Netflix Watch Instantly Recommendation Thread

I lived in The Dalles, OR during this period and it was extremely surreal (straight down to Bill The Cat joining the Rajneeshi). There was a great 99 PI on this so excited for doc.

I tried watching some Chef's Table but the eps I saw were just too insufferably bougie. I think my breaking point was the lady chef who met her husband at some sort of horseriding event lol

― Simon H., Tuesday, March 20, 2018 10:09 AM (five hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah this episode is different as we just described

'Nailed It' is surprisingly fun, it's the polar opposite of Chef's Table (or Chopped). Amateur bakers who are usually very bad forced to make complicated things, but it has a surprisingly loose, positive vibe.

I've been meaning to check it out, looked like a bit of silly fun

I lived in The Dalles, OR during this period and it was extremely surreal (straight down to Bill The Cat joining the Rajneeshi). There was a great 99 PI on this so excited for doc.

Because I live far away and was a clueless teenager while all this was going on, I kind of can't believe it, even though I'm watching it. I keep waiting for it to turn out to be some War of the Worlds type thing, some really clever fakery.

Sheela really gets this increasingly megalomaniacal look in her eye in the archive footage the more episodes I watch

I've been wondering how this story just sort of evaporated after a few years (nationally anyway) and all I can come up w/ is maybe there was some kind of burnout on communes and cults by the end of the 70s?

yup, speaking as someone who was there (commune kid)

Icarus (the netflix doc that won an oscar this year) is really good. I barely care about sports and it was very interesting and timely (Russia).

sorry to anyone who relates to the people in the doc or has a link to anyone in a group like that in the Wild Wild Country doc. I was being flip, but there's a lot to digest there

my favorite interviewee might be the local guy who is wearing coveralls in the interviews who never comes off as completely critical, just wondering why this all happened in his area. the comment toward the end about the christian youth camp that now uses the space being "a different kind of cult" made me think: yeah, this is my guy

to clarify, I have no link w/the Rajneesh folx, I'm an East Coast kid, I was just talking w/ my wife about how these folks represent the dead end of certain evolutionary threads of commune culture, but several of the groups my parents were involved with 40+ years ago are still going strong and seem to be healthy

I'd love to see a documentary on the successful groups from that era...

Kind of a different thing entirely, but by the end I was thinking of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Started a school instead of a disconnected commune, it still exists, does a decent job of blending with the community, has support of David Lynch and a bunch of others. Still rolling.

So I was at a Christmas party a few years back I was explaining that I lived in The Dalles for three years and that it was famous for being the only town in the US that had a The in its name and also where a bunch of people got poisoned in the largest domestic bioterror attack in US History (as I frequently do). One of the people I was talking to immediately started shushing me as it turned out the mother and stepfather of person whose house it was were both ex-Rajneeshi.

:0

several of the groups my parents were involved with 40+ years ago are still going strong and seem to be healthy
I'd love to see a documentary on the successful groups from that era...
― sleeve, Tuesday, March 20, 2018 10:31 PM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

This speaks to my only real criticism of the series, which is its failure to focus on any rank-and-file members. The commune was obviously a failure (crisis, even) for the lieutenants, but in a community that large there of course thousands of individual success stories—people who got busted out of bad patterns, who met their partners for life and had families, who got unblocked in some ways that made the lifestyle attractive in the first place.

it’s hard to get those ppl to participate though, unless you have a legit inside connection.

You mean because they're ashamed? Or hard to track down? I wld think there would be plenty of people who would be happy to talk about it. Then again they had such crazy access to the main players I can see how it would get crowded.

I say this assuming from what I saw that the movement has crossed over into something less cultish—sort of franchised along the lines of TM or ISKCON or whatever

i meant ppl who had positive experiences tend to be more suspicious of these projects bcz there’s already a decided-upon narrative & they dont want to be a part of a teardown/expose etc. usually the only way to get perspectives that aren’t critical is by having the involvement of a well-respected group member

but i may be misinterpreting yr point

I think that Source Family doc did what I'm talking about, got to some people who just sort of drifted in and remember it mostly fondly. Then again those people didn't try to poison a county.

I've still got two episodes to go, but all the way along I have been a bit "oh, the irony!" at white Americans complaining about their way of life being overwhelmed by these invaders from outside, who disturb their peace, take over their land, don't adhere to their laws, and then poison them.

The commune itself reminds me a lot of modern tech bros and libertarians, who, rather than engage with current problems in society and try to solve them, just decide to get the hell away from society as it stands and create their own society. "Why can't we just live at Burning Man all year round, you guys?"

I agree that there are two important viewpoints missing from this doc: ordinary members of the community (but they might not want to come forward because the doc heavily implies that the whole thing was some crazy pyramid scheme, not remotely self-sustaining, and they might still feel the sting of having been duped by it all), and those homeless people who were able to use the community to build some stability for themselves. Although maybe they'll interview someone like that in the last couple of episodes.

spoiler: they don't

the quick montage of the group currently using the former rajneeshee ranch (christian youth!) is haunting me

watched episode one of wild wild country...early 70s cult stuff is so my jam this is gonna be addictive

the old footage in that first episode is so cool. worth watching just for that. also i don't know if i would have followed osho in the 70s but i might have followed a cult led by sheela in the 70s. she was cute!

still haven't watched the rest yet.

best autobio title too:

https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1356329001l/17164997.jpg

My favorite title for a cult autobio is an old one they had at my highschool library 'Dark Side of the Moonies'

there should really be more adorable cult leaders. they always have to have those piercing hypnotizing eyes that put the fear of god into you.

by the end I realized Sheela really reminds me of an ex-girlfriend's mom, who coincidentally considered herself really close friends with a catholic bishop

this thread is getting hard to follow if i'm being frank

otm

someone start the WWC thread

and maybe a Netflix not-us thread for the content that is primary market in theater in the US but Netflix the majority of places

Wild Wild Country is so amazing

I have made a Wild Wild Country thread.

FUCKING HELL, OCCUPIED S2 HAS BEEN ON NETFLIX A WEEK AND NOBODY TOLD ME

not netflix, but "the funeral murders" on BBC iplayer is : O
https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/tv-radio/2018/03/remarkable-bbc-film-remembering-ireland-s-unfathomably-bloody-funeral

s/o to VG for the recommendation of Chef's Table: Jeong Kwan

i'm kinda thru w/chef stuff but that was some serious spiritual vibes and genuine beauty

i wish i could be at peace

― The Desus & Mero Chain (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, March 19, 2018 12:46 PM (three hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I'm going to watch the hell out of this

― Louis Jägermeister (jim in vancouver), Monday, March 19, 2018 4:06 PM (four days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

it's the best thing I've watched in a while

― The Desus & Mero Chain (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, March 19, 2018 4:10 PM (four days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

it really is remarkably therapeutic. It should autoplay once on everyone's netflix account, like that U2 album on Itunes only not unwanted and crap.

― Squeaky Fromage (VegemiteGrrl), Monday, March 19, 2018 5:26 PM (four days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

it has very little to do with 'chef-ing' really

― Squeaky Fromage (VegemiteGrrl), Monday, March 19, 2018 5:27 PM (four days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this was transcendent. i was welling up slightly by the end of it

was like xanax for the soul

i thought xanax was xanax for the soul.

It was the only episode I have ever cried during. She has other videos online from like when she cooked at Le Bernardin.

hey its friday night and i had a long week so i might watch the workaholics movie don't judge me!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Imr9gL8_Qs

also, darryl hannah's stoner prose poem to neil young is up now:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uecHqZx_wrs&t=24s

ooh into the badlands season two...i got some watching to do.

I’m not really into zombie movies but Here Alone was.. interesting

I am watching Stupid Futile Gesture (the harvard/national lampoon movie). Sigh, so many movies are so ruined now because all you think about is how average white men had it so easy. I am hoping this gets better.

Is that the movie or documentary? I watched the doc and thought it was fine but the doc about the Dana Carvey Show on Hulu was way better

A Futile and Stupid Gesture was... not great.

I think the funniest part was casting Joel McHale as Chevy Chase.

speaking of McHale, if you were wondering what "The Joel McHale Show" is: it's "The Soup." It even has a bunch of Soup's writing staff.

xpost TR Yeah I can't get pver McHale's wig. I mean did no one funny watch the movie before it was put out?

It's a netflix movie. xpost

My least favourite thing about that movie is how lazy they admit it is all the way through. Crappy biopics are only excusable when they're completely heartfelt.