Netflix Watch Instantly Recommendation Thread

I haven’t been on Netflix in months and am annoyed to discover instantwatcher is no longer able to provide a list of recently-added

That is Netflix's fault, from what I understand.

i love octopuses and octopeople but i did not understand the octopus movie. it was pretty, and passably interesting as a pbs special. but i thought the narration was dreadful. it felt very first-semester of film school.

started Ratched last night, one episode in and it's good though extremely AHS in tone and I'm expecting it to turn into some other show after four episodes and loose interest entirely like everything else Ryan Murphy does these days.

Cobra Kai on Netflix now...what happened to YouTube's streaming channel, whatever the fuck it was called?

http://www.youtube.com/premium

iirc they gave up on scripted content entirely; combined it with their Google's streaming music service

Glow and Teenage Bounty Hunters both cancelled this week. Absurd. I realize Covid is impacting filming for things (though Law and Order: SVU appears to be shooting it's new season? how?) but you'd think they could hold out a bit before making these calls (if covid is actually the reason behind it)

I never got into GLOW but I'd have to assume that after three seasons it's mostly run its course both narratively and culturally. Tell me I'm wrong!

So bizarre that they would cancel Glow. Is it just because it would be too complicated/expensive to make a wrestling show during COVID?

xp

I'm assuming most of the problems are in keeping actors attached over longer periods of time + logistics involved in COVID-proofing the sets. Also different actors w/ different demands or having to travel, etc

Of course in some cases it could absolutely be Netflix finding a novel (snicker) way to act on fresh data that indicates the show's not worth shelling out for.

I never got into GLOW but I'd have to assume that after three seasons it's mostly run its course both narratively and culturally. Tell me I'm wrong!

― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Thursday, October 8, 2020 11:28 AM (twenty-one minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

the ending of the last season was not a satisfying series finale. I was p indifferent to it but if you liked it you're prob v disappointed

at least with Netflix they can always do a wrap-up season/finale waaaaay later if they feel like it

Been watching Teenage Bounty Hunters and thoroughly enjoying it.

Enola Holmes was entirely written by focus group, you could hear the pitch meeting. "What we need is a vehicle for the slightly androgynous one out of Stranger Things. How about she gets to play a spunky quirky young heroine who dresses up as a bit at every opportunity, often for money, and does monologues to camera every chance she gets, like Fleabag, that was popular."

I ended up yelling SPUNKY FLEABAG at the screen every time she did it after a while.

Is it just because it would be too complicated/expensive to make a wrestling show during COVID?

not sure if joke but pretty much every "live," weekly, actual-sweating-and-grappling show has taken afaik not so much as a week off this entire time

They're all filmed in Florida, with a state govt corrupted by the McMahons... so not good.

My daughters loved Enola Holmes, and the idea that it was enraging ageing Holmes-nerds would have pleased them even more.

New York Mag's streaming writer on one of the reasons why GLOW likely got canceled

Netflix probably isn’t totally out of the business of scripted shows that stretch on for five or more seasons. If a series is particularly “efficient” (read: cost effective) or serves a very unique niche, I can see the streamer committing to a longer run. The same goes for shows that are global hits, generating huge viewership around the world, like The Crown or Stranger Things. But Netflix’s tendency these days to walk away from shows after three or four seasons suggests it believes the best way to recruit and retain subscribers is to constantly offer audiences a huge ever-changing assortment of new programming rather than rely on old faves to keep folks in its universe. (That’s what reruns of Seinfeld or Grey’s Anatomy are for.)

This is obviously a radical departure from how network TV has done things for a half-century, but why shouldn’t it be? Netflix doesn’t make money the way broadcasters did. The streamer doesn’t need shows it produces to build up a catalogue of 60, 80, or 100 episodes so that it can make hundreds of millions of dollars in selling syndication rights to other platforms because Netflix shows are designed, by and large, to live their entire lives on Netflix. It doesn’t have to keep moderately successful series around for a decade (or even five years) out of fear that it will be hard to get viewers to sample something new, because the Netflix algorithm and home page mean it can get tens of millions of viewers to at least sample almost anything. (Whether they stick around or like the show is another matter.) And while ending shows prematurely potentially pisses off some producers who would very much love to explore the worlds they’ve created for more than just a couple of seasons, well, that’s the beauty of being a global entertainment super-platform: There will always be other producers willing to play by your rules. NBC needs Dick Wolf and Lorne Michaels to be happy. Netflix needs nobody.

marc maron agrees with your "let's end it with a movie" theory btw
https://www.indiewire.com/2020/10/marc-maron-netflix-glow-ending-movie-finale-1234590944/

I have no issues with them doing that, most shows get stale after 3 seasons anyway, but maybe they could actually plan for and commit to a series length to allow for narratives to resolve and people not to get pissed off?

I never got into GLOW but I'd have to assume that after three seasons it's mostly run its course both narratively and culturally. Tell me I'm wrong!

You're wrong! The fourth season was written as a final, was going to change the setting again in order to advance several leads' since-episode-one character journeys and the programme's overall themes, and they were in production on the second episode when COVID shut it down.

I'm sure that the main reason in cancelling it this week is that it would be expensive to keep re-contracting a large cast over and over until it's safe to film most of them physically rubbing all over their colleagues and sitting on each others' heads.

“The reason I was given from the showrunners was basically a financial one in that they didn’t want to pay to keep the sets alive anymore. We’ve got two offices and soundstages being leased"

Or that, sure.

Isn't Enola Holmes based on a book? I never read the book (or heard of it until the end credits of Enola Holmes), so I've no idea if the book also breaks the fourth wall all the time or not. It was definitely one of those things that I would've absolutely gone nuts for when I was ten. I would've wanted the old-timey bicycle, the corsets, the whole bit.

yes, it's a YA book (or even series of books, didn't look it up). my wife and son watched it the other night thinking it was a series and not a movie (they realized this about 90 minutes in).

Hey, I really liked Enola Holmes! It definitely felt like a YA book. I can't imagine hating it. It struck me as good old-fashioned kids' empowerment lark about out-thinking dumb adults. The lead actor was energetic and light-hearted, it moved quickly, and there was a sweet little love story.

I’d prefer more series to be explicitly one and done, stuff like maniac and Russian doll work as a single series and trying to shoehorn in a second run wouldn’t work. However this should be a goal from the start so it can wrap at the end of a series.

Japanese TV does this a lot, a single series is all you’re going to get so you get a definitive conclusion after 10 episodes.

Pretty bummed that glow won’t be properly wrapped, whilst I’ve enjoyed the 2nd and 3rd seasons it could also have been done in one now we’re in limbo. (See also BBC series The Hour)

I didn't hate Enola Holmes by any means, I think I just like shouting SPUNKY FLEABAG.

From that article...
“The reason I was given from the showrunners was basically a financial one in that they didn’t want to pay to keep the sets alive anymore. We’ve got two offices and soundstages being leased. They were two and a half episodes in on the day they went into lockdown,” Maron said on Instagram. “I was told that they didn’t want to eat the cost of maintaining the sets for another six or seven months to begin production. So that’s what we heard.

killfiled!

russian doll is coming back i think?

I didn't mind Enola Holmes but didn't get much out of it. MBB is kind of an OK lead (I didn't get as much anarchic mischief from her that I felt Enola tried to be channeling), and also felt that the resolution of the film was a MOR moderate cop-out... but I'm probably approaching this from a VERY different angle than its intended audience.

Ok I hated Enola Holmes. Her mother is supposed to some kind of mysterious revolutionary but she abandons her kid? Her own brother imprisons her in a finishing school and Sherlock basically throws up his hands? I just didn't buy any of it, but I guess it wasn't any less preposterous than the Cumberbatch series. The funny thing about EH is that I also thought it was the first episode of a series. For a pilot, it was great. For a movie it just raised way too many unanswered questions.

I didn't hate Enola Holmes by any means, I think I just like shouting SPUNKY FLEABAG.

To the tune of "Funky Gibbon", I hope.

Maron says on WTF today that Sarandon phoned him after he proposed wrapping the story with a single Netflix movie and explained that the health concerns made that impossible.

This is obviously a radical departure from how network TV has done things for a half-century, but why shouldn’t it be? Netflix doesn’t make money the way broadcasters did. The streamer doesn’t need shows it produces to build up a catalogue of 60, 80, or 100 episodes so that it can make hundreds of millions of dollars in selling syndication rights to other platforms because Netflix shows are designed, by and large, to live their entire lives on Netflix.

where does this romantic idea about the networks nurturing underperforming shows come from? if the viewership wasn't there, it got canned. this was as true in the network days as it is now. maybe more so - there are many stories of shows that got cancelled after two or three bad weeks. that doesn't happen on netflix. and the stuff about syndication - networks only made hundreds of millions in syndication rights from big hits. a tiny fraction of what was commissioned!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/According_to_Jim#Ratings

okay good point

it is increasingly hard to remember but pre-internet cable used to desperately need content because, for the most part, they didn't make their own! The paradigm has definitely shifted to the point where I would like to lobby for #LessContentPlease

for sure

until it's safe to film most of them physically rubbing all over their colleagues and sitting on each others' heads

wrestling still exists ftr

i think the presumption is that wrestlers signed on for physical dangers, THESPIANS not so much so

They're all filmed in Florida, with a state govt corrupted by the McMahons... so not good.

― Nhex, Friday, October 9, 2020 6:49 AM (three hours ago)

If Vince McMahon destroys the long-term physical health of several uninsured contractors, business as per his entire decades-long career. If Ted Sarandos murders union members Alison Brie and Geena Davis, it might generate some bad publicity, lawsuits and cancelled subscriptions.
#voteNOon22

The way Netflix pumps out content makes it seem like they're going for basic cable status - always there with something different but not necessarily memorable, let other services be the premium cable option.

This looks great!

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

This is a mess, unfortunately. It barely resembles what you could expect from the trailer and the bulk of it just seems superfluous. Argh! I really wanted it to be good because the trailer seemed so promising.

New season of Kipo is out today 🙂

I saw some webinars with teh people who were making taht 40 year old version a couple of months ago and it did look very promising.
MUst see if I can find a way of getting it.

New season of Kipo is out today 🙂

Oh nice! Season 2 was pretty good but its animation quality took a dip, so given such a surprisingly quick turnaround for S3, I don't expect it to have improved.