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Streaming or currently airing TV shows (AKA Netflix thread) (23 Viewers)

Iron Fist S2 is SO much better than S1. Im not done yet but I cant wait to finish it. Id even rank it ahead of BOTH Luke Cage's, JJ S2, and Defenders.

 
Watched the first episode of "Kim's Convenience" and thought it was just okay. I don't know if one should have high expectations for a Canadian 30-min sitcom built around a Korean American family day-to-day life and their family business but I think I had *higher* expectations from it.

 
El Floppo said:
the First. We've watched two more episodes. Still snoozey. Feel like they're trying to go with some Malick nature vs man themes along with some of his pacing and long shots of groups of animals in movement. And shoehorned black lesbians and addict family member in peril. For a show about a trip to Mars, there doesn't feel like theres much about the trip to Mars yet. I'm sure I'm missing the melodrama here while waiting for more....anything. 

I've sold you all on this by now, I'm sure.

Not giving up on it yet, but...
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I watched the whole thing because I’m a space addict/nerd.  Just understand that it’s slow and stays slow.  

Personally i think the acting is phenomenal but if you’re hoping that things will speed up, they won’t.  

 
Franknbeans said:
Atypical still great in Season 2. Smart, funny and poignant.  Starting to be one of my favorite Netflix shows ever.
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It's awesome. Love the girl from the track team I think she's part of the whole Stewart family and her dad is a famous stunt man? Reminds me of a girl I went to school with who was a total b*tch in school but after getting to know her was cool as sh**. I told my one co manager about the show. Trying to get most of the people at work to watch it since a lot can be related to myself. I think this is the best show ever for the Autism spectrum and how to deal with them and I can also related to Sam's parents in this show. My mom like Sam's is more of the defender and seems to baby him making decisions for him. My parents haven't gone through cheating or anything but my mom has mentioned a few times during hard times with me of leaving my dad for certain reasons. My dad however is like Rapport's character though who was more willing to coexist and come around to helping but also let Sam make his own choices. My dad has yet to read 3 books my mom and I both read and I wanted him to read on Aspergers however like my brothers think my mom has babied me too much and want me to be more independent. My middle brother is a lot like Casey in terms of being honest about what I have and very supportive. He's the one I know if something goes wrong at home I can call immediately and he'll do anything to help. However he will show me tough love when needed. 

 
Joe Mammy said:
Watched it last nite and you are correct- no words can describe. My wife who is a post apocalyptic fanatic and loves Walking Dead only lasted 15 minutes before retreating to another room. 

I did find it engaging enough to finish it. Beeeezzzzaaarrrrooooo!
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I actually thought that this movie did a lot of things really well. If the point was to creep me the f* out and to make me feel extremely uncomfortable, it succeeded. And I appreciated it for that. What I did not appreciate were the nightmares it induced, but still, I guess that was the point.

The cast includes Keanu, Jim Carrey and Carl Drago in some very strange roles, which worked for me. The lead actress wasn't too bad either and IMO was quite sexy in an awkward kinda way.  

Where I think the movie failed was that it kind of fizzled out, which was a let down given the intensity in which it started. 

 
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Anyone had a chance to check out the Jonah Hill/Emma Stone thing? Looks interesting. They can both act their asses off. Will be my first time seeing Skinny Jonah actually 

 
El Floppo said:
Is trope the right word there?

Agree with Clete. Dystopian movies are more about how society deals with the aftermath/dystopia. But Imo, there's enough patriarchical misogyny in our history, especially worldwide but at micro levels here, where it's a somewhat plausible reality. And then it's about the complicity that it would take from so many people to initiate and perpetuate that reality...which the show does a good job showing- through fear, intimidation and lethal force. 
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Referring to The Hand Maids Tale (since I'm quoting an old post), my wife and I just recently got access to Hulu so we began this last weekend. We're up to S2E7. It's a very bleak, disturbing show. I absolutely agree it's at least somewhat plausible. Paradigm changes can happen quickly and unpredictably. Particularly with species threatening precipitants. We have ample history to evaluate the harm humans inflict upon each other.

There is definitely relevance to current events (on several levels). I found interesting one of Aunt Lydia's lectures where they were propagandizing environmental degradation as justification for their social model. I wanted to yell "It's you people who are largely responsible for that!"

I thought the show was very slow paced for the first 2/3 of S1. Since then I've found it to be pretty intense. It made me angry often even though I recognize it was somewhat ham-handed with its message. The portrait painted of how humans can rationalize their behavior, the baseness of humanity, seems artfully  portrayed.

As you've referenced, I immediately questioned the level of complicity required for the initial takeover, mostly from a military perspective. I understand that the "movement" had percolated for years before the actual change, but how do you recruit sufficient foot soldiers to support and maintain such an event?

In terms of plausibility, I can't think of a single atrocity in the series so far that hasn't actually occurred in recent history (granted, that's mostly due to the rise of ISIS, though not exclusively). And you don't have to go back too far to remove the ISIS qualification.

Religious fervor is targeted pretty explicitly (and I'm close to as anti-religion as you can get) but ultimately-at least as far as we've progressed with the show-it appears to me the real villain is the same as it ever was: the desire to hold power. Religion is just the pretext (as has often been the case), but damn if they don't portray those people as insane.

 
The Endless - I actually haven’t finished it yet as we started it last night and wifey tapped out with exhaustion half way through.  That said, it’s oddly interesting enough for us to want to come back tonight and finish.  Not sure yet what kind of sci-fi ending it’ll have, it's hinted at a couple different options.  The awkward and odd acting is perfect for the cult setting.  

 
saintfool said:
Watched the first episode of "Kim's Convenience" and thought it was just okay. I don't know if one should have high expectations for a Canadian 30-min sitcom built around a Korean American family day-to-day life and their family business but I think I had *higher* expectations from it.
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I love this show, easily one of my favorite shows ever made.   Then again, I'm a Chinese Canadian with a Korean wife that has spent most of my life in Toronto.  But I don't think you need to be Canadian to enjoy it - I think anybody can enjoy it despite the fact that its not extremely funny, nor very clever, nor well acted, because its a pretty fun and easy going show. 

But the reason why I like it so much is that it was so refreshing to finally see a show that I could relate to.  I grew up watching sitcoms with family dynamics that were nothing like what I experienced at home, and kids who did things that I rarely ever thought of doing.    And this was true whether I was watching white sitcoms, black sitcoms, or sitcoms from Hong Kong and other Asian places.   We Asian Americans/Canadians basically have Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle and now this show ;)  

Anyways, to me, this is the beauty of Netflix.  They do a great job finding something for everyone because they are so global now and not affiliated with any of the major networks.   Hopefully Netflix's success will spur more of these kinds of shows to be made.

 
shader said:
El Floppo said:
the First. We've watched two more episodes. Still snoozey. Feel like they're trying to go with some Malick nature vs man themes along with some of his pacing and long shots of groups of animals in movement. And shoehorned black lesbians and addict family member in peril. For a show about a trip to Mars, there doesn't feel like theres much about the trip to Mars yet. I'm sure I'm missing the melodrama here while waiting for more....anything. 

I've sold you all on this by now, I'm sure.

Not giving up on it yet, but...
Click to expand...
I watched the whole thing because I’m a space addict/nerd.  Just understand that it’s slow and stays slow.  

Personally i think the acting is phenomenal but if you’re hoping that things will speed up, they won’t.  
Click to expand...
we finished it up.

quibble: along with the overtly wannabe Malick lingering shots of systems in nature vs manmade which I found ape-ish, overdone and pointless, I noticed that they used a really strange method for editing- quick and poorly timed cut to black at the end of a lot of scenes. felt more like a series that had been picked up by a network that then imposed their own edits for commercial breaks- just really awkward.

I will say- I'm a sucker for the genre, and there was a lot that was done nicely. I don't recall the year- but it's somewhere around 2030, so future, but not too distant. and they made good use of existing tech that they extrapolated into plausible and cool sci-fi (self-driving cars, lots of automated voice-activated systems, VR, screens). As shader said- the acting was good, and once it went into sci-fi realm, the cgi and production values were really well done. just don't expect too much of that.

I thought the last episode should have happened midway through- lots of time spent developing storylines that felt like hackneyed melodrama that I genuinely didn't care about, thought were poorly written and offered too little to the story. I get where they left it and why, and I get the overall S1 arc- just thought it was weak and could have been either better handled or handled quicker. also thought the writing for the characters was obvious and heavy-handed, there only to justify 7ish episodes about a trip to mars staying earthbound.

it's not bad tv, but it felt like a lot of missed opportunities. I'll watch S2- because I'm a sucker for the genre- and hope it gets better.

shader, or anybody else who watched:

wtf with cajun corkie? I wanted to punch the screen every time that guy narrated and played with his ####### telephone. I assume S2 follows whetever the #### the point of him is- but that was a case of pissing me off more than making me intrigued.
 
ConnSKINS26 said:
Anyone had a chance to check out the Jonah Hill/Emma Stone thing? Looks interesting. They can both act their asses off. Will be my first time seeing Skinny Jonah actually 
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We're three episodes in and not really into it.  I'm tempted to not watch the rest of them but read the spoilers because I'm curious as to what happens.   :lmao:

Nice to see Ozark "Ruth" make an appearance!

 
Ranethe said:
Referring to The Hand Maids Tale (since I'm quoting an old post), my wife and I just recently got access to Hulu so we began this last weekend. We're up to S2E7. It's a very bleak, disturbing show. I absolutely agree it's at least somewhat plausible. Paradigm changes can happen quickly and unpredictably. Particularly with species threatening precipitants. We have ample history to evaluate the harm humans inflict upon each other.

There is definitely relevance to current events (on several levels). I found interesting one of Aunt Lydia's lectures where they were propagandizing environmental degradation as justification for their social model. I wanted to yell "It's you people who are largely responsible for that!"

I thought the show was very slow paced for the first 2/3 of S1. Since then I've found it to be pretty intense. It made me angry often even though I recognize it was somewhat ham-handed with its message. The portrait painted of how humans can rationalize their behavior, the baseness of humanity, seems artfully  portrayed.

As you've referenced, I immediately questioned the level of complicity required for the initial takeover, mostly from a military perspective. I understand that the "movement" had percolated for years before the actual change, but how do you recruit sufficient foot soldiers to support and maintain such an event?

In terms of plausibility, I can't think of a single atrocity in the series so far that hasn't actually occurred in recent history (granted, that's mostly due to the rise of ISIS, though not exclusively). And you don't have to go back too far to remove the ISIS qualification.

Religious fervor is targeted pretty explicitly (and I'm close to as anti-religion as you can get) but ultimately-at least as far as we've progressed with the show-it appears to me the real villain is the same as it ever was: the desire to hold power. Religion is just the pretext (as has often been the case), but damn if they don't portray those people as insane.
Click to expand...
Appreciate your perspective.  I had posted recently that I feel like the premise is idiotic, or ridiculous, or some other word.  I AM a religious person so obviously viewing this show through that filter.  And God knows people have and continue to do horrible things in his name.  ISIS being just the most recent example.  I think my issue is more the idea that a very small, twisted minority of "Christians" could take and maintain control of modern day American society, even under circumstances in which birth is so rare.  My perspective is that religion and Christianity have never been more separated from political power in America, and I can't see a path to that changing (and am not necessarily suggesting it should or I want it to).  Thus rolling my eyes at that aspect of this show.

However, as someone smarter than me responded, it's speculative fiction, so I probably need to suspend my disbelief in more than one area of the story.  Besides that the book was written over 30 years ago, when maybe that leap of premise was more likely.  Regardless, I like the imagery, love the acting, and overall enjoy the show.

 
facook said:
Appreciate your perspective.  I had posted recently that I feel like the premise is idiotic, or ridiculous, or some other word.  I AM a religious person so obviously viewing this show through that filter.  And God knows people have and continue to do horrible things in his name.  ISIS being just the most recent example.  I think my issue is more the idea that a very small, twisted minority of "Christians" could take and maintain control of modern day American society, even under circumstances in which birth is so rare.  My perspective is that religion and Christianity have never been more separated from political power in America, and I can't see a path to that changing (and am not necessarily suggesting it should or I want it to).  Thus rolling my eyes at that aspect of this show.

However, as someone smarter than me responded, it's speculative fiction, so I probably need to suspend my disbelief in more than one area of the story.  Besides that the book was written over 30 years ago, when maybe that leap of premise was more likely.  Regardless, I like the imagery, love the acting, and overall enjoy the show.
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This is kind of interesting. Do you really think this is so? Don't want to make this a PSF post but I'm not sure I agree with this. For example, evangelicals have supported our current president as an almost monolithic bloc. I know they don't constitute the entirety of "religion and Christianity" but it still seems relevant. As religiosity declines it would seem to me that opportunities to grasp and wield power-which seems to be what is motivating evangelicals-would be seized. So at the very least, it seems easy to imagine the path (obviously a huge suspension of disbelief is necessary for the details, but I think the broad strokes aren't so far fetched).

 
Ranethe said:
This is kind of interesting. Do you really think this is so? Don't want to make this a PSF post but I'm not sure I agree with this. For example, evangelicals have supported our current president as an almost monolithic bloc. I know they don't constitute the entirety of "religion and Christianity" but it still seems relevant. As religiosity declines it would seem to me that opportunities to grasp and wield power-which seems to be what is motivating evangelicals-would be seized. So at the very least, it seems easy to imagine the path (obviously a huge suspension of disbelief is necessary for the details, but I think the broad strokes aren't so far fetched).
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I really do believe that.  And the bolded I think is the crux of the difference of opinion.  But I'm trying to figure out how I can express my thoughts without turning this into PSF fodder.  :)   Give me a bit.

ETA: I think it's really a worthwhile conversation, but I won't venture to that sf to have it. 

 
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El Floppo said:
we finished it up.

quibble: along with the overtly wannabe Malick lingering shots of systems in nature vs manmade which I found ape-ish, overdone and pointless, I noticed that they used a really strange method for editing- quick and poorly timed cut to black at the end of a lot of scenes. felt more like a series that had been picked up by a network that then imposed their own edits for commercial breaks- just really awkward.

I will say- I'm a sucker for the genre, and there was a lot that was done nicely. I don't recall the year- but it's somewhere around 2030, so future, but not too distant. and they made good use of existing tech that they extrapolated into plausible and cool sci-fi (self-driving cars, lots of automated voice-activated systems, VR, screens). As shader said- the acting was good, and once it went into sci-fi realm, the cgi and production values were really well done. just don't expect too much of that.

I thought the last episode should have happened midway through- lots of time spent developing storylines that felt like hackneyed melodrama that I genuinely didn't care about, thought were poorly written and offered too little to the story. I get where they left it and why, and I get the overall S1 arc- just thought it was weak and could have been either better handled or handled quicker. also thought the writing for the characters was obvious and heavy-handed, there only to justify 7ish episodes about a trip to mars staying earthbound.

it's not bad tv, but it felt like a lot of missed opportunities. I'll watch S2- because I'm a sucker for the genre- and hope it gets better.

shader, or anybody else who watched:

wtf with cajun corkie? I wanted to punch the screen every time that guy narrated and played with his ####### telephone. I assume S2 follows whetever the #### the point of him is- but that was a case of pissing me off more than making me intrigued.
Click to expand...
Yeah I have no idea what was going on there.  So weird.  At first I thought he was a terrorist manufacturing a bomb or something.  

 
Hmmm...maybe I'm changing my mind and maybe we're kind of saying the same thing.  My initial thought was that people in power no longer make decisions based on true convictions, many of which might be rooted in religious belief.  I think those decisions these days are most often made based on self-interest or the desire for power, which Ranethe discussed.  And those decisions might be able to be tied to a religious conviction down the line but the people in power or influencing the people in power don't really care about the belief, they care about the result and having more influence and power.  We see very little humility and piety, we just see a lot of arrogance and name calling and the obvious lack of dignified discourse.

My thinking is that someone who is REALLY close to Christ and happened to be in politics would be motivated by love, not power.  I think that the vast majority of that "monolithic bloc" of "Evangelicals" want the world to be a certain way that they are comfortable with but almost none of the motivation comes from actually "knowing Jesus Christ" as the religion describes him.  Certainly many people who are devout Christians voted for and support Trump.  But I fit into the Evangelical box, and I neither voted for him nor support much of what he has done and said, and neither have the vast majority of my family, friends, and acquaintances within Evangelical circles.  But in the show I suppose it could be said to be the same: the people in power may or may not believe in the religious tenets, but either way they are using them for power.

So I think I argued myself back to Ranethe and jdoggydog's point of view. :lmao:  

Do you guys see where I'm coming from though?

 
Here's another element too: I think the stringent, angry, "thou shalt not" zealots are being slowly but surely driven out of power.  Certainly the tide of what is normal and acceptable in our society is against them and it's not going back.  More than anything, that is why I think "religion" is less powerful and influential in government than ever.

 
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Since the last mention of it was back in 2015, I will throw it out there that the documentary on the Eagles (band) was very good.  Ended up watching the 3 hours of parts 1 and 2 in one sitting.

 
ConnSKINS26 said:
Anyone had a chance to check out the Jonah Hill/Emma Stone thing? Looks interesting. They can both act their asses off. Will be my first time seeing Skinny Jonah actually 
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It's weird. I've only watched the first episode but the slow pace and hallucinations and 40 min length is messing me up. I really want to like it.

 
EYLive said:
It's weird. I've only watched the first episode but the slow pace and hallucinations and 40 min length is messing me up. I really want to like it.
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We watched the first two last night. First was ok, but the second episode started drawing me in. Will definitely give it a few more episodes. I think there are only 10 total and that's it for the series.

 
hxperson said:
I love this show, easily one of my favorite shows ever made.   Then again, I'm a Chinese Canadian with a Korean wife that has spent most of my life in Toronto.  But I don't think you need to be Canadian to enjoy it - I think anybody can enjoy it despite the fact that its not extremely funny, nor very clever, nor well acted, because its a pretty fun and easy going show. 

But the reason why I like it so much is that it was so refreshing to finally see a show that I could relate to.  I grew up watching sitcoms with family dynamics that were nothing like what I experienced at home, and kids who did things that I rarely ever thought of doing.    And this was true whether I was watching white sitcoms, black sitcoms, or sitcoms from Hong Kong and other Asian places.   We Asian Americans/Canadians basically have Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle and now this show ;)  

Anyways, to me, this is the beauty of Netflix.  They do a great job finding something for everyone because they are so global now and not affiliated with any of the major networks.   Hopefully Netflix's success will spur more of these kinds of shows to be made.
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I watched the 1st three episodes of this last night and enjoyed it. There are definitely some caricature type roles in it (at least so far), particularly the parents, but they're well written and acted caricatures. They approach ridiculousness without reaching it, so it still works. The dad in particular is possibly the funniest part of the show. The 2nd tier characters, (Kimchi, the rental car manager, the dad's friend) are all solidly funny but not over the top.

Disclaimer: I am not Korean.

 
That one guy said:
The Endless - I actually haven’t finished it yet as we started it last night and wifey tapped out with exhaustion half way through.  That said, it’s oddly interesting enough for us to want to come back tonight and finish.  Not sure yet what kind of sci-fi ending it’ll have, it's hinted at a couple different options.  The awkward and odd acting is perfect for the cult setting.  
Click to expand...
Did you watch to the end?  I saw it last night, suckered in by the 95% Rottentomatoes rating.  I'm not sure it deserves that level of praise, but was worth it for me purely for the mind####.  The acting has a strong millennial flavor to it for me, but lots of good moments and a good payoff at the end.  One of those movies where I had to immediately find a discussion of the ending to see if my interpretation was shared by others.

Overall, I would say a thumbsup, but not making any promises as I could see some viewers hating it.

 
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