaps but then also refused to turn off the automatic skip function on them and how that sort of perfectly sums up our working relationship with them on that show. https://t.co/ycyc9iWHmI

— Joe Barton (@JoeBarton_) June 21, 2021

We just finished On Becoming a God and I... dont know if I liked it? It just felt so sisyphean or something. Felt like a bit of an emotional chore to watch tbh.

Am almost done with Katla which is fantastic. Gorgeous score by one of the GusGus guys. Such a gloomy alien landscape shot so cinematically.

We just finished On Becoming a God and I... dont know if I liked it? It just felt so sisyphean or something. Felt like a bit of an emotional chore to watch tbh.

This description is why I feel quite turned off by a lot of TV at the moment. I feel like “the next season of [characters doing x] needs to ramped up emotionally and more hard to do” just means making it bloody miserable for everyone involved, including the viewer. The third season of Good Girls seems like a good example, where it just seemed like a horrible chore seeing how these women could get more miserable being involved in their situation. Obviously this has precedent, like the 6th season of Buffy, or most of Breaking Bad, but I feel like a lot of tv writers need to remember to lighten the fuck up occasionally atm.

yeah search party eventually became kind of unbearable and it was so funny and good before. everybody wants to do this badass breaking bad thing i feel like.

I was like that about a lot of the Sopranos when I finally got round to watching it last year. The rape and violence against women was just too much.

One episode of Becoming a God was enough for me.

Am I on drugs pic.twitter.com/W0yjxu8WTn

— Sibley The Best (@Goldfishwars) June 23, 2021

What the goddamn hell.

This was the tweet that made me laugh the hardest.

Cremaster 6 trailer has dropped. pic.twitter.com/nqT7ujOKSM

— Marc Masters (@Marcissist) June 23, 2021

I really, really disliked Katla - quite disappointing cause I loved Trapped from the same creator.

Katla had an intriguing premise and was beautifully shot, but took way too long to get to the point and when it finally did, it did so in a pretty bleak and ugly way. Spoilers, triggers ahead: was pretty disturbed by the multiple graphic scenes of suicide and filicide at the end. Unbelievable that that’s the resolution the show chose to take.