Netflix Watch Instantly Recommendation Thread

5 episodes into Dead to Me and also really enjoying it. It is somehow managing to subvert every emotional direction I think it is going to go in. And Linda Cardellini is just the best.

wait why are you a scab? sitcoms are only 22 min

it's another way Netflix rorts writers, along with no residuals and cancelling shows after 3 seasons - pay rates are basically set at "web video" levels, not "tv episode" levels, when they're that short

I thought I would be meh about it, but I really enjoyed Someone Great. I thought I would hate the overly millennial banter but there were some pretty funny one liners.

I liked it too. also really good soundtrack, if a little too on the nose at times (Lorde's "Supercut" literally soundtracking a supercut of the main character's relationship was eye-rolly, and I love that song!).

it's another way Netflix rorts writers, along with no residuals and cancelling shows after 3 seasons - pay rates are basically set at "web video" levels, not "tv episode" levels, when they're that short

I had no idea. Jesus, there is absolutely nothing that can just be enjoyed any more. (Also, if you have some links to some articles about this, I would like to read those. I'm having trouble finding anything other than a list of short shows.

I wish i liked I Think You Should Leave more. I only found maybe 3 or 4 sketches genuinely hilarious across the whole run.

Will Forte on the plane was hilarious.

it's another way Netflix rorts writers, along with no residuals and cancelling shows after 3 seasons - pay rates are basically set at "web video" levels, not "tv episode" levels, when they're that short

I had no idea. Jesus, there is absolutely nothing that can just be enjoyed any more.

well, the good news is there was no way of ethically watching Netflix-owned content on Netflix streaming in the first place 😬

(renting or buying their stuff on DVD is OK, getting DVDs from the library if you're in the UK is probably OK and value-neutral in the US, watching on a foreign broadcaster's catch-up service or on TV if you're a ratings household is A+)

(Also, if you have some links to some articles about this, I would like to read those.

no, I've seen writers bitching about it over the last six months based on job listings and gigs they haven't taken and pitch meetings and whatnot. I guess there's not enough of a mass of these shows yet, and there is plenty enough other WGA-related news to write about rn, for it to be exposé-ready.

but! checking WGA minimums, it looks like part of the problem is that there simply aren't rules yet: "Initial compensation for an original new media program is fully negotiable between the writer and the Company. Contact the Guild Contracts Department for details."

if you're writing web videos that are an adjunct to a comedy/variety series, though, 15 minutes pays $470 plus 13 x $235 = $3525. A one-off fifteen-minute script for non-prime-time TV pays $8554, plus residuals and rewrite fees. A weekly show of 6-8 weeks (like Special or I Think You Should Leave) would pay $9295 a week plus residuals.

I made it through 3 episodes of I Think You Should Leave. Instagram sketch was by far the funniest thing and it's like, legendarily funny, like, one of the funniest sketches I've ever seen on TV; it's so good it makes everything else on the show pretty bleh by comparison, except for Baby of the Year, which was also pretty good, though in a Mr. Show way.

Dead to Me: we watched this all in one go and I kept drifting off during the last three episodes but it's extremely good, both Christina Applegate and Lina Cardinelli deserve emmy nominations for it.

the instagram sketch is definitely the long term stand out in my mind too, so much so that I am embedding here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xS9Y_mjTjc

however i do not know the ethics of embedding this here as it is on the Netflix channel. SIC SAVE ME!

"no coffin please just wet wet mud"

Oh we're doing this? :)

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

it's another way Netflix rorts writers, along with no residuals and cancelling shows after 3 seasons - pay rates are basically set at "web video" levels, not "tv episode" levels, when they're that short

it could be this is true i have no expertise in this area except to note that a) Netflix has green lit plenty of 30m + 60m length shows and b) 15m programming has been done to tremendous affect before (adult swim uses this format a lot) and there are great reasons to use it that have nothing to do with trying to screw writer.

I said I totally endorse it creatively

I finished all of I Think You Should Leave. There were a few good sketches but overall not my thing. A friend's gf was in one of the worst segments and I felt really bad.

I feel like I often agree with the recs here especially the comedic ones but I got through 4 sketches and had to turn that shit off. If that guy said "mudpie" one more time I was going to throw something at the damn TV.

Yeah, that's about as far as I made it too. I guess it's not for me.

idk if you guys are charitable and wanna give it another shot, i'd skip to episode 5, which has 2 or 3 of the best sketches in the show.

The third episode was my absolute favourite. The car pitching sketch was inspired and very weird.

Also, though I loathe toilet humour, the insistence of using the word ‘mudpie’ throughout the entire show somehow built into something almost endearingly desperate.

I didn’t love the whole thing, but the two or three good sketches every episode made it watchable.

I hate toilet humor, but I love Tim Robinson, so it's a tough haul for me.

life in general I mean, because Tim's always all about toilet humor, but I'm not going anywhere.

well, the good news is there was no way of ethically watching Netflix-owned content on Netflix streaming in the first place

That is... good news?
Anyhow, thanks for all that info. V interesting.

sorry if this was mentioned already but the excellent 2018 Korean movie Burning (loosely based on a Murakami short story) is up on Netflix. all three stars are amazing, including Steven Yeun from The Walking Dead (and the gift receipt sketch in I Think You Should Leave). highly recommended, especially if you don't mind leisurely-paced movies.

Steven Yeun from The Walking Dead (and the gift receipt sketch in I Think You Should Leave)

lol, I hope historians remember Steven Yuen as the guy from the gift receipt sketch.

Here lies Steven Yuen, he did the mud pie.

Burning is great, yes.

i think you should leave seemed extremely variable. episode two was fifteen minutes i want back, episode three was pretty great. but i haven't much desire to see episode four. *shrug*

i watched burning last night! It's fucking amazing.

Just started KINGDOM, the Korean historical zombie thing, surprisingly beautiful cinematography in parts, overall promising

And hats

Steven Yeun from The Walking Dead (and the gift receipt sketch in I Think You Should Leave)

He also voices Speckles in Tuca & Bertie

THE WANDERING EARTH (流浪地球)

outlaw / king was *pret-t-ty* deece(nt) ... better than modern day GoT, even

Took me a few episodes to get into Tuca and Bertie but it hits its stride and is really funny by the middle of the series.

Easy is like Rohmer catnip for me, so I'm really looking forward to the new season.

Tuca & Bertie is pretty great

yeah it really picks up. as much a follow-up to broad city as bojack. also reminded me of mtv's downtown

I enjoyed all of Wine Country except the awful, awful, green-screened inspirational scene on the hill, which made me retrospectively dislike the rest of the film.

The trailer for that looked insufferable, like an improv-heavy Nancy Myers movie.

I thought it was better than the trailer. But hey, I am a 49-year-old woman who has been away on a lot of booze-heavy girls' weekends, so I am definitely the target market for it.

Wine Country was not very funny which was weird considering how many incredibly funny people are in it and wrote it. It's def not terrible, just more serious and less funny than I hoped.

I only saw it the one time but I was of the opinion that "Bridesmaids" would have been a much better drama, but instead it felt like all these jokes were just sort of shoved in there to will it into a comedy. Is this like that? Forcing in broad jokes, whether pratfalls or poop humor, doesn't always work imo when the material calls for a subtler approach.

Only got about half way into wine country, akm otm.

I just rewatched Bridesmaids again a couple of weeks ago for the first time since it came out. It was funnier than I remember, the mass food poisoning in fancy dresses still a winner. I would've hated for it to be a serious drama. Mostly because everything about bridal party rituals is farcical

Maybe my perspective is one of the half-empty variety in this case, because I thought in that movie Wiig gives a really impressive dramatic performance, but set pieces like the food poisoning seemed to be shoehorned in from a more standard comedy.

The entire movie has really silly parts. I forgot a lot of people were in it like Ellie Kemper and Melissa McCarthy.

I am halfway through Wine Country and it's reminding me of all those I think Adam Sandler? + Friends movies that were all set in tropical destinations, an excuse to make money while in a holiday location in exchange for a presentable movie. Add in the netflix handicap.

I did forget Ellie Kemper is in it, but not Melissa McCarthy, she has some of the most memorable scenes

Was a star-making performance. Shame she squanders her talents in all those terrible movies directed by her husband

And the food poisoning scene is excellent.

The only reason I am glad I finished Wine Country was for the bar wifi password joke.