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

[Edward64]

Done with Evil s3. Pretty good but the weakest of the 3.

s3 got a lot more stupid weird with the "family" re: mother & husband. At this point, I think the mother & husband are distractions and should be written out and/or greatly reduced. The "entity" arc is just stupid with their stupid missions.

Nun Andrea + shovel is great! The monsignor tangent was a nice, subtle touch. The "sexy" Kristin is fun.

Looking forward to s4.

[Critch]

Originally Posted by Edward64

Watched the teasers for the LOR prequel "Rings of Power". It looks great and will be released on Sept 2.

Lord of the Rings The Rings of Power Release Date Details

It's costing Amazon quite a bit of money, the rights ($250M) and season one ($462M) but think it'll pay off. Season two has already been approved.

First couple of episodes are up now. Not bad at all, scene setters and obviously big budget and with the feel of the movies. I'm not much of a LotR fan though, I couldnt finish the books and I thought the movies were a bit same-y, so maybe I'm missing things that put the purists off.

Disappointing lack of dwarfs in the first episode though.

[Edward64]

Originally Posted by Critch

First couple of episodes are up now. Not bad at all, scene setters and obviously big budget and with the feel of the movies. I'm not much of a LotR fan though, I couldnt finish the books and I thought the movies were a bit same-y, so maybe I'm missing things that put the purists off.

Disappointing lack of dwarfs in the first episode though.

I watched the 2 episodes last night. TBH, I didn't think it was that great. The special effects were good but story was middling.

The swimming part, yeah right. Enjoyed the Elrond + dwarves section.

[NobodyHere]

I'll try to watch The Rings of Power sometime this weekend. A new episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000 premieres tonight. Tomorrow is college football. So probably Sunday.

However I'm going to try to pretend that the show has no relation to Middle Earth or Tolkien.

[RainMaker]

Do you need to watch the movies to understand The Rings of Power? I think I saw one of them when it came out but I remember next to nothing.

[NobodyHere]

I haven't watched it yet, but my understanding is that the timeline for the Rings of Power should be waaaaaaaaaaay before The Lord of the Rings. Like thousands of years.

I imagine you'd be fine.

[NobodyHere]

HBO Releases the First Episode of House of the Dragon for Free to Spite Amazon's Lord of the Rings

[GrantDawg]

"Hustle" was an excellent sports film. Adam Sandler did an excellent job.

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[CrimsonFox]

Trainwreck: Woodstock 99 is a fantastic documentary. I remember watching footage ...and watching this doc I recall having the same disgusted sighs and eyerolls as I did watching the Jan 6 idiots committing treason. I wonder how many of those destructive fratboys at W99 later stormed the capitol

[Carman Bulldog]

Originally Posted by CrimsonFox

I wonder how many of those destructive fratboys at W99 later stormed the capitol

Or became pro wrestlers...

It's Him! The Miz Confirms He's In The Woodstock '99 Documentary On Netflix

[GrantDawg]

POV: you’re walking through downtown Portland at 11pm pic.twitter.com/LWPkvxOC7m

— Luke Mones (@LukeMones) September 2, 2022

[Edward64]

Hah, that is classic!

TBF, or Atlanta since DragonCon is on right now

[GrantDawg]

Originally Posted by Edward64

Hah, that is classic!

TBF, or Atlanta since DragonCon is on right now

That is definitely a walk down the hall of a Dragoncon host hotel.

[NobodyHere]

I'll give the Rings of Power a "Decent enough" rating. My only real complaint is the Galadriel character. I always thought of her as wise and not as impulsive as seen in the first two episodes.

[GrantDawg]

Originally Posted by NobodyHere

I'll give the Rings of Power a "Decent enough" rating. My only real complaint is the Galadriel character. I always thought of her as wise and not as impulsive as seen in the first two episodes.

We were all young sometime. Even elves,

[Honolulu_Blue]

Originally Posted by GrantDawg

We were all young sometime. Even elves,

Agreed. She had a good couple thousand of years to go from impulsive to wise.

[NobodyHere]

Isn't she at least a 1000 years old at this point?

[Edward64]

So WTF was the swimming thing about. Did she really think she could make it back? Seems more like a death wish than youthful rebellion.

BTW, just asking ... should we create a dedicated thread to discuss this series? $1B worth of episodes

[Edward64]

Originally Posted by Edward64

I'm strangely fascinated by YT Australia Border Security series. Customs & immigration checking people flying in.

The 2 things I've learn (so far) are:

1) Declare any money over $10K Australian or equivalent
2) Declare all food

For (2), all the examples so far (over 5+ episodes) have been Chinese & Vietnamese people with really strange stuff (and not just small amounts).

There's been episodes on folks trying to smuggle in narcotics. I want to watch the Singapore version and see if anyone is stupid enough when facing a death sentence vs fine/toss out of country.

Got back to watching more episodes.

In addition to the 2 things above, other things I've learn

3) They can check & read message in your smartphone. From what I've read, you don't need to unlock your phone but apparently they can make life very hard if you don't

4) X-rays can highlight "organic matter" (Chinese and Vietnamese people, take note with your ridiculous food stuff)

5) When caught with a little amount of drugs, you get your visa cancelled and can't come back for a 3 year exclusion period. When caught with funky food, you get fined $400-$450 AUD and a warning. I think Australia has room to up the penalties

Not good when you are taken to their special room. I was telling wife that I want to visit Melbourne, act suspicious, don't answer questions directly, and get interrogated in the special room.

[GrantDawg]

Just watched ROP. Loved it.

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[Vegas Vic]

My wife and I are currently watching "Five Days at Memorial", a docudrama series on Apple TV+. It's a gut-wrenching tale of a hospital staff and their patients who were left to fend for themselves by the local, state and federal government (and their corporate office) for five days after Hurricane Katrina hit. Then conditions they had to endure and choices they had to make are almost incomprehensible. It's a well written and well acted series, and I highly recommend it.

Here's a link to the trailer:

Trailer for "Five Days at Memorial"

[Edward64]

Although I don't necessarily agree everyone/majority criticizing the Ring of Power casting is racist, I do agree with the overall sentiment below.

If you are interested, here's where you can buy it https://www.donmarshall72sstore.com/...men-s-t-shirts

BTW, it's been over 20+ years since the first one came out.

https://www.cnn.com/2022/09/07/enter...cec/index.html

Cast members have spoken out about the racist comments they’ve received, and now, they have the support of original hobbits Wood, Astin, Dominic Monaghan and Billy Boyd, who played Frodo, Samwise, Merry and Pippin, respectively. All four actors appeared wearing gear that reads, in Elvish, “You all are welcome here,” along with several ears of different characters in a spectrum of skin tones.

[Groundhog]

Originally Posted by Edward64

Although I don't necessarily agree everyone/majority criticizing the Ring of Power casting is racist, I do agree with the overall sentiment below.

If you are interested, here's where you can buy it https://www.donmarshall72sstore.com/...men-s-t-shirts

BTW, it's been over 20+ years since the first one came out.

https://www.cnn.com/2022/09/07/enter...cec/index.html

That's a cool sentiment.


Not really loving the new series so far, but the skin colour of the cast has nothing to do with that.

[Edward64]

Originally Posted by Groundhog

That's a cool sentiment.

Not really loving the new series so far, but the skin colour of the cast has nothing to do with that.

Take it with a grain of salt but Rings of Power casting could be somewhat bigoted/prejudicial.

Is there a reason why a series that obviously wants to be diverse have left off Asian performers?

Lord of the Rings: Rings Of Power Sparks Racist Backlash – The Hollywood Reporter

If anything, Rings of Power has an opportunity to be more inclusive in future seasons. While the cast features Black, Latino, MENA and Pacific Island actors, there is, as of now, a lack of Asian performers, which actor Ludi Lin noted last year.

It would be great to see Asian (e.g. K-drama, Bollywood etc.) actresses with pointy ears.

[PilotMan]

Finally got Band of Brothers and The Pacific off the list after all these years. Band of Brothers was really good, and the realism of it all was engaging, but I've never really watched anything as visceral, brutal and intense, episode over episode in a way that seems almost impossible, as the Pacific is.

War is truly Hell.

[Honolulu_Blue]

Reservation Dogs on Hulu is the best show I've watched this year. The first season was great, this second season has been even better.

Phenomenal stuff.

[GrantDawg]

Originally Posted by Edward64

Take it with a grain of salt but Rings of Power casting could be somewhat bigoted/prejudicial.

Is there a reason why a series that obviously wants to be diverse have left off Asian performers?

Lord of the Rings: Rings Of Power Sparks Racist Backlash – The Hollywood Reporter


It would be great to see Asian (e.g. K-drama, Bollywood etc.) actresses with pointy ears.

They didn't. One of the actresses is from Sri Lanka, and and one the actors is half Indonesian. The casting would only be prejudicial if they purposely left off "X" race. Not having a member the cast from every racial group that exists is not prejudicial, and would be pretty much impossible to do anyway.

[miami_fan]

Originally Posted by albionmoonlight

I think that it's going off Prime soon (like in a week or so), but there's a 4-episode documentary called We Need to Talk about Cosby that Mrs. A and I really liked.

It is very much an African American production, so it was interesting for me to get the AA perspective on Cosby. And, as a child of the 80s, it was really interesting for me to see what a big deal he was in the 60s and 70s.

The guy really was larger than life and fundamentally changed American culture and entertainment. And he was a serial rapist. Great documentary fodder.

I meant to circle back to second this recommendation. It was really well done. It is sill on Showtime for those that are interested.

[RainMaker]

Originally Posted by PilotMan

Finally got Band of Brothers and The Pacific off the list after all these years. Band of Brothers was really good, and the realism of it all was engaging, but I've never really watched anything as visceral, brutal and intense, episode over episode in a way that seems almost impossible, as the Pacific is.

War is truly Hell.

Did a re-watch of Band of Brothers not too long ago and it still holds up. Still haven't seen The Pacific.

[miami_fan]

I see that the streaming services are trending to releasing a weekly episode for their projects as opposed to dropping the entire series at once. That is why I stopped watching these series in real time. For all the price increases they have been rolling out, I would pay for the subscription option to get the whole season of my favorite shows at one time.

[miami_fan]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

Has anyone seen the Gladbeck hostage crisis documentary on Netflix? For whatever reason, I've never heard of it. The whole ordeal lasted 54 hours and started on my 17th birthday, so you'd think I would have some awareness of it at that age.

Anyway, the documentary is entirely made up of video, photos and audio as the events unfolded. No interviews, no commentary, nothing. At the end, they provide a few subsequent details as far as the hostage takers and resulting investigations into the police's bungling of the entire thing.

It's really unbelievable to watch the police repeatedly screw up the situation with poor decisions and inaction. In 1988, we basically had the equivalent of what Twitter might have looked like because the cops let anyone and everyone have access to the hostage takers. They were repeatedly interviewed by tons of press during the whole thing, and the cops let press and onlookers control nearly every crime scene these guys drove to. It would have been comical if not for the fact that 2 hostages and a cop died. The press, given so much leeway, went overboard with the access. At times, the whole thing played out more like a rock band tour than a hostage situation.

I finally watched this today with all of the context from you and whomario. First, this might as well had happened in 1888 the way I felt I watching it. It felt very neutral to watch. I kept waiting for the verbal shots to be fired from the political left or the political right to come with each interview given. For the most part, everyone was the stereotypical German. Very matter of fact. There was definite incompetence by not only law enforcement but the press as well. But that all it was,incompetence. That felt oddly refreshing.

[Cap Ologist]

Originally Posted by PilotMan

Finally got Band of Brothers and The Pacific off the list after all these years. Band of Brothers was really good, and the realism of it all was engaging, but I've never really watched anything as visceral, brutal and intense, episode over episode in a way that seems almost impossible, as the Pacific is.

War is truly Hell.

Dan Carlisle has a great Pacific theatre podcast, Supernova in the East. Highly recommend.

[Coffee Warlord]

Originally Posted by RainMaker

Did a re-watch of Band of Brothers not too long ago and it still holds up. Still haven't seen The Pacific.

I found Band of Brothers more enjoyable (I didn't say better - I said more enjoyable), but both are excellent. Pacific is fucking HARSH. And it's not like Band of Brothers pulled punches.

[Edward64]

For Rings of Power ep 3, we have the Arondir storyline, the Galadriel storyline, and the Harfoot storyline.

I can appreciate the first 2, but the Harfoots are boring me so far.

Beautiful sets. The "new" city is gorgeous. Nice special effects with the "puppy".

[NobodyHere]

They really should've gotten the rights to The Silmarillion before making this thing.

[Honolulu_Blue]

Originally Posted by Cap Ologist

Dan Carlisle has a great Pacific theatre podcast, Supernova in the East. Highly recommend.

Agreed. It’s really good. As his series on the eastern Front of WWII. And, well, pretty much all of his series. Hardcore History is where it’s at.

[Izulde]

Rings of Power is such a bad show so far. Structurally, they went about the completely wrong decision in deciding to whiplash from POV to POV and the scenes are either leaden pacing or so short they jump to another POV just when a scene is getting interesting.

As poorly done as its own Episode 2 was (Episode 3 was better), House of the Dragon is absolutely crushing RoP on pretty much every level other than visuals (RoP is fucking gorgeous visually and it's really the only thing it has going for it)

Cobra Kai S5 I binged in a day. It actually took about 4 episodes to really find its groove IMO, but once it did, it was back to the fantastic fun and delight the previous seasons were known for, and the season finale was amazing. I do think Season 6 should be the last season from a writer's standpoint - they've set it up perfectly to close out the series then

[Edward64]

Originally Posted by Izulde

Cobra Kai S5 I binged in a day. It actually took about 4 episodes to really find its groove IMO, but once it did, it was back to the fantastic fun and delight the previous seasons were known for, and the season finale was amazing. I do think Season 6 should be the last season from a writer's standpoint - they've set it up perfectly to close out the series then

I just watched s5.1 tonight and realized it's just not fun for me anymore. First couple seasons was entertaining as they brought back the old characters but its now pretty much a "teenager" angst series with rinse and repeat karate fights.

I think I'll watch the last episode to prepare me for s6. Hopefully, they'll change the formula some for s6.

[Lathum]

Stifflers Mom just won an emmy. lol.

[Edward64]

Congrats to Squid Games' Emmy wins. s2 sometime in 2023.

I have to say that I'm not sure s2 will be near as successful. s1 was new & different. s2 will probably be more of the same.

[Edward64]

Originally Posted by Edward64

For Rings of Power ep 3, we have the Arondir storyline, the Galadriel storyline, and the Harfoot storyline.

I can appreciate the first 2, but the Harfoots are boring me so far.

Beautiful sets. The "new" city is gorgeous. Nice special effects with the "puppy".

Watched ep 4 last night.

The Elrond-Durin scenes continue to be great. I like the "thing" that was found.

Arondir continues to be cool. The newly reveal nemesis is pretty interesting. Galadriel storyline was somewhat lackluster. Nice to have a break from the Harfoots.

Rings is entertaining (to me as a fantasy/sci-fi fan) for sure but not sure it's really worth the $1B (of which a quarter/third was for rights) so far.

[whomario]

New german-angle content alert: "Skandal!" is a documentary on the Wirecard (a company hyped up as "the german paypal" and the big young tech company here) fraud scandal and the clusterfuck that was the response of regulatory agency and politicians to the evidence that was presented time and time again. Well done, very classic-style documentary overall. Kind of missing some of the more outlandish stuff in Germany that other (german) productions covered but for a 90 minute doc you can't really expect everything to be in. What is in is bonkers enough though, from fake Scheiks to foreign agents.

[sabotai]

Skandal is on my watchlist.

I just finished Sins of our Mother, a 3-episode documentary about the story a few years ago where 2 kids went missing and their mother and stepfather refused to tell anyone where they were or what happened to them. Absolutely bonkers.

I also watched Cyberpunk: Netrunners, which was...okay. They were clearly trying to save some money on the animation.

[stevew]

Originally Posted by sabotai

Watched Big Mouth and Jim and Andy and enjoyed both of them.

Also watched a doc called Hired Guns. It's about musicians who get hired mostly to just play tours and do studio sessions for 'solo' artists and when bands need a quick replacement. Thumbs up as well.

For those who missed it (didn't see it mentioned recently in the thread), American Vandal is a true-crime mockumentary about a kid who is accused of vandalizing the cars of his teachers at a high school with the 'documentary' makers (also students at the school) investigating whether he actually did it or not. It's fucking great and hilarious.

Edit: Also, Black Mirror season 4 goes up on December 29th. I know what I'll be binge watching on New Year's Eve!

Know it’s like 5 years old but American Vandal was funny AF and is an easy watch. I knew people like this in HS. One of the most realistic portraits of teenagers I’ve seen. The friend groups made sense and so did the character motivations

[Ksyrup]

I saw Hired Guns a few years ago. Good stuff.

[stevew]

Andor. Big thumbs up

[CrimsonFox]

Originally Posted by Edward64

Congrats to Squid Games' Emmy wins. s2 sometime in 2023.

I have to say that I'm not sure s2 will be near as successful. s1 was new & different. s2 will probably be more of the same.

I know right???? AWESOME that the main character won! Should have won Best Drama for sure!

The old guy and the girl should have won as well.

Surprised and delighted that girl that was in one episode won for Guest. During the marbles pairings

I think it won 3 didn't it? Yeah it won directing for the first ep!

[CrimsonFox]

Originally Posted by Lathum

Stifflers Mom just won an emmy. lol.

[Kodos]

Originally Posted by stevew

Andor. Big thumbs up

Agreed. Really strong start for the series. Love the tone. Great set of characters.

[Critch]

I know it's network so shouldn't really count, but I'm watching it on Paramount+ so it's a steaming loophole.

Quite liked Quantum Leap 2022 first episode. Sure some of the acting is poor even by network TV standards, but it's got a healthy chunk of the original cheesiness so it's a winner for me.