What to Watch Instantly on Netflix? (and now all streaming services)

[Honolulu_Blue]

If you have any interest in animated shows, I can't recommend Arcane on Netflix enough. It's a great show with amazing animation. It's probably the new high-water mark for animation - just edging out of Into The Spider-Verse.

The show is based on the League of Legends video game. I have never played any League of Legends game and know absolutely nothing about The League or any of its Legends. Still, the show is great. There are a ton of cool characters, the plot's good, the action scenes are fantastic.

Highly recommend it.

[Atocep]

I can confirm that Arcane is really good. I'd put it up there with Into the Spiderverse, which I didn't expect to like either. I'm not usually a fan of the animated stuff like this, but it's definitely worth checking out.

I thought the Witcher Netflix anime was solid as well FWIW. If you liked the show or the games and want Vesemir's origin story it's well done.

[Honolulu_Blue]

Originally Posted by Atocep

I can confirm that Arcane is really good. I'd put it up there with Into the Spiderverse, which I didn't expect to like either. I'm not usually a fan of the animated stuff like this, but it's definitely worth checking out.

I thought the Witcher Netflix anime was solid as well FWIW. If you liked the show or the games and want Vesemir's origin story it's well done.

I very much agree with the Witcher Neflix anime. Really enjoyed it.

Since we're on topic, the Castelvania anime series was, also, fantastic.

[RainMaker]

Anyone seen Travelers on Netflix? Concept interests me but never really heard much about it.

[Atocep]

Originally Posted by RainMaker

Anyone seen Travelers on Netflix? Concept interests me but never really heard much about it.

The first season is really good and each subsequent season gets worse.

[GrantDawg]

Get Back on Disney+ is an excellent documentary in three parts done by Peter Jackson. Those guys were so insanely talented. John Lennon was killed when I was 11, and I only know him from his songs. Seeing him create makes me sad for what we lost.

Sent from my SM-G996U using Tapatalk

[GrantDawg]

I just saw that the complete series of The Mole is on Netflix. It was my favorite reality series that was like a puzzle game with spy elements. If you haven't watched, give it a shot.

[Ksyrup]

Originally Posted by GrantDawg

Get Back on Disney+ is an excellent documentary in three parts done by Peter Jackson. Those guys were so insanely talented. John Lennon was killed when I was 11, and I only know him from his songs. Seeing him create makes me sad for what we lost.

Sent from my SM-G996U using Tapatalk

We've watched the first hour so far. Hoping to watch the rest since I'll have some downtime following surgery today. First impression is what I've always thought - Paul was the true genius of the bunch. I saw a review that totally hit it right - it's like watching 6 marriages breakup at once.

[tarcone]

I hit the play something button on Netflix and the limited series True Story. It stars Kevin Hart and Wesley Snipes.

Hart Plays a Kevin Hart type Comedian and Snipes is his brother. Hart has a show in his hometown, Philly, then hooks up with his brother. It goes down hill from there. Lots of twists and turns. I really like it.

[Lathum]

Do yourselves a favor and watch Hanna on Amazon. Really fun show.

[thesloppy]

Episode 1 of Season 6 of The Expanse appears to be available already.

[Edward64]

Been watching "Lost in Space". It's somewhat enjoyable because I like sci-fi and there are some good story lines.

However, I hate how there seems to be 2-3-4 crises in every episode and do not like how Dr. Smith is portrayed. It would be great if they just had a boring episode about how daily life is with minor/humorous/thought provoking minor tangent.

So kinda love it/hate it relationship to fill up my time.

[Edward64]

I'll be turning off Youtube TV after Superbowl. I'll be turning on Disney Plus later this month. May also turn on Paramount to catch up on ST: Discovery

Is there a single website where I can do this without having to remember the myriad of login and passwords?

[whomario]

2nd season of the Witcher now on Netflix

[RainMaker]

The Unforgivable was pretty good on Netflix. Not sure why the reviews were bad. Sandra Bullock is incredible in it and I'll watch anything with Vincent D'onofrio. A bit melodramatic and I agree with some people who thought this would work better as a miniseries (which I guess it was at one time in the UK).

[JPhillips]

The Alpinist about solo climber Marc-Andre Leclerc is great if you like that kind of story about the limits of human achievement.

[sabotai]

Originally Posted by JPhillips

The Alpinist about solo climber Marc-Andre Leclerc is great if you like that kind of story about the limits of human achievement.

On my watchlist, and a documentary along the same lines is 14 Peaks. About Nepalese mountain climber Nirmal Purja and his team, trying to climb the 14 peaks in the world that are 8km+ in height in just 7 months.

I gave it only 3 out of 5 because it was way too short IMO. It would have been much better if it were a 5 or 6 episode long docu-series instead of a little more than 1.5 hour long documentary. I wanted to see far, far more of his climbs.

[Edward64]

Watched 4 episodes of The Witcher past couple days. Great fun. Love the Ciri training stuff. Yennefer finding her new way is great too. I like the monsters killing and learning more of the Witcher family.

The Brotherhood scenes are boring. And the reappearance of you know who in ep 4 was totally underwhelming.

I am grateful but a little surprised that Netflix isn't doing 1 episode a week to garner and keep more interest over an 8 week period like WOT.

[Edward64]

Finished The Witcher 8 episodes. Overall pretty happy with it and really looking forward to s3. I like how Ciri is taking more center/equal stage now.

[Edward64]

Hawkeye series was fun. I really like how Disney is churning out these mini-series.

[molson]

Originally Posted by JPhillips

The Alpinist about solo climber Marc-Andre Leclerc is great if you like that kind of story about the limits of human achievement.

Saw this in the theater a few months back. Absolute madman, I love movies like this. Made what the Free Solo guy does look like a leisurely walk around the park.

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by Edward64

Hawkeye series was fun. I really like how Disney is churning out these mini-series.

It was a fun little romp - agreed with being happy that Disney is churning these out every couple months. We'll subscribe for a couple months, cancel, and then pick back up a half year later and catch up. This is the perfect cadence for that.

It's not great but fun tv comfort junk food. Hawkeye is the grounding presence in the MCU so it was more down to earth than, say, Loki or Wandavision. But he's also the positive one who just goes around with an understated "why me" expression on his face the whole time so it's never going to get too dark (except with Ronin). New York at Christmastime is always a good character. Spent a lot of time setting up new Hawkeye, new Black Widow, Echo, and potentially a new/old villain. The tracksuit mafia were fun, generic thugs who got some development: the Imagine Dragons/Maroon 5 thing was hilarious, I love the "I found her, I found Kate Bishop" after she fell through the roof. There were things that were a bit absurd or clunky, even within the standard set in an MCU series - like they spent a lot of time with Clint doing the Terminator "Human Casualties 0.0" thing early on in the series but then they totally killed a couple dozen Bros in the final scene. I would definitely watch a Yelena and Kate series - get it done, Kevin Feige. Maya seemed kindof bland but I guess Echo is already greenlit for next year.

Dumb aside: I wish they had thrown in a joke in the post-credit scene. Someone on Reddit had the suggestion of it being Scott Lang sitting there in the audience, gleefully nodding and saying "that's exactly how it happened!" and Hope being like "you weren't even there dad" and Paul Rudd arguing for a minute before giving in and then looking all glum.

SI

[JPhillips]

Originally Posted by molson

Saw this in the theater a few months back. Absolute madman, I love movies like this. Made what the Free Solo guy does look like a leisurely walk around the park.

The mountains must have looked great on a big screen. The peak in Patagonia was damned impressive even on my TV.

[Atocep]

Originally Posted by Edward64

Finished The Witcher 8 episodes. Overall pretty happy with it and really looking forward to s3. I like how Ciri is taking more center/equal stage now.

I haven't finished the season yet, but I think S2 captures the feel of the books and games better than season 1. Everyone wants to compare shows like this to GoT and I don't know if we'll ever see anything as good as the first 4 season of that show, but this is a very good show in its own right even if it doesn't quite reach that tier.

Henry Cavill has Geralt nailed and I think the casting overall has been outstanding.

Spoiler

I was really annoyed at the decision to kill off Eskel, but I get why they did it.

[RainMaker]

Halfway through season 2 and agree that it feels much more like the game and books. Cavill really is perfect as Geralt. Nice mix of being a serious drama and a fun action fantasy show.

Would add that they really stepped up their game with the music.

[Lathum]

F1 Drive to Survive is excellent. almost done with season 1 and looking forward to the next two seasons

[Edward64]

Cobra Kai out on Dec 31.

I don't feel as motivated to watch s4. The John Kreese bad guy has dragged on. But will give it a shot.

[Edward64]

Ozark out Jan 21. That's high up on my list to watch.

Ready for football season to be over so I can drop Youtube TV and swap it for HBO and Apple TV.

[bob]

Anyone watch Book of Boba Fett yet?

[Edward64]

Originally Posted by bob

Anyone watch Book of Boba Fett yet?

Yes. Less fun than Mandalorian, more of a serious tone. Wife didn’t like it as much but I enjoyed it.

It’s being released weekly so that sucks.

[spleen1015]

Hopefully it gets better.

[Izulde]

Cobra Kai Season 4 wasn't as good as the first three, but I still snarfed the whole thing in a day.

Book of Boba Fett's first episode was mediocre, but it's an establishing episode so I'll be patient.

Hawkeye Season 1 though was great. I also finally watched Black Widow and really liked that, too.

[Edward64]

Finished Cobra Kai s4.

It was dragging on so skipped a couple episodes to get to the last 2. I think the novelty and interest is gone for me.

[Lathum]

Just watched the Harry Potter 20 year reunion special. Amazing stuff. Really well done. I found myself getting emotional a few times.

[RainMaker]

Originally Posted by Edward64

Finished Cobra Kai s4.

It was dragging on so skipped a couple episodes to get to the last 2. I think the novelty and interest is gone for me.

I'll get to this eventually but sort of felt this way halfway through season 3. Then again, the show has far exceeded my expectations so it's not a big deal.

[AlexB]

Watched the first show of The Tourist on BBC, which is co produced by HBO, but have no idea what that means for US TV, Short version, based on the first episode, if you have it, watch it!

[ISiddiqui]

Originally Posted by AlexB

Watched the first show of The Tourist on BBC, which is co produced by HBO, but have no idea what that means for US TV, Short version, based on the first episode, if you have it, watch it!

It will be distributed by HBO Max at some point in the next few months (as generally happens when HBO co produces British shows), but we don't have a date yet.

Just finished Witcher S2. Very well done.. the production budget obviously was increased this year.

[Ironhead]

Recently finished S2 of The Witcher. It's not that there isn't stuff to like but it seems like they are turning the property into yet another action or superhero show to win viewers. The problem with that approach is that Sapkowski's books are not some kind of non-stop action story and Witchers, despite their nature, are not really superheroes. That results in a disconnect with the source material where the show has to make up the majority of the story themselves to film the action they want (maybe 20% of the second season was somewhat from the books - the rest was the show's creation entirely).

I will also say that a large part of the books revolve around the political structure and the war on the Continent. They are trying to show some of that; however, given that it clearly isn't their focus they aren't laying the groundwork for viewers to really grasp or care about that side of things.

At this point it is probably more accurate to say the TV show is just inspired by the books and not really an adaptation. They will no doubt still find a way to get through at least some of the major plot points of the books. But along the way because they are making so much up to get their action and having to cram it all into 8 episodes they are going to end up having to do writing gymnastics. I think it is going to show in the quality of the show. Along the way this is probably also going to result in them missing some of the bigger, core emotional beats of the story (which has already happened).

I will no doubt continue watching it all the way through but a part of me will always be sad that it could have been....something more.

[Coffee Warlord]

I did think the first season of Witcher was far stronger.

I was having this discussion with a friend - the whole 'hero loses their power' trope is one of my most hated tropes in all of storytelling. It's just ... you KNOW they'll be back at some point, and just get annoyed by it.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Coffee Warlord

I did think the first season of Witcher was far stronger.

Neither me nor the kid ever managed to make ourselves finish the first season.

It looked very right, they got stuff right ...it just felt a little bit "off" somehow.

Sounds like that may have escalated :/

[Edward64]

Ted Lasso is great!

[RainMaker]

Everything with Geralt fighting monsters and being a grouchy badass rules. All the other stuff sucks.

[bhlloy]

We enjoyed season 2 of the Witcher but yeah, hard to deny they crammed as many tropes into the second half of the season as they possibly could. The grand finale feels like it could have come straight from any superhero movie in the last 20 odd years, just replace the setting and protagonists.

Not being familiar with the books there’s enough lore from the games to keep me happy though. I was very excited to know who the big bad was before the final reveal (although probably pretty obvious to anyone who had half a brain to be fair)

[thesloppy]

I had a friend say that the quality/tone of the first season of The Witcher reminded him of the old Xena/Hercules series. I don't get the same campy feeling from the second season, for better or worse.

[RainMaker]

Season one had more monster of the week episodes which are fun. I believe this season only had one or two episodes that I'd classify that way.

[Swaggs]

Originally Posted by thesloppy

I had a friend say that the quality/tone of the first season of The Witcher reminded him of the old Xena/Hercules series. I don't get the same campy feeling from the second season, for better or worse.

I’m almost through the first season and just told my wife the same thing. It’s Xena/Hercules with higher caliber actors and a much better budget.

[Edward64]

Originally Posted by Edward64

Ted Lasso is great!

s1 was great.

s2 not so much.

Whereas every s1 episode was great, s2 had some I didn't enjoy that much and FF through (e.g. the Coach Beard episode).

[Lathum]

The Coach Beard episode was horrendous and I don't like where they go with Nate. Still the best show on TV IMO.

We just finished season 2 of The Morning Show. Excellent. Started Cobra Kai last night. Eh, it was ok. They are kind of repeating themes at this point and it feels a bit stale IMO.

I am looking forward to starting 1883 but the wife wanted to do Cobra Kai first.

[Castlerock]

Ted Lasso Season 1 is all-time-great TV.
Ted Lasso Season 2 is garbage.

Whoever wrote season 2 never watched season 1. I have not finished season 2 and I doubt I will.

[larrymcg421]

Originally Posted by Castlerock

Ted Lasso Season 1 is all-time-great TV.
Ted Lasso Season 2 is garbage.

Whoever wrote season 2 never watched season 1. I have not finished season 2 and I doubt I will.

Or they just decided to take it into a different direction. I loved it.