Netflix Watch Instantly Recommendation Thread

it's on BBC America in the US, not netflix yet

The OA is intriguing fairy-tale interrupting amateurishly bad dialogue.

i don't mind the dialogue. but you guys probably have higher standards than i do. i have watched every episode of The 100.

OA is passable despite the bad cringey dialogue and generic stock music score. I'm kinda a sucker or anything that delves into psychology, even on a superficial level. Starts to get good on episode 3.

Didn't really notice the bad dialogue, but as Scott says, I'm not sure I'm as alert to stuff like that as some people. Think with that sort of show you're either with it or you're not and I liked the whole idea that it's just far-fetched enough to almost pull it off, but you're still left wondering whether any of the story is true or just 100% made up.
*SPOILERS* - enjoying the fan theory that Riz Ahmed's character was actually an FBI plant, or working for the kidnapper, and planted the (fresh out the Amazon box, unread) books under her bed in order to throw people off the scent. Or that the OA never grew up in Russia and was actually born in the brothel, therefore discrediting whole swathes of her story.

Seems to be a recurring theme in recent sci-fi whereby mystical powers can be attained through rote learning of arcane patterns - see Arrival.

I don't know how you could not notice the terrible dialogue and acting/tone in that first episode of OA. It felt like watching The Room at a couple moments. We turned on French audio and English subtitles for awhile and it kinda helped.

Have I mentioned that I have watched every episode of Jericho?

I watched every episode of Revolution too. I prefer that show to Breaking Bad as far as great Giancarlo Esposito shows go. I miss Allegiance too. 5 episodes! They were robbed. Now everyone is a secret spy on t.v.

I respect your commitment

I mean I even enjoyed the parent teacher conference in OA as far a dialogue goes. I do get a little tired of the walking dead dad. I got tired of him in the walking dead too. he always looks like he's on the verge of tears.

I don't know how you could not notice the terrible dialogue and acting/tone in that first episode of OA. It felt like watching The Room at a couple moments. We turned on French audio and English subtitles for awhile and it kinda helped.

― sam jax sax jam (Jordan), Tuesday, December 20, 2016 3:41 PM (fourteen minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

There was some mumbling, but I just figured it was a cognitive/hearing problem on my part.

i think i just prefer pulp. i just wish some of these shows would hire ACTUAL sci-fi writers. there are so many good ones and they would work for peanuts.

hiring talented genre writers to write episodes is one of the things that makes a two dollar show like star trek memorable. wish t.v. people would remember that.

We turned on French audio and English subtitles for awhile and it kinda helped
haha, this might've helped my enjoyment of OA ... thought the first episode was extremely undercooked, but I'll give it a few more tries.

Have I mentioned that I have watched every episode of Jericho?

me too

Hey Veg (and others who found the first two episodes interminably boring): I can confirm that something happens in the third episode besides more bad dialogue, and that episode 4 is actually good.

Last two episodes of "OA" were so good. For all its shortcomings, it's visually stunning, beguiling and emotionally resonant.

leee: repirt back when you've finished it. idk if i can be assed watching it now tbh

leee: repirt back when you've finished it. idk if i can be assed watching it now tbh

hah haven't finished it yet but I spotted a Dum Dum Girls poster and am now fully on board.

Going to watch the last episode of The OA tonight. Think I'll start a dedicated thread so we can discuss with spoilers.

Has anyone watched the Duplass Bros "Blue Jay"? <3 Sarah Polley and the sorta-mumblecore thing is right up my alley but after Togetherness I'm wary.

i try to avoid that alley as a general rule :)

Also, that alley contains Sarah Paulsen, not Polley

Regarding OA and its ending *Spoilers*

I'm a bit conflicted about how they left the show ending so open ended. I honestly wonder if the creators even know themselves because they said they are prepared to give answers if there is enough demand for season 2. There's not enough evidence to confirm either way if the stories of the prisoners are false or real. I'm not sure if this is good writing or poor writing, but it's been bothering me all week after being so invested. If the show does not get renewed, are we just supposed to never know?

Went back to Love after quitting on episode 3, improves greatly with the fourth.

I thought the whole point of the OA was that it's an unreliable narrator scenario. if you follow her story through, there's literally no evidence that any of it is true - even her young childhood could easily have been made up. That said, there is also a lot of evidence that it's NOT not true (the books in her room were fresh out the box, unread. had they been planted?)

Yeah, OA is definitely an unreliable narrator. I read an interview with the creators recently where they said it's up to the viewer to decide based on their own personal beliefs. That's nice and all and I appreciate interpretive art like David Lynch, but it disappoints me with this show because it seems like a cake and eat it too premise.

Maybe you could have a separate thread for OA? I haven't watched it yet, and it'd kinda hard to avoid glancing at spoilers while checking this general Netflix thread.

#latepass af but Chef's Table is SO breathtaking and cinematic in a way I was not prepared for!!

I've tried Chef's Table several times and I just can't do it. It's like the anti-Mind of a Chef.

Green Room is on UK Netflix now.

^^^doubly recommended if you are a punk fan and/or have spent a lot of time in dingy punk dives (and uh aren't squeamish)

i really liked green room's simple, brutal 70s/80s style approach to an action/thriller/quasi horror thing after all these bloated super hero CG flicks

i don't actually know how much time i want to take to think about the OA. if there were a thread devoted to it. i definitely watched the whole thing. but i might have felt a little Shyamalaned by the end of it.

we been watching the OA. i like to watch things slower than Helen does. First couple eps were not that great but we just watched episode three and it was good. certain parts made me feel like i was gonna have a panic attack. so tense. and so creepy. prepareing myself to be annoyed by the end.

we also watched COMPULSION which is a cool movie I had never seen.

all of this

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slow_television

http://www.avikinginla.com/2016/09/guide-to-norways-slow-tv-on-netflix/

Binged the OA the last two days, And because most people did that, and do that these days, it feels silly to open a new thread for it if we can't discuss it on a weekly episode basis to gawk over. Anyway,

***spoilers***

It was a mess, but a very entertaining mess imho. The Kathun scenes were excruciating. But I decided after episode two that despite the obvious cheesiness to justgo with it and ride it out. And it was very entertaining, had some nice stuff to think about. I was captivated, despite the airy fairy stuff.
The ending though, God I hated it: as a viewer I don't want to be reminded of mundane, real, worries like "will there be a next season, and if so, what the hell are we going to do with it, whilst also wrapping it up sortof in case we don't get a second season." Also one of today's tv problems, more than ever. I don't want to be bothered by that shit, but it's exactly the note on how it ended. Guns (literally) blazing with the school shooting - which didn't offend me morally as it did some reviewers, but more as a viewer: you don't need this HUGE event to somehow tie stuff together and keep us guessing when the whole series is chock full of it already.
The Amazon box of books is another very cheap trick. She constructed this whole story through four books she bought, seemingly unread, and keeps them together in one box? A highly paranoid woman who while blind and in captivity for years learned to pay attention to every minor detail leaves that box under the bed? O rly? And if not, the opposite is just as awful: someone planted that box of books? For the boys to suddenly find out? O rly? GTFO. That finale felt like watching the writers trying to balance the fate of the show instead of writing the show and the story they want to write.

And yet, despite all those huge flaws I was still captivated. They did something right alright. I just hope enough people are entertained/frustrated for Netflix to give them carte blanche, so the writers can focus on the story instead of on survival of the series itself.

Totally agree with your post Le Bateau Ivre - and also why I was frustrated. The show ends up feeling like a beta version that will get passed off as final if it's not renewed. I really enjoyed the show over all though and have went back and watched Brit's "Another Earth" film, which was like a more mainstream Melancholia.

Ohhh, 'mainstream Melancholia' scratches me right where I itch, will watch that!

(For despite my criticism I truly did feel OA was perfect holiday season fodder, this stuff is made for the season isn't it?)

Nicholas Ray's offbeat Joan Crawford western 'Johnny Guitar' is on Netflix atm. I watched for the first time last night

Johnny Guitar is an amazing movie. Watched it in a bunch of classes in college. Lots of talk about the communist witchhunt of the time.

yeah that movie is pretty damn good

Also the gender roles. It's called Johnny Guitar but the movie is about Joan Crawford vs Mercedes McCambridge (voice of the demon in the Exorcist!). Her performance in Johnny Guitar is one for the ages.

This is UK only?? Was watching Ray's king of kings last night

i think it is u.k. only. maybe the u.k. ilxors can have their own netflix thread on the I Love Snooker board. it's very confusing.

Not available in US, but and more's the pity. It's been on my list for years.

Damn I was excited