Netflix shows

[colls]

Netflix seems to be creating so many original shows now that I can't keep up. Some have become wildly popular (Stranger Things?) and others are quiet gems (Longmire?). There's also a ton of Marvel tie-ins that I always have a hard time keeping straight.

A couple days ago, Huffington Post decided to Rank The Best Shows On Netflix You Can Stream Right Now

- What shows do you follow?
- What's in your queue?
- Which shows look interesting, if you had Netflix?

Comments

[colls]

This post is brought to you by the fact that I'm behind in watching both Stranger Things and Longmire. So far behind that I'm not even in the current season.
*sigh*

But SO MANY interesting looking shows are cropping up. Has anyone watched Alias Grace?

[china_shop]

I've just got Netflix, so right now everything I watch is via that (except the Kdramas).

Watched Stranger Things s2 last week, now catching up on Star Trek Discovery and season 2 of The Good Place (much better than season 1, imo). Also have You Me Her, The 100, and Stranger (with Doona Bae) in my queue.

I've heard good things about GLOW, but I don't know if it's available on NZ Netflix. *checks* It is! *adds to list*

[kore]

I really want to see Alias Grace -- I loved the book, and loved the Hulu Handmaid's Tale adaptation too. We tried out the Punisher and noped out after about three episodes. Mindhunter, total nightmare fuel, no thank you. I think if I tried to watch Bojack Horseman my psyche would implode. Unlike everyone else I know I'm not interested in Stranger Things*. She's Gotta Have it has gotten some good reviews, and Master of None is always good. For some reason I went slightly off Maria Bamford's show after loving her standup. I totally need to see The Get Down and finish Sense8.

We did watch out of total eh-it's-on not-quite-curiosity the Manhunt: Unabomber Discovery miniseries, which turned out to be surprisingly good and very character-driven. Paul Bettany and Sam Worthington were excellent. There was a little too much of "this ONE man helped catch the killer," when in reality it's always a web of less famous law enforcement, but that's typical of shows/movies/books about long complex investigations.

For people who hadn't seen them yet I'd highly recommend Luke Cage and Jessica Jones. Defenders was very patchy (someone just lock Finn Jones in a basement and recast him NOW) but had some very good parts, especially Simone Missick (Misty Knight), Jessica Henwick (Colleen Wing) and of course Rosario Dawson (Claire Temple). Netflix was teasing me with some possible Daughters of the Dragon action in Iron Fist S2.


*possibly because I was alive in the eighties, am not at all nostalgic for the eighties, and view the manufactured nostalgia for a simulacrum of the eighties with all the same horror I witnessed the Boomers making a secular temple of their youthful experiences in the sixties, in the eighties. In 1988 Newsweek's most famous cover was about the 1968 protests. If I were in a better mood I might find my living AGAIN through a craze of fake nostalgia sort of funny, but I haven't had enough coffee. Meanwhile the nineties have dropped off the face of the earth ("It was all grunge! Just watch Singles!").

[kore]

Oh yeah we've also been watching Star Trek! at the Disco (I will cling to that joke til I die), altho it's not on Netflix here for once and is everywhere else, which is greatly amusing all my friends outside the US.

[graculus]

I'm currently a couple of episodes away from the end of Mindhunter and have been pleasantly surprised by how much I've enjoyed it - not only is Jonathon Groff pretty convincing (unexpectedly), there's also a significant amount of screentime for Anna Torv, who has been criminally under-employed since Fringe finished.

I've also ended up starting a Fringe rewatch as a result and just finished season 1...

Other than that, I got bored with Master of None midway through season 2, I don't think the writing is as good as the first season.

Apparently The Good Place just got picked up for a 3rd season? So I'm happy about that, even if we have to wait till January for new episodes.

[colls]

I don't have Hulu, so haven't seen the Handmaid's Tale yet. I'm hoping it'll be made available in some other way soon? But loved the book and definitely have Alias Grace in my queue.

I'm really not interested in the Punisher, I watch some of the Marvel shows sporadically but if I pick any of them back up again I think it'd be Jessica Jones. What was the reason you chose to stop watching?

I was a kid in the 80's, too! I actually found some of the 80's references amusing, but didn't find it added to or detracted from the show for me.

[colls]

Star Trek Discovery!!!! <33333
I'm a few episodes behind and forget that it's a Netflix show for a lot of people. (LOL)

I've heard good things about The Good Place. I may have to consider adding it to my queue.

[colls]

Anna Torv?!?!
I didn't realize she was in Mindhunter. Sign me up!

I just mentioned above that I might have to consider The Good Place - people seem to really enjoy that show.

[china_shop]

Hee! I keep calling it Star Trek Disco, too! :-)

[china_shop]

I gave up on The Good Place about 7 or 8 episodes into season 1, but saw enough positive reactions to the end of season cliffhanger and start of season 2 that I went back to it, and I'm glad I did. :-)

[kore]

Well, we should be getting THA any day on DVD now! https://www.amazon.com/The-Handmaids-Tale-Season-1/dp/B075RT1NYK/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_74_t_1?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=GKG5VDGKBVBFBG3YKEKK ahahaha //cries

Re Punisher -- I went on at tl;dr length in a friend's blog here, but it really was one too many headshots. I found all the other Netflix street level hero shows, even Daredevil with its infamous head-in-car-door scene, way less offputting than that. Which might sound weird, but at least the car door scene was kinda suggestive and darkly lit and didn't feel right as in-my-face. Arguably Punisher takes all the implicit violence in superhero movies (sure, Cap isn't killing anyone with that shield) and makes it super-plicit, but graphic violence just squicks me right out the door.

I think my reaction to Stranger Things/"yay the eighties!" was like my reaction to IT the movie. WHY? Just, WHY, would you want to revisit that. The original experience was freaky enough. (I didn't watch the X-Files or Twin Peaks sequels either despite loving the originals, but that was more having learned loooong ago that reunion shows are rarely good, especially when the original creator is doing them.)

(I'm just super picky with idiosyncratic tastes. I can't watch The Good Place either for different reasons.) -- ARGH, this is reminding me I didn't finish American Gods, either. I liked it! I just didn't have the time to block out a bingewatch, I should've tried an ep or two a night.

[mfirefly10]

- What shows do you follow?

Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, The Defenders, Sense8 (though that got canceled), Stranger Things, Santa Clarita Diet...I'm sure I'm forgetting some...


- What's in your queue?

Alias Grace and Mindhunter

[kore]

Hell, they put DISCO right on the shirts! which you can get for thirty bucks a pop, altho I have not yet made that leap.

I love that show a lot, altho I keep getting terrified they'll mess it up somehow. Ah, the joys of open canon. Somehow that stings less with bingewatching.

[yourlibrarian]

> What shows do you follow?

There's some stuff I started on Netflix and then went to broadcast like Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. I also began Jane the Virgin which seemed fun but we only got through a few episodes before having to break for returning shows on the DVR. So just throwing out a few things we came to on Netflix which includes Happy Valley, Last Tango in Halifax, Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries, and Death in Paradise.

We've also been watching House of Cards and Stranger Things, but I haven't seen S2 yet because we're very behind on joint viewing and as result our DVR is very full so we're trying to keep that manageable. Hopefully this coming weekend we'll have more time to do a bit of catch up.

I just finished watching Alias Grace which I thought was quite interesting.

> What's in your queue?

Good question -- why does Netflix not put your queue at the top? I'm forever scrolling trying to find it. I'm not even sure what's on it. I have a DVD queue of over 100 titles but most of that is movies. I do want to try The Good Wife.

*butts in*

[mfirefly10]

Anna Torv is the main reason I'm interested in checking out Mindhunter and I definitely recommend The Good Place. It's delightful, imo.

[mfirefly10]

I agree with everything you said about the Netflix Marvel shows. Jessica Jones and Luke Cage are the best of the bunch and I'm desperate for more Claire/Colleen/Misty interaction.

[kore]

Anna Torv is so great! I heard she was the lead in an Australian thriller type series, altho I haven't worked out where to watch it yet. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secret_City_(TV_series)

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2R-DPhzfFY

[kore]

I loved it when Luke and Jessica and Claire and Colleen and Misty all teamed up to save Danny the helpless princess at the end. "The real Defenders lineup!" I might have shouted at my TV screen.

Jessica Henwick in particularly was amazing at making a solid memorable moving role out of NOTHING. I really wish she'd been the Iron Fist instead, sigh.

[kore]

Dammit, everyone keeps telling me Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries is really good, and I keep forgetting it. Top of the Lake is also supposed to be good. I haven't even finished Orphan Black or The 100!

[glitteryv]

- What shows do you follow?

Most of the Marvel shows (with Jessica Jones edging out Luke Cage by almost nothing.) Yes, this meant I sat through the :-/ that was Iron Fist.

Sense8 and the under-watched The Get Down.

I've felt some hardcore hype backlash about the super popular Stranger Things (I'm not someone who is deeply nostalgic. Also, I grew up in the 80s so watching what seems to be a remixed version of 80s media makes me go meeeeeh.)

Aside from that I tend to side-eye and avoid The Crown since there's really nothing about that specific period in Royal history that really pings me.

- What's in your queue?

Mindhunter, Paranoid (a British crime drama), Versailles (exactly what it sounds like), and a lot of K-dramas. And random movies.

- Which shows look interesting, if you had Netflix?

Alias Grace. I'm in the fence about The Punisher, tho.

[st_aurafina]

possibly because I was alive in the eighties, am not at all nostalgic for the eighties

So interesting and weird because I was alive (and that age) in the eighties, and I find the nostalgia in Stranger Things super fascinating. I wonder if it's because I have that slight distance from the specifics of the Stranger Things kids, not being from the US? It's like being nostalgic for media culture of the eighties, not the actual eighties that I remember...

But nineties nostalgia I just can't do. Tried to listen to a nineties channel and completely lost my shit over it. So weird.

Re: *butts in*

[st_aurafina]

No spoilers, but Anna Torv is magnificent in Mindhunter. She was the reason I watched it, and I wasn't disappointed.

[kore]

It's like being nostalgic for media culture of the eighties

I think that really nails it, yeah. It's not even being nostalgic for the culture, but the memory of the culture.

LOL nineties culture is so not nostalgic for me in that sense -- I listened to Cocteau Twins's "Blue Bell Knoll" obsessively in 1991 and 1992, and I CANNOT listen to the title track anymore; I put it on a couple of years ago and stuff I didn't even know I had forgotten came flooding back. Life-sized actual memories. I don't think I've ever leaped across a room (for the STOP button) so quickly in my life. But those were more just kind of personally unpleasant, college years. The eighties were grade school and junior high for me, and those were "what the writers of the Bible meant when they used the words hell and the pit," as Anne Lamott said.

[st_aurafina]

Anna Torv was so great!! And yeah, I'm considering a Fringe rewatch because of Mind Hunter. I miss Olivia Dunham.

[kore]

I've felt some hardcore hype backlash about the super popular Stranger Things (I'm not someone who is deeply nostalgic. Also, I grew up in the 80s so watching what seems to be a remixed version of 80s media makes me go meeeeeh.)

We need to form a club. A tiny, grumpy club. I'm sure there are at least three other people out there who don't like the show.