OT: Netflix Gems
January 27th, 2014 at 11:02 AM ^
One of my favorite shows on TV right now
January 27th, 2014 at 11:13 AM ^
My girlfriend got me hooked on the Walking Dead. I never thought I'd watch that sort of show. Before that, I watched Breaking Bad and Orange is the New Black.
January 27th, 2014 at 11:36 AM ^
Disclaimer: I believe all of these are available on Netflix, but my apologies if one or two of them is not, and is on Amazon Prime instead. I can't keep them all straight.
Primer (as mentioned above already) -- a low-budget (but very effective) ride into the not-so-glamorous effects of time-travel. Yeah, this ain't Back To The Future, here.
Timecrimes -- And if you liked Primer, give this a try. IMO, it's even better. It's in Spanish, with English subtitles -- but don't let that scare you away. The first few minutes, you'll be like, "...the fuck...?" but stick with it. Trust me on this one; this movie has a great payoff.
Let The Right One In -- The best vampire movie I've ever seen. But be sure to watch the original (in Swedish, with English subtitles), and not the English-version remake.
Kenny -- An Australian "mockumentary" about a guy in the portable toilet rental company business. Yes, seriously. It's got a lot of heart, and the central character, Kenny, has an outlook on life that more people should embrace. One word of advice, though: watch it with the subtitles on, unless you're a native Australian. There's a lot of good dialog and nuanced language in there, easy to miss for a Yank.
The Killing (TV series) -- This 3-season TV series originally aired on AMC, and I watched it in its original run. An enjoyable, atmospheric murder mystery, with some really, really strong acting.
Room 237 -- A documentary about the hidden messages and meanings in the film The Shining, and specifically, about the mad genius of Stanley Kubrick. I found myself sarcastically saying, "Oh yeah, sure...right" at several points throughout, followed minutes later by "Holy shit..." Sure, it may be ALL bullshit, but I wanted to line up and buy that bullshit (with an extended warranty + undercoating) after watching this movie. That's all I'm gonna say about this one. :-)
13 Assassins -- Disclaimer: I'm not into these kinds of movies, at all. Meaning, stylized Japanese samurai films. But damn...this is just an impressive and very enjoyable movie. Everything looks amazing, and the fight sequences are incredible. I really enjoyed this one, MUCH more than I thought I would.
January 27th, 2014 at 12:06 PM ^
Hardly a hidden diamond in the rough, but Dexter is certainly worth watching if you have a lot of time. If you like the show, I've found it's sometimes easier to pause in the middle of an episode rather than deal with the cliffhanger they sometimes throw in at the end of an episode.
January 27th, 2014 at 12:43 PM ^
Dexter is mostly worth the ride, even though some of the seasons are quite a bit...bumpy. There's one season in particular that I thought was absolutely TERRIBLE, though...
January 27th, 2014 at 3:19 PM ^
January 27th, 2014 at 5:23 PM ^
It could have been one of the best. But...without spoiling anything...the "you didn't see that coming" moment, and its aftermath, proved to be an absolutely terrible idea. If they were going to go the route they did (which was completely stupid, but again, no spoilers) they should have swapped the roles of the characters. They had Olmos, a terrific actor, and they pretty much wasted their opportunities with him.
I hated this season so much that I almost completely abandoned the show at this point.
January 28th, 2014 at 3:39 PM ^
That season was not good...had sort of forgotten about it despite it being so recent. Still disliked Lumen season more
January 27th, 2014 at 12:07 PM ^
Good one to watch with the missus
January 27th, 2014 at 12:46 PM ^
'League of Gentlemen' - this is a British comedy series that you really have to be a little sick and twisted to really appreciate. If you don't like extremely dark humor, this is not for you...
I lived in London when it originally aired and bought the UK DVDs and kept an old DVD player that was 'cracked' to be able to play DVDs from any region around for several years...just to be able to play them. Was delighted when it showed up on Netflix.
Better write-up here than i can give it http://voices.yahoo.com/the-league-gentlemen-monty-python-meets-alfred-1609895.html
It was a stage show for several years first, so the characters and stories were refined over a long period before going onto TV and for it requires repeated viewing to catch all the humor as some is quite subtle and there is just a lot of complexity to the characters and plots
If you don't get why a butcher shop called 'H. Briss & Sons' is funny, maybe take a pass on this.
(not to be confused with movie 'League of Extraordinary Gentlemen')
January 27th, 2014 at 1:01 PM ^
This show has been on for 6 years, so may not be much of a hidden gem - Sons of Anarchy. I say it because there's quite a bit of people that haven't seen it, as they are like me who originally didn't watch it because I can't relate to Harley fanatics who are outlaws. The show is solid all-around, though- great writing, great acting, original plot ideas, and a lot of twist and turns that you don't see coming, and the show has never really lost its touch after 6 seasons. I recommend you give it a try and at least watch the first season.
January 27th, 2014 at 5:29 PM ^
January 27th, 2014 at 3:22 PM ^
January 27th, 2014 at 5:10 PM ^
January 28th, 2014 at 1:08 PM ^
In The Loop -- This movie bills itself as a comedy...but I gotta say, it probably rings fairly true as to how politics work and huge decisions are made. In any event, it's a highly enjoyable and very-well acted film. Strongly recommended.