Netflix Watch Instantly Recommendation Thread

man, i wonder what his number was

Couldn’t pay me to watch this shit

Wednesday is a really fun show - like it much more than I thought I would. Any talk of it on another thread?

I am wary of Burton, but I've had several people recommend it.

Found Wednesday all a bit meh. Ortega is great but the rest of it is pretty sub-standard (or maybe just standard) Netflix fayre - a lowest common denominator supernatural teen drama. Think I gave up after about 5 episodes

The writing is terrible and the tone is all over the shop: aimed at 10yos but with eviscerations etc. And Burton hasn’t had an interesting idea in decades.

I was visiting my granny and we put on this remarkably stoopid Netflix thing harlan coben’s stay close and immediately I got a strong sense of déjà vu because just before the pandemic I had gone round there and we watched an almost identical thing that was also a coben thing — looking into it there are a load of these adaptations of his books that move the action to the uk & feature Brit tv mainstays like James Nesbit

I’d completely forgotten watching the other series but there’s a very distinctive flavour of trash with these that is instantly recognisable, when we talked about it before itt kinder compared it to itv 2-part dramas (netflixed and stretched to 8 hours) which is otm but there’s an extra layer of ludicrousness that has to come from coben. Literally every character is concealing a dark secret, even the 9 year olds; it has the classic bad fiction thing where it feels like the ppl making it have never been anywhere or done anything; it has, and I don’t say this lightly, the worst “quirky assassin” characters I’ve ever seen, and that’s a crowded field

I can’t in good conscience recommend but I couldn’t keep silent about it

I hate the secrets being concealed by everyone thing, almost as much as I hate the thing where characters are at a stubborn impasse or have a major falling out over something minor or incorrectly perceived, strictly because one character inexplicably refuses to explain themselves before the other party exits the room, or they themselves exit without explaining things.

You might like how detective James Nesbit simply doesn’t answer his phone ever

there was one book in the Tana French "Dublin Murder Squad" series (which I overwhelmingly liked) which had a plot point that infuriated me, where a woman he thought abandoned him actually got murdered years ago.

I don't remember the details perfectly but he had secretly planned to fly to England with her, she never showed, and he went to her family's house, neither she nor her things were anywhere to be found, but there was a note she left that said something like "I hope you can support my new life in England", and it was pretty obvious the way the letter was written that it was a note she left for her parents, who didn't know she was leaving. and that she had left the house to meet him, which meant he should have been very concerned.

instead, he assumed the letter was for him, even though it would be utterly weird for her to have chosen to run away to the same exact country they had both planned to go together, and the letter was very clearly not written to a romantic partner. so he leaves angrily, doesn't dig into it further, and like 30 years later finds out she was actually murdered that night lol.

like i'm pretty suspension of disbelief in almost all mystery tales but when a mystery hinges on someone believing something completely dumb af it kind of ruins it.

I was thinking yesterday about the trope of:

1. Lead character's spouse is murdered/dies in an accident/disappears
2. Lead character discovers their spouse had secrets, follows trail of clues, asks "did I really know this person at all"
3. Bonus points: spouse isn't actually dead

and how I really hate shows like this

imagining a The Fugitive where Richard Kimball's wife staged her own death because she thought her husband's breath stank

Xps lol I love those Coben adaptations! Probably wouldn’t if they were American but I love basically any British crime/suspense/thriller type of show.

The Harlen Coben ones are just nutso. I almost admire how they cram MOAR into everything. I reckon when I'm granny age I'll be up for watching them.
James Nesbitt lost a lot of my goodwill with the execrable recent series of Badlands too.

we watched Coben's The Stranger and hated it by episode 4 but watched till the end for resolution

that’s the curse of the coben

Aggretsuko season 5 more sweet, smart and funny business

More fun from netflix descriptions:

This 2021 action thriller featuring Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Woody Harrelson was co-produced by Bryan Unkeless

Co-produced by Bryan Unkeless! Shit, let me drop everything to watch it!

watched life (2017) on netflix last night, basically "what if alien was set on the international space station". it's kind of funny how it doesn't depart one iota from the template (except, no spoiler, theres no evil android) and just how much it borrows. and though it tries even ryan reynolds & jake gyllenhaal can't make the characters a tenth as likeable or memorable. nevertheless it's the kind of corny sf I love, it's very well paced with a few good shocks and though the ending was predictable and ridiculous it somehow still freaked me out a little.

You might like SPUTNIK, a Russian version of the same basic ingredients.

yes i've seen it! that one's worthwhile for doing something a bit different with the story

the ending of Life is soooooooo hilarious, was worth it alone for that

I literally forgot that movie existed, but yea, iirc it was a fun time. Some even theorized that it was a stealth "Alien" prequel.

Fucksake etc

Some news about Lockwood and Co. I’m very sorry to say it’s not being renewed. Here’s more…
⚔️ #LockwoodandCo pic.twitter.com/DXR0TGZuRf

— Jonathan Stroud (@JonathanAStroud) May 12, 2023

Very disappointing, was flawed but much more interesting and smart than most of the stuff Netflix push:

Definitely.

I suppose at least with adaptations like that you can read the books if you want to complete the story.

Dragon Prince season 5 on July 27th!

cyrus and maria and i loved *The Makanai: Cooking for the Maiko House* but i don't think i know another living soul who has watched it. (actually i think we might even have a couple of episodes left. we should get on that...)

my wife watched it without me and enjoyed it.

Thanks for reminding me - love Hirokazu Kore-eda's films so have been meaning to give it a go.

Speaking as a fan of the comics, the Nimona movie is quite disappointing.

Man, the Dragon Prince has some of the biggest swings in quality of a show that I fundamentally enjoy, newest season is kind of bad: I don't think it had a single joke that landed for me, and they stretched the plot out to fill the 9-ep season to its breaking point. The last episode is pretty good though.

I gave up on it after the very weak fourth season; thanks for confirming I made the right decision. First three seasons were great tho

I actually thought the fourth season started off brilliantly, but it kind of treaded water for the rest of it.

Maybe I was not in the mood for it when I watched, but your description of the fifth season is exactly how I felt about the fourth: failed joke after failed joke. Got painful after a while, was barely able to finish it and vowed not to waste more time

Well, the finale ends on a character curling up and waiting to die, which for a kids' show, makes me want to give it a chanec.

"Well, the finale ends on [show hidden text], which for a kids' show, makes me want to give it a chanec."

let me guess. Hitler's birthday?

Flanagan's The Fall of the House of Usher out tomorrow.

Can't wait

S7 of Big Mouth just dropped

Previous to seeing this I had never even considered the scenario of a Psyduck softly resting its head on my shoulder, and now I know I will die an unfulfilled man because this will never happen to me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1zmhHLVrq0

Same studio as the excellent Rilakkuma and Kaoru I see.

Anyone watched the new season of Sweet Home yet? Didn't realise it was back

This is good!
https://www.netflix.com/tudum/articles/movie-anniversaries-2024