Netflix Watch Instantly Recommendation Thread

the star is a perfect mix of sheldon cooper from big bang theory and max from parenthood. i always thought that max seemed pretty real for a one hour network drama. they were good on that show at getting at the frustration/anger/reveling in small triumphs from both the kid and parent points of view.

Any subject introduced in modern popular culture mediums (TV, film, music), mostly mainstream, will filter out any extreme examples of the individual experience, except maybe stupidity, because this causes laughter and the notion of the Audience as a voyeur or eavesdropper is still very much a natural state for many of us -- it's no wonder a site called Gawker was so popular.

Specifically, neorealism runs contrary to Hollywood-style filmmaking, where The Bigger Picture is pushed to the viewer. Subtle or nuanced characteristics are typically suggested, instead of shown. It's about showing the Archetype. In this case, like Scott Seward said, Sheldon Cooper in appearance and toned-down personality. Except Atypical's Sam loves biology instead.

You would think with the rise of streaming media or video-on-demand, there would be a push for neorealism, but, a chicken-and-egg scenario, the Audience keeps demanding The Bigger Picture experience, apparently. I suppose a lack of attention span pushes the masses to favour explosions, car chases, and easily digestible scenes, where much is left to the viewer's imagination, except the typical viewer is no longer using her imagination. There is also an emotional angle the show is going for, of course, which could be why some families who have children or relatives on the spectrum don't mind watching it. This is my case. It opens up a dialogue between us.

Calzino, I do agree with you to a certain extent, but the problem you state goes far beyond a couple shows. Unfortunately, it's industry-wide at least in the US.

Even the less trite shows have been criticized for pushing archetypal characters, Love for showing hipsters struggling with romantic relationships and living in Silverlake, and the LDS Church's reaction to Big Love, to name two examples.

I'm interested to read what the rest of you think.

one more thing about Max. maybe i'm the only one here who actually watched every season of Parenthood. on that show they actually allowed the viewer to become frustrated with the character. which i thought was kinda risky at the time. he was very definitely not always lovable. and in that sense he felt more real to me. they softened him somewhat later on - but also showed his growth and steps forward and backward - by having him bond with an aspergers-suffering adult played by ray romano.

I think, when it comes to portraying disability or neuro-atypical people, or even people of less visible minorities, older shows did have such characters but there was this writerly urge to put some of the details in but "make him a normal guy," or the Archetype. That impulse is still there, so you end up with characters that have specific mannerisms or traits that get surfaced in a light form without specifically making the plot about them, or some version of the "very special episode of" formula where everyone has to come together to address what might be a very personal thing.

I haven't watched many of the shows with characters who have symptoms on the autism spectrum, but I've mention a few times that the show You're the Worst did a reasonable job with addressing depression. One of the main characters slowly disappears. At first, it seems like the show's just focusing more on the other characters and their plot arcs, but eventually you realize she's been doing as little possible in the background. And that's where the deviation from formula seemed almost over the top: who, in real life, would spend most of their time hiding under a blanket and not making the effort to communicate? It's almost too real, and seems contrived.

I think that at that point it's hard to determine whether the viewers or creators are at fault for the formulaic conceptions of life we see and how we respond to them. It reminds me of the bait for interpretation that a handful of English teachers dangled at us during my school years: is Romeo and Juliet really a tragedy, or is it meant to be a comedy? Kids of that age falling in romantic love, they extrapolate, was not the norm for Shakespeare's time, even if people did marry younger. Or was the concept of romantic love in itself a novelty for the audience? It falls to the production and the audience to negotiate which interpretative framework they want to believe.

I also keep thinking about Cheers and how the introduction of psychologists to the cast is a red herring because every character is a light-hearted version of some sort of situation. You have the dry alcoholic sex addict, the autism spectrum guy who lives with his mom, the depressed alcoholic who can't deal with his marriage, and so on

I'm kind of disappointed in you all for not giving Happy Valley its own thread

do it!

xpost 1st season is excellent alright

yeah 'happy valley' is great

that that creepy psycho rapist is the same guy who is the hot priest in Grantchester is v upsetting for me

mh otm regarding you're the worst handling of depression.

Episode in season 2 where she follows the couple and imagines that kind of life is preferable is crushing and truthful.

Happy Valley, the TV series: "laughless fargo" in West Yorkshire

Is POWER worth watching? A bunch of people on my FB feed are raving about it but I suspect they have shit taste.

After a promising start, Ozark ended disappointingly imo

Is anyone else watching Halt and Catch Fire S4? Now they're inventing everything that happened in the 1990s! (Google vs Yahoo! mostly by the look of it)

At this point you either care about the characters or you don't. Joe and Cameron talking on the phone for an entire episode was nice. Wish they would do more with Donna.

i want to see season 4! i don't think its on my netflix yet though.

watched kathy bates pothead show. it's weird.

I watched the Nat King Cole: Afraid of the Dark doc today. Love him more now than ever.

re disjointed - the laugh track totally kills it for me, just makes it feel so awkward

yeah the laugh track makes it even weirder. its a hodgepodge of stuff.

so this show Gypsy with Naomi Watts is fucking godawful, I watched episodes 6-10 (my wife started it the day before, tired and jetlagged). apparently it started well but by the time I came in it was essentially soft porn and that's the only reason I kept watching it if I'm going to be honest. Not surprised they decided not to do another season though now it nags at me very slightly as I almost want to know what was going to happen next.

I just read the synopsis and it sounds a lot like the recent Hulu-exclusive show where Hugh Laurie was a psychiatrist? These “therapist pushing boundaries” pitches must have landed everywhere

H+CF S4 is on Amazon Prime UK now, not sure how quickly it spreads.

it may be like that Hulu show, yes; also apparently it shares quite a bit with an old showtime series called Huff, down to Blythe Danner playing the mother. Anyway, it is hot garbage but if you want to see Naomi Watts kissing a brunette girl because Mulholland Drive wasn't enough for you, there is plenty of that here, as well as Billy Crudup being smirky and smarmy and also some of the worst dialogue I've ever seen on a tv series with quality actors.

sold lol

some of the worst dialogue I've ever seen on a tv series with quality actors.

i'm always wishing for more straight up genre t.v. on netflix. seems like a lot of stuff always have to be seen through the lens of the sundance channel. stuff like bloodline and ozark. not-quite-prestige-t.v.

would totally watch a reboot of Silk Stalkings with actors I've never heard of. that's probably why i like shows like burn notice. so 90s and they just want to have fun. actually, longmire is a good example too, i guess. and those two shows starring lisa bonet's husband. the one on the indian reservation and the hudson bay fur trapping blood and hatchet one. perfect t.v.! no big deal. i guess that's why i have hulu too.

gypsy is hundreds of times worse than big little lies, which I liked.

Has anyone watched Suburra the film? I haven't watched it yet but Instantwacher says its available to stream. Netflix is making a series of it apparently. The book just came out in the US which I'm looking forward to. Modern mafia/political corruption thriller set in/near Rome.

I didn't last through the cold open of disjointed

as soon as i heard the laugh track i had to turn it off

Icarus seems like vegemitegirrrl-bait? i know nothing about cycling, never watch it or pay attention to it, but i love a good scandal/conspiracy. i kept having to pause it to get my husband to explain stuff but i thought it was pretty good.

xp does big little lies improve past the first episode? Whooo boy that dialogue

xpost i have it on my watchlist :D

The Good Place is finally streaming, I love this show. Reminds me of the late, lamented Better Off Ted.

That's a good comparison, partially because both shows completely rule.

That is a strong recommendation

the good place "twist" absolutely solves the where-can-they-take-this-idea-from-here question; i'm actually looking forward to season 2
liked better off ted more tho

Having totally loved Better off Ted when it came out, I watched it again last time I was in the US. Workplace sexual politics have changed a lot in a short time, is all I'll say.
The show still absolutely kills, though. And the Good Place is the best. I hope it starts streaming over here so I can encourage people to watch it, you know, legally.

I just had a search for it, and it seems to be out in the UK the end of September.

tried first episode of the new live-action The Tick. This is one superhero show that really did not need to be made grim and gritty.

The Tick gets funnier! My wife and I blew through the whole season in one sitting.

Ok, will persist

i liked Kraftidioten. watched it yesterday. a stellar Stellan Skarsgård snow revenge saga. funny too.

Narcos Season 3 is here, sans P Escobar it is now concerned with the Cali Cartel. I liked the first 2 seasons of this watchable shite, which has been perfectly good entertainment as long as you don't take it too seriously, so far. From reviews it seems more of the same, some are saying an improvement on S2.

i should go back to Narcos. i stopped watching during the first season. one problem i had was that i didn't really care what happened to anyone on any side. live, die, who cares. drug stories are all pretty much the same. rags, money, death.

i guess that's why i like queen of the south so much. they made me care about the main character. i really want her to become the biggest drug dealer in the world.

I'm just through the first ep and it is even worse quality than S2 so far. The expository voiceover narration, patiently explaining every damn thing, still goes on for 15 min periods. It's not good at all, yet I still watch it.

did you guys watch this one? pretty wacky. reminded me of a Nordic The Phantom of Liberty.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?list=SRA+Pigeon+Sat+on+a+Branch+Reflecting+on+Existence+movie+2014+trailer&v=JGwGyo5Ywpo

i heard Narcos S3 starts slow but finishes strong. I think i'm intrigued by the lack of a romanticized Pablo Escobar (from everything I know about him, the Narcos depiction is about a hundred times more benevolent and shaded than the real dude) and the shift to the Cali Cartel. it's easier for a show about the drug wars to focus on charismatic figures rather than this cold-blooded reality, bc it fits more easily into gangster iconography w/the former treatment, but the latter would be more interesting. I hope it ends up that way w/this season.

The guy who did Escobar was a pretty good actor, but was too avuncular and likeable. They obv wouldn't dare attempting 2 seasons of something with an unflinching neorealist portrayal of a murderous sociopath, barely more likeable than Hitler. But if you have your Columbian crime history head on, this show might end up doing your head in. If you take it as a violent crime soap opera, it can be fun imo.

i still want to watch the Gomorrah t.v. series. that movie was good. as far as gangsters go.