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

[GrantDawg]

Into season 3 of "Slow Horses", and somehow this show gets better every season.
Also watched "Stick". It was ok. Somewhat predictable sports story, but watchable.

[Edward64]

"Valiant One" on Hulu

Not great, not terrible, just okay. Some action, some drama, some tension etc. I enjoyed the premise but I gotta believe ...

Spoiler

If a US chopper did go down in North Korea accidentally, the orders would be to stay put, be captured, and we'll negotiate you out vs trying to make it back to SK and possibly make it worse by killing some NK soldiers

[Edward64]

Martin, who hasn’t been so publicly supportive of House of the Dragon in the past, came out with glowing praise for Parker’s take on A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, writing in a blog post how he “loved” all six of the season 1 episodes. Now Parker faces the scrutiny of the general TV audience.

The series will premiere on HBO and HBO Max early next year.

Still PO’d at GRRM for leaving his literary fans out dry but yeah, going to watch this

[Ghost Econ]

Hi/Jack season 2 comes out in January. Season 1 was a serviceable, Idris Elba stops a highjacking on a plane.

Season 2, it looks like he's stopping a bombing on a subway train.

I feel like we need other modes of transportation that ends in ain/ane to keep this going.

Maybe pronounce van as vain, or submarine as submaraine. Maybe one season where he has to ride on an all-terrain vehicle.

[Fidatelo]

Originally Posted by Ghost Econ

Hi/Jack season 2 comes out in January. Season 1 was a serviceable, Idris Elba stops a highjacking on a plane.

Season 2, it looks like he's stopping a bombing on a subway train.

I feel like we need other modes of transportation that ends in ain/ane to keep this going.

Maybe pronounce van as vain, or submarine as submarine. Maybe one season where he has to ride on an all-terrain vehicle.

Season 3 could be a hijiacking of a crane.

[Ksyrup]

This is good paired with the John Candy documentary, where they discuss Planes, Trains and Automobiles.

[Lathum]

My 12 year old softball playing daughter is obsessed with The Sandlot, to the point of her having a huge banner in her room of Benny. Tonight she made us watch The Sandlot 2. Those are 90 minutes of my life I will never get back.

[JPhillips]

Eat that time up. You're going to lose her for a few years really soon.

[Lathum]

Oh trust me I do.

We are joined at the hip. I am always playing catch with her, taking her to her indoor training facility for BP ( she plays for a college prep program). Coach her team. We watch games together all the time and when my wife is travelling for work, which is a lot, she sleeps in the bed with me. We are super close.

[JPhillips]

They come back, at least mine did when she went to college, but she definitely needed to see how much space she could get during high school.

[Ksyrup]

Yeah I miss those days. To an extent. Planning (well, paying for) one wedding and preparing for the other to graduate from college. Time flies.

[Ghost Econ]

Originally Posted by Ghost Econ

Got an email saying I should expect to get this TV soon. Appears to be a 55" 4k TV with a second ticket screen below and a sound bar. Interested to see how I enjoy it. I'm sure my wife will be happy to have me take the PS5 out of the bedroom.

So 8 months later I got a free TV delivered. Haven't unboxed it yet, but it's mainly going to be used as a video game TV. Should be interesting.

[sovereignstar v2]

My daughter loves The Sandlot as well and has a Benny t-shirt. I refuse(d) to watch #2

[Lathum]

Wife was looking at Rotten Tomatoes the other day and noticed the Springstein movie had a low rating. I'm wondering how much is the movie and how much is MAGA just going on there and leaving bad rtings.

[Kodos]

I'm sure it's mostly option B.

[Arles]

Has anyone watched the Expos doc? Saw it pop up on Netflix today.

[GrantDawg]

Originally Posted by Lathum

Wife was looking at Rotten Tomatoes the other day and noticed the Springstein movie had a low rating. I'm wondering how much is the movie and how much is MAGA just going on there and leaving bad rtings.

It is the actual expert reviews that are bad. The public score is 84% right now. Not MAGA affect, just the movie critics saying it isn't great unless you are a HUGE Boss fan.

[GrantDawg]

Originally Posted by GrantDawg

It is the actual expert reviews that are bad. The public score is 84% right now. Not MAGA affect, just the movie critics saying it isn't great unless you are a HUGE Boss fan.

Common refrain is "dull".

[flere-imsaho]

Sounds like the screenwriters basically mailed it in and, despite good performances by White, Strong, and Graham, the director couldn't overcome a fan fiction-y script to make it into an interesting movie.

[JPhillips]

I really thought Chad Powers would be terrible, but it's pretty good. They especially do awkward well. Any time he's mumbling, he's really funny.

[Ghost Econ]

So Netflix has another season of the reality show version of Squid Games. No death, only losing a chance at $4.5 million. I had it on in the background yesterday and the second or 3rd challenge was a person stands on a dot in the middle of a basketball court. Then the other contestants stand in 4 lines in a pyramid shape starting about 5 feet away, them the next person a foot behind them.

The game was, the person in the middle picks a person to toss a tennis ball to and if it's dropped they're both out. That's it, toss a ball between 5 and 25 feet depending on where the catcher is standing.

You would have thought you were asking these people to toss a live grenade. I've never seen grown adults look so inept at tossing a tennis ball a few feet. And the catcher didn't even have to stay on their spot once it was tossed. They could run to the other side of the gym if they had to.

I never realized so many people can't toss a tennis ball 10 feet with enough power or accuracy.

[Ksyrup]

Saw yesterday that a second Luther movie is in the works. Filming begins next year. I really enjoyed the series (albeit with the same disdain I have for too much personal crap infecting the core of the show), and I thought the first movie was OK (I prefer things to be drawn out over a series instead of crammed into 90-120 minutes - not a fan of movies in general). Looks like they are bringing the Alice Morgan character back from the dead for a second time, LOL.

[Ghost Econ]

Some streaming deals for the holidays:

Hbo Max $3
month www.hbomax.com/savings

Disney+ & Hulu $5 month
Disney+ | Stream Movies, TV Shows, Documentaries & More | U.S. Site

Kroger Boost for $50 year, free Disney+, Hulu or ESPN+
www.kroger.com/pr/boost

Walmart+ $50 year, free Peacock or Paramount
plus.walmart.com/

Instacart+ $50 year, free Peacock
Instacart | Grocery Delivery or Pickup from Local Stores Near You

$246 a year total for HBO, Disney, Hulu, ESPN+, Paramount and Peacock
Plus free deliveries from Kroger, Walmart, and slightly cheaper food delivery.

Also, Instacart can often be had for $20 at different times each year, but this is the best deal right now. In addition, Peacock has offered $20 a year on black Friday the last few years, but who knows these days. And with Walmart+ you can swap Peacock and Paramount every 3 months, so you really on need that subscription and you can just play catch-up on streaming shows.

Strangely, Kroger and Harris Teeter are owned by the same company with the same delivery perks for streaming, but Harris Teeter's version never goes on sale and you can't use one for purchases at the other.

[Ghost Econ]

Also, if you have T-Mobile you get free Hulu. But a quirk of the system is, if you then go to the Disney Plus website and sign in with the Tmobile linked Hulu account, you can save $12 on a Disney/Hulu/Max bundle each month or one that has ESPN Ultimate instead of Max. So normally the ESPN bundle is $30, but it will automatically take off $12 at checkout if you subscribe to the bundle on the Disney Plus site. With the $7 credit I get from AMEX, I get Disney/Hulu/ESPN Ultimate for $13 after tax.

[Ksyrup]

Finished Season 1 of Ludwig on BritBox last night. Fantastic show, sorry I waited a few months before watching it. Season 2 is already filming. Apparently it was a huge hit in the UK. Smartly written comedy murder series with a unique take (twin brother geniuses - one is a cop with family, the other a reclusive, socially awkward puzzle-setter whose brother goes missing and he impersonates his brother cop to try to figure out what happened to him, solving impossible murders along the way as a form of various puzzles).

[Lathum]

I have commenced my binge watching of Xmas movies that begins Thanksgiving night.

So far I have watched

Christmas Vacation
Four Christmases
Christmas with the Kranks
Spirited
Noelle
George C Scott A Christmas Carol

Anyone have suggestions for newer ones?

[JPhillips]

I always do the first Bad Santa. The sequel is absolute garbage.

[PilotMan]

I am quite fond of 8bit Christmas.

Also favs
Office Christmas Party
The Night Before
Bad Santa is a top fav
Just Friends might be cringe in spots, but it's still a must watch for me
Krampus


oh, and for fun Hot Frosty from last year was pretty funny.

[Critch]

Gremlins is a Christmas movie, in my humble opinion.

Violent Night from a couple of years ago wasnt the worst.

[Ghost Econ]

My wife and daughter watch every crappy Xmas movie, so tonight we watched A Merry Little Ex-Mas, the new one on Netflix with Alicia Silverstone.

If I can sum up the Chat GPT plot, a woman married her college boyfriend, gave up on her dreams and followed him to a small town. They have kids and he devotes himself to work. The kids leave the nest so they separate and are divorcing after 9 months. Before signing the papers, turns out he has a girlfriend and hilarity ensues as the spouses realize they love each other and can change. In the meantime the wife brings home a himbo and the new woman gets suspicious of their old feelings.

It ends with the husband telling his girlfriend the sex was great but she leaves him, and instead of moving on, the wife decides to stay in town with her husband instead of chasing her dreams. Also, her children resent her and her husband at one point said he was thankful for his then separated wife because it made him a better husband for any future family he may have.

Women, just shut up and support your husband's.

[Ghost Econ]

Watching Predator Badlands. I never notice how much Elle Fanning is like a young Martha Plimpton.

[GrantDawg]

Netflix has won the bidding war for Warner Bros. They are only acquiring the streaming and movie studios and allowing Discovery to split off along with Turner Broadcasting. It is going to be an interesting legal fight, since Paramount and Trump has already sent up warning flairs that no one but Paramount would not face regulation hurdles. In the end though Paramount can still buy Discovery to be able to purchase and control CNN.

[Ghost Econ]

Finished Last Frontier on Apple. Holy fuck this show was terrible. I will say, it was weird watching fat Jason Clarke in the Murdaugh Hulu show and seeing him in this at the same time. The Murdaugh makeup people deserve every Emmy.

Also, I really am enjoying Pluribus. I know the LGBTQ+ community is kinda taking it as theirs as a meditation on "otherness", and while I see that, it's also a great show when seeing it through the lens of a show about the alienation of depression. About how "well meaning" people can be the thing that just causes you to sink even further. You feel like the world is destroying you while you're also destroying the world.

[RainMaker]

That sucks about Last Frontier as the concept seemed cool. Apple rarely misses on shows these days too.

[Ksyrup]

The Jeff Buckley documentary is now available on HBO/MAX. I'll probably download it to watch while travelling next week.

There's also a John Elway documentary on Netflix premiering just before Christmas.

[Atocep]

Originally Posted by Ghost Econ

Finished Last Frontier on Apple. Holy fuck this show was terrible. I will say, it was weird watching fat Jason Clarke in the Murdaugh Hulu show and seeing him in this at the same time. The Murdaugh makeup people deserve every Emmy.

Also, I really am enjoying Pluribus. I know the LGBTQ+ community is kinda taking it as theirs as a meditation on "otherness", and while I see that, it's also a great show when seeing it through the lens of a show about the alienation of depression. About how "well meaning" people can be the thing that just causes you to sink even further. You feel like the world is destroying you while you're also destroying the world.

Pluribus is my favorite show of the year.

[Ghost Econ]

Originally Posted by Atocep

Pluribus is my favorite show of the year.

Andor is still #1 for me. It's the first year in a.while where I feel like I could make a top 5 of things I actually enjoyed that are also good. Pluribus is battling the Pitt, adolescence, and task for #2.

[Lathum]

My son is a monster Stranger Things fan and we just got tickets to see the final episode in the movie theater on New Years Eve. He's gonna freak.

The weird thing is the tickets were free but you bought a $20 food credit. I'm assuming they can't charge for the movie because of some licensing or something.

[Lathum]

Tonight is the finale of Stranger Things and we are going to see it in the theater. Should be really fun.

[Ksyrup]

I've recently watched several foreign "psychological thrillers" and they were all really good. Three Pines, a one season only Canadian show starring Alfred Molina. Really wished this had gotten renewed. I enjoyed the Native American focus and Molina was great. Glass Dome, a Swedish thriller with a big twist at the end. The Are Murders, another Swedish show (apparently a second season is coming). Playing Gracie Darling, an Australian show. And also The Chestnut Man. Some good stuff. Currently watching Deadwater Fell.

[Lathum]

Originally Posted by Lathum

Tonight is the finale of Stranger Things and we are going to see it in the theater. Should be really fun.

Insanely fun time.

[Honolulu_Blue]

Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is really fantastic. I am absolutely loving it. Easily the best Game of Thrones content since the glory days of the show.

I highly recommend it!

[Ksyrup]

Originally Posted by RainMaker

Just an incredible show.

This helped me out a lot. You can choose the season/episode you're on and it'll give you a rundown of the characters/family trees without spoiling things for you.

DARK | The Official Guide | NETFLIX

Dug this comment out of this thread from about 5+ years ago.

I'm years/decades behind on watching things, and Netflix suckered me into Dark on the premise of it being a child murder/psychological thriller-type show. I need to do more research and look at release dates before I commit to something because everything is new to me.

Anyway, I had no clue it was a sci-fi show. I binge-watched Season 1 on the flight back from Hawaii and now I feel like I have to finish it even though it's not at all what I wanted to watch. I mean, aside from a couple of weekends 20+ years ago falling down the John Titor rabbithole and watching the Back to the Future movies when they were released, I have no interest in this kind of thing.

It's an interesting concept but way, WAY too complicated and confusing. I read some stuff online about people taking notes during the show - not my idea of fun! I'm halfway through S2 so I have to finish it at this point. I feel like there are so many inconsistencies that this is the kind of show that I like to ruin by overthinking (the main issue being, halfway through the show, the dichotomy between "things happening as they are destined to" and people time traveling to change history - I feel like that's an inherent inconsistency that can't be reconciled no matter how they end it)..

At least it gives me a reason to pull out the old "I'm my own grandpa" song which, unfortunately, was written in 1947 and not 1953.

[Atocep]

Originally Posted by Honolulu_Blue

Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is really fantastic. I am absolutely loving it. Easily the best Game of Thrones content since the glory days of the show.

I highly recommend it!

Definitely agree. What I like is it's more peak Game of Thrones without being more Game of Thrones. The scale is smaller and the tone is a bit different with a touch of humor sprinkled in.

[Lathum]

Just finished Stick. I would put it right up there with Ted Lasso. Awesome show, if not a bit of a Happy Gilmore rip off. Really enjoyed it.

[Bobble]

The Mrs. and I just finished The Residence on Netflix. It's a comedic whodunnit about a murder in the White House. Very good. If you like the Knives Out movies, it's like that.

[Ksyrup]

Yeah, I enjoyed The Residence. Unfortunately, it was cancelled so at this point, the planned sequels in different locations and fleshing out the Cordelia Cupp character likely won't happen.

[Bobble]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

Yeah, I enjoyed The Residence. Unfortunately, it was cancelled so at this point, the planned sequels in different locations and fleshing out the Cordelia Cupp character likely won't happen.

WHAT!?!?! The Firefly-cancelling stupidity of some of these decision makers, man...

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Bobble

WHAT!?!?! The Firefly-cancelling stupidity of some of these decision makers, man...

Audience -- just under 9 million at peak -- couldn't justify the extremely high production cost.

[Lathum]

My wife has been really sick all week, like not get out of bed sick, and she has been binge watching entourage. I forgot just how funny this show was when I watched it first time around.