Meant to write about this weeks ago, but Season 6 of House of Cards was one of the worst television seasons I've ever watched. The writing was absolutely wretched, to the point where not even the actors could save it. And that's without getting into the ending, which, while I appreciate the meta quality of the last line, was laughably bad.

In fact, it was so horrible, if I ever rewatch the series (v. unlikely - I can count on one hand the number of shows I'll rewatch), I'd stop at the end of Season 5.

I think I may just watch the last 2 episodes or so just to bring closure.

I want to take this opportunity to recommend Amazon's Patriot again.

I enjoyed it, but I will say the award buzz just must come from having Micheal Douglas doing tv. It wasn't great in acting or story by any stretch.

Yeah that's kind of what I was saying... beats rewatching the Office or Seinfeld but not something to plan a binge watch around. Something about Alan Arkin for me though that I just laugh out loud at a lot of his lines and not sure they would be as funny with any other actor. Michael Douglas is okay, Danny DeVito is really solid in his guest appearances. I found the scenes with the two of them really funny and kind of tuned in and out during the acting class scenes and his scenes with Nancy Travis.

What a stupid finale.

Anyone see "The Innocent Man" on Netflix yet? Looks right up my wife and my alley - but I always like to hear what people think first

I didn't realize it was only 8 episodes and was confused when the next one didn't start up. Not a good look for a finale.

Watch Happy for some dark humor. And a real dark detective and a child kidnapper. And Patton Oswalt. So far it is awesome.

If you watched the All or Nothing: Manchester City series and want to see how the other of the big club works, I recommend Sunderland Til I Die. Really well done.

I really liked Sunderland Til I Die too, more interesting than the Man City or Juventus versions since so much more went wrong with Sunderland. Especially the Juventus one, which was pretty flat and boring.

Boca Juniors Confidential on Netflix is good too.

Just binge watched the entire series. Excellent recommendation - thanks!

I just started watching Black Mirror.. the first season is awesome.

Some have been good, some have been a complete waste of time. They are mostly thought provoking.

I've enjoyed them all so far, but definitely some more than others. It freaks me out to think most of these could actually be real some day. :eek:

There's a new one-off Black Mirror movie coming to Netflix tomorrow. The trailer is on this link:

Bandersnatch

That's tomorrow night's viewing taken care of anyway.

Bird Box was great.

When will Mark McKinney get an Emmy for Superstore? Cause he straight up has earned one.

Bandersnatch is straight up fantastic.

Give yourself 2+ hours to really enjoy it.

Birdbox might be decent, I haven't seen it.. But the previews make it look like it is just the next step on the way to making a horror movie where if you can experience something through any particular sense, you die.

Will be watching once I'm done with the BM series.

Looking forward to it. Hope it doesn't disappoint.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/01/enter...ate/index.html

Bird Box is solid. Definitely worth a watch.

Bandersnatch was ok. I love Black Mirror and I hope we see more interactive programs like this, but if you compared this to Black Mirror episodes it'd be one of the weaker episodes.

I strongly recommend Murder Mountain if you're into Crime Docu-series type things. This is the best one I've seen on Netflix to date.

I enjoyed it.

But no way she navigated that river couple days blindfolded!

Some of these Black Mirror episodes are f'd up. Like in the end I have to take a few minutes to digest what just happened. Crazy stuff!

I wasn't a fan of Bandersnatch. After going through several endings, it just wrapped up for me. I then looked at the other endings online, and was not impressed. It seems like they would all be rather disappointing.

That being said, I did enjoy the experience that it provided.

Derry Girls was so crazy funny.

Derry Girls is the funniest show I've seen in years. 6 episodes of 30 minutes each = a one night binge.

They've finished filming Season 2 already and are in post-production.

I enjoyed Bandersnatch, but I'm a sucker for things like that. Perfect? No. But I'm excited to see that enter the mainstream space (no pun intended). Hope it leads to similar projects in the future.

I'll join in with the BANDERSNATCH was fine brigade. It was a really fun experience, but not a great episode of BLACK MIRROR.

I did enjoy the meta-commentary that discussed how there was really just the illusion of choice but in the end you were going to go where the storyteller wanted you to go... which was true, as you pretty much always ended up

Yeah, Bandersnatch was just ok. Too much effort for not much payoff.

Now, Season 3 of a Series of Unfortunate Events has started off great (it's probably one of the more underrated Netflix originals, IMO).

Yeah, I thought Bandersnatch was OK. I didn't know what to expect going in, and didn't expect a flashback to interactive movie days, but I was done with it after about an hour with no real desire to push on.

SHIRKERS - 9/10

Outstanding documentary about some girls in a very closed up Singapore who decide they're going to try to bust it open by making an independent feature film. What happens along the way is both heartbreaking and uplifting. Yeah, that's really cliched, but I was near tears by the end, which is HARD to do to me.

Early on, it's about indie culture and zine culture of the late 80's and early 90's, and what the absolute craving and need to express yourself creatively will lead people to do... and how it gets magnified by being in a society so uptight that it banned chewing gum (for real). Do yourself a favor and watch it without learning too much more about it... even the Netflix description is too spoilery.

Not to mention that the style and storytelling of the documentary itself is top-notch... it comes through that the filmmaker has basically been waiting 25 years to tell this story to its fullest. And she makes the most of it.

This is going to be hard to top, coming out of the gate strong this year!

I'd rate Bandersnatch as just "okay" overall as well, but I'd also call it "perfect" in that I think they pulled off the "choose your own adventure" movie as well as any one could.

Maybe it's that I have extreme fondness and nostalgia for 80s adventure games (Look Door, Get Key!), but I really enjoyed Bandersnatch. It's true that it had a weaker plot than many Black Mirror episodes, but I thought the experience made up for that. And indeed the experience was the point. I loved the meta-ness of it all.

Can you do bandersnatch if you’ve never watched black mirror ?

Yes. You can actually watch any episode of Black Mirror without having seen any others -- each works fine as a standalone. There are often sly references to other episodes but that is just a little bonus, not necessary to enjoy it.

Was very done with it well before it ended. I don’t think it was badly executed, but just didn’t like the story and the meta-ness of some of it was pretty jarring. It felt like it tried to do too much with what they actually had. Other than some nice nostalgia items from 80s Britain, I didn’t enjoy it and didn’t think it really deserved to have the Black Mirror label on it.

Pretty much every episode of Black Mirror is a stand alone episode. To the extent there is any overlap it’s very minor, Easter Egg type stuff. They each stand on their own.

Those liking Derry Girls should also try Love Sick. Definitely different sort of show, but also has a distinctly local (scotland in this case) character and similar mix of deadpan and hilarity along with a lot of earnest and well executed heavier moments.

I always figured that they took place in the same universe, or at least at some point in time, in the same universe. That wouldn't really impact one to the next generally though.

Not on Netflix but am watching The Passage on Fox now Mon 9pm ET. Didn't know they were making a series but I read Books 1 & 2 and thought it was great. Haven't gotten to Book 3 yet.

EDIT: so far so good. Don't really remember the book details to compare with the first episode but I thought it was well done

Not sure if I'd recommend it, but The Last Kingdom is good trashy historical fiction to tide me over until Game of Thrones returns. I read the book (at least the first book, maybe a few others) years ago and the show I'll admit is cheesy as hell, but generally speaking enjoyable in a "turn your brain off and pour a glass of wine" kind of way.

I haven't watched the 3rd season yet, but I enjoyed the first 2 more than I expected. Some parts are terrible, but overall I'd say it's a solid watch when you can't decide on anything else.

I enjoyed all 3 seasons. It's a really fun series that's easy to enjoy - same is true for Frontier.

I'm in the same spot, we just finished season 2 last night. I thought season 1 was much, much better than the first half of season 2, but the last couple of episodes of season 2 were probably the best in the show so far.

I think the dialogue is arguably the most cheesy part (Uhtred and Father Berocca in particular), but overall they do a decent job masking the budget - particularly some of the battle scenes.

Season 3 was worse for me, although mostly the first half of it. One of the few times i was genuinely doing ye olde "but in the book it was so and so ..." thing in my head during a show, because they made some truly baffling choices as far as what characters to include and re-write story archs for dramatic effect only for it to fall flat and seem super unnecessary.
Without spoilering too much, there's a terrific storyline with Pyrlig (the non- Beocca priest) in the books that is given to Beocca in the show for some mystifying reason and doesn't reasonate at all. They are kinda treating him like a composite of both priests despite the fact they actually have Pyrlig in the show, if that makes sense.

2nd half of the 3rd season was a bit better, aside from a comically bad (to me) resolution and battle.

But yeah, overall it is a good, fun show. Works better than it should, despite some glaring issues as far as adaptation goes (like the fact the books have a considereable time span that the show can't capture).

Looks like Netflix prices are going up $2 a month:

Netflix raises prices on all streaming plans in US - The Verge

Thanks Friends :mad:

Seems like it will be immediate for new customers are come into effect in the next three months for current subscribers.

How long until Hulu follows?



If Amazon Prime keeps their pricing down, I could see their streaming getting a bigger market share.

I know Netflix puts out a ton of content, but nothing really seems great. Just shows you binge watch and forget. Haven't found myself using it much the past few weeks so maybe I'll pause it while I catch up on some HBO shows.