Netflix/Prime/Hulu Discoveries

[Erin]

I'm trying to hold off on season 2 of The Crown until I have more time to binge on it. I suggested to my parents that they should wait to watch it until they visit for Christmas, i.e. in 2 measly weeks, and they didn't think they could manage it. I thought it would be something we could watch together but I guess not.

I did cave and watch Alias Grace, which I had also been holding out on for a while, but it's much shorter. I have been enjoying it much longer than I expected, although I know from reading the book that the ending will be a letdown. But my recollection was that the book started to annoy me about 2/3 in and I'm through episode 5 of 6 and the show is still excellent. I think that screenwriter Sarah Polley has done a good job of keeping the focus mostly on Grace and less on the doctor, which is where I felt like the book went astray in the last 1/3. When I was looking up details about the adaptation, I was not surprised at all to see that it originally aired on CBC in Canada before Netflix as this totally feels like a CBC production in the best way possible. It almost makes me feel homesick watching it.

 

[gkelly]

I will be starting The Crown season 2 tonight I think.

Three episodes in now. It was kind of a three-episode arc, so more satisfying than the first one on its own. Will see where it goes from here.

"Frontier" with Jason Momoa.

I watched the first few episodes of that a few months ago. So you'd recommend continuing?

I did cave and watch Alias Grace, which I had also been holding out on for a while, but it's much shorter. I have been enjoying it much longer than I expected,

And I watched the first episode of that a couple weeks ago. More prestige than fun. Worth the investment?

 

[CassAgain]

I binged The Crown over the weekend and that it was fantastic. I really liked season one last year, but I thought season two was even more compelling. Now I wish I had taken my time and savored it a bit more, but it got me through a weekend of Christmas baking.

 

[Erin]

And I watched the first episode of that a couple weeks ago. More prestige than fun. Worth the investment?

I thought so. I wouldn't have called it fun, but I found it compelling.

 

[Daphne]

There is a (German, I believe) new release called 'Dark' that I'm four episodes in and am really liking.

 

[screech]

I recently re-watched the cancelled-too-soon medieval comedy/musical show Galavant. It was so brilliant!! (The guy who plays the lead is SUPER hot).
And you can NEVER go wrong with Alan Menken music (since he's basically Disney's go-to guy). I hope the plan of continuing it on Broadway comes to fruition.

 

[skatfan]

I recently re-watched the cancelled-too-soon medieval comedy/musical show Galavant. It was so brilliant!! (The guy who plays the lead is SUPER hot).
And you can NEVER go wrong with Alan Menken music (since he's basically Disney's go-to guy). I hope the plan of continuing it on Broadway comes to fruition.

Galavant was absurdly fun! very under rated imo.

 

[screech]

Galavant was absurdly fun! very under rated imo.

I didn't hear about it until near the end (I was living overseas) so I missed out on the original run. But I started watching the show Psych, which starred Timothy Omundson (who played King Richard in Galavant) which piqued my interest.

It's also so easy to watch - a total of 18 episodes of 22 minutes. I highly recommend it!

 

[kittyjake5]

I binged The Crown over the weekend and that it was fantastic. I really liked season one last year, but I thought season two was even more compelling. Now I wish I had taken my time and savored it a bit more, but it got me through a weekend of Christmas baking.

I binged too. Started Friday and just finished episode 10 tonight. Season 1 was excellent, Season 2 does not miss a step, it picks right up
but it is a much more personal look at the Royals not sure how much of it is factual but it is damn good TV.

 

[VGThuy]

I started season 2 of The Crown and this is a holdover from what I felt about Season 1, but I really cannot stand looking at Matt Smith and seeing him act on my screen. Something about him really grates on me.

 

[TheGirlCanSkate]

An Evergreen Christmas on Netflix is a solid sappy holiday movie. A Christmas Prince was just terrible, we couldn't finish it. Hulu has a nice setting for a bunch of old tv series holiday episodes. We watched perfect strangers, cheers and hangin' with Mr Cooper. Cute for my kid who has never seen any of them.

 

[Japanfan]

And I watched the first episode of that a couple weeks ago. More prestige than fun. Worth the investment?

I thought so. I wouldn't have called it fun, but I found it compelling.

IMO Alias Grace was disappointing, not to mention depressing. I understand that the ending had to be what it was because the story was real, and that Margaret Atwood likes to provoke her readers and ask difficult questions by leaving endings open (she did the same in The Handmaid's Tale).

But, I really wanted more of a pay-off.

 

[skatingguy]

I started season 2 of The Crown and this is a holdover from what I felt about Season 1, but I really cannot stand looking at Matt Smith and seeing him act on my screen. Something about him really grates on me.

Is it that he's naked all the time?
https://www.thesun.co.uk/tvandshowb...eeky-bed-scene-in-first-look-at-next-episode/

 

[Erin]

IMO Alias Grace was disappointing, not to mention depressing. I understand that the ending had to be what it was because the story was real, and that Margaret Atwood likes to provoke her readers and ask difficult questions by leaving endings open (she did the same in The Handmaid's Tale).

But, I really wanted more of a pay-off.

Well it helped that I had read the book because I would agree with you on lack of pay off. I wasn't a huge fan of episode 6 in general, but from reading some reviews, I think I'm in the minority on that opinion. That said, I found the ending of the series much less of a letdown than the last third of the book, so I thought that it was a strong adaptation.

 

[Japanfan]

Well it helped that I had read the book because I would agree with you on lack of pay off. I wasn't a huge fan of episode 6 in general, but from reading some reviews, I think I'm in the minority on that opinion. That said, I found the ending of the series much less of a letdown than the last third of the book, so I thought that it was a strong adaptation.

I haven't read the book, and from what you and others say, am not inspired too.

 

[VGThuy]

Well, I really enjoyed it.

Is it that he's naked all the time?
https://www.thesun.co.uk/tvandshowb...eeky-bed-scene-in-first-look-at-next-episode/

No, it's the front of his body and face and facial expressions and acting choices.

 

[Allskate]

I liked the first season of The Crown enough that I'll eventually probably watch the second season.

The show I was really looking forward to was "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel." I watched the pilot earlier this year and thought it was great. They finally released the rest of the first season, so I binge watched it. I love it. It's not like anything else I've seen -- a totally different kind of "period piece." The writing and acting are fantastic.

 

[VGThuy]

I'm finding myself having trouble getting through Season 2 of The Crown. I'm on episode 3 now but I have like little-to-no sympathy for Prince Phillip and his macho whining and sulking especially considering it wasn’t a secret that he was marrying the future Queen of England.

 

[clairecloutier]

I haven’t watched Season 2 of The Crown yet, but I hear it portrays Philip in an even more unlikable way than the first series, so yeah I kind of anticipate it may be a bit of a slog, as you say @VIETgrlTerifa.

A while back, I said we had come across & watched an old Battlestar Galactica miniseries & that it made me want to rewatch the whole series. Guess what we have been doing ever since.

 

[skategal]

I'm on episode 3 of the Crown. I think Margaret's story will keep me interested for the next few episodes.

I was liking Mrs. Parker and her "I've had enough of all of you" attitude.


I watched the first half of the Red Tent last night.

Really good.

But at 1.5 hours in length I'm not sure when I'll get to watch the next half.

 

[oleada]

The Marvelous Mrs Maisel is just marvelous!

 

[Japanfan]

I watched the first half of the Red Tent last night.
Really good.

I thought it offered a sugary, romanticized view of women's lives at the time, but really enjoyed it nonetheless.

 

[Allskate]

he Marvelous Mrs Maisel is just marvelous!

Isn't it?! Apparently, Amazon was so happy with the pilot and the response to it that they ordered a second season before they even finished and released the first season. I'm really looking forward to the second one. The woman who plays Mrs. Maisel has never done stand up before, but she was marvelous. Amy Sherman-Palladino creates some really wonderful female characters.

 

[skategal]

I thought it offered a sugary, romanticized view of women's lives at the time, but really enjoyed it nonetheless.

Watched the second half last night. Second half definitely less sugary.

I enjoyed it a lot.

 

[Erin]

Finally got some time to watch The Crown - just have one more episode to go, which I should finish tonight. I agree that Philip is a giant whiny baby, but I think he is kind of a "love to hate" kind of character and the series might be boring if he weren't the worst. And episode 9 did at least try to give a little bit of backstory behind him, not sure if it exactly made him more sympathetic because I was busy being pissed off for him being a terrible father to Charles, but it gave some understanding as to why he was the way he was.

That said, I think my favourite episodes were the ones that were less Philip focused - the one with Kennedys' visit, the one where Elizabeth is grappling with King Edward's Nazi connections (although drunk Philip was one of the best parts of that episode), and the two centered around Margaret's romance. Also, one of my guilty pleasures has been spotting scenes shot in the Wilton House, which I visited last summer. There are a lot of them, and now I want to go back and re-watch Season 1 to see how many more scenes I can spot.

Also in the royal vein, I've been watching Victoria on Amazon Prime, which is a British ITV series originally shown on PBS in the US. I'm about halfway through the first season and rather unimpressed though. I think I just know too much about Queen Victoria, so I can spot the historical inaccuracies all too easily (there may be some with The Crown, but either they are less blatant or I just know less about that era in spite of it being more recent). I'll probably keep watching the series while I multi-task, but I decided to rewatch the movie The Young Victoria and it's much better. Similar themes, but much more subtle. (And has the added bonus of being able to look for scenes in the Wilton House again)

 

[VGThuy]

I finished The Crown season 2 during the holiday season and it really did get better in the second half. To me, the highlight episodes were "Vergangenheit" and "Paterfamilias". Some spoilers below:

The former was just an intriguing look back at King Edward's role in World War II and how shocking some of the revelations were. I only knew parts of his and Wallis Simpson's friendship with Hitler and high-ranking Nazis but not the more shocking things. His own countrymen...disgusting. I thought putting Billy Graham in this episode and giving Elizabeth a moral crisis was expertly done.

"Paterfamilias" gives us an incredible insight to Prince Charles' upbringing and Phillip's demons haunting Charles and causing the cycle of neglect and abuse to continue for another generation.

I disliked the last episode because I didn't feel like the resolution fit the actual issue and conflict and it seemed like Prince Phillip was gaslighting Elizabeth. Maybe Elizabeth really was that easy to manipulate on Phillip's end.

I loved Margaret in season 1 but found her storyline on the dull side with the writers and director trying way too hard to add sex to the show. I get it's supposed to be a tonal difference to Elizabeth and show that we are joining the 1960s, but it all felt gratuitous, and I'm not one to complain about sex scenes.

I would have loved "Mrs. Kennedy" if it wasn't for the fact that they made Elizabeth's triumph be a result of petty girls hating on other girls trope that was all manipulated by President Kennedy. How many British shows always show Americans in the worst light possible.

I felt like the writers didn't give Elizabeth as much to do this season and tried to make it the Matt Smith show, however, I found Claire Foy much better this season. It's as if she rose above the material and really gave an exercise in pristine television limited series acting.

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I've been starting and stopping so many Asian dramas because nothing really kept my interest and I get so easily bored with a lot of tropes that these shows shamelessly use. Sometimes the culture differences make it hard for me to swallow the actions of the lead female character. However, there is one show I highly recommend on Netflix and it's called Hello My Twenties (originally titled Age of Youth). This one is written by women and it's so obvious throughout the show. It's a slice-of-life serial centered on five Korean female college students who have to share a house and each character is a true highlight. The best scenes are when 4 or all 5 of them are just sharing a scene and interacting with one another. It is one of the best and most accurate depictions of women living and learning and loving each other that I've seen in a very long time. The show actually has seriously heavy and dark moments that I don't want to spoil for you. At the end of it, I was so in love with this show that I ate up season 2 (on another website) as soon as I could. I think the show only has 2 seasons as the story is wrapped up (that's a weird word to use because a lot of threads are still loose but it's more about how not everything gets resolved in one's twenties or that some things are just life-long processes), but I cannot tell you how refreshing this show was not just for Asian dramas but for much of the television I've seen.

 

[AxelAnnie]

I loved THE CROWN. My family can't believe it. After living in England I eschew anythi g British.

I watch it with my laptop

Peggy Noonan has a column about it and some o accurate
..but very few.

I loved the Kennedy eposode....I wish Claire Foy was going to continue

 

[TheGirlCanSkate]

I've been starting and stopping so many Asian dramas because nothing really kept my interest and I get so easily bored with a lot of tropes that these shows shamelessly use. Sometimes the culture differences make it hard for me to swallow the actions of the lead female character. However, there is one show I highly recommend on Netflix and it's called Hello My Twenties (originally titled Age of Youth). [/QUOTE]

I will have to try it! I really do like The Good Doctor on dramafever. The US tv show is based on it.

 

[nlloyd]

Really enjoyed the fourth and final season of Halt and Catch Fire on Netflix. The show charts the history of personal computing in a fictionalized context with a focus on start-up companies and the role of a woman programmer and hardware engineer. I can't attest to the accuracy of the chronology, but in my opinion it is very well written and exceptionally well cast. Bonus for figure skating fans: fourth episode makes passing mention of figure skating (hint: 1994).

 

[clairecloutier]

Really enjoyed the fourth and final season of Halt and Catch Fire on Netflix. The show charts the history of personal computing in a fictionalized context with a focus on start-up companies and the role of a woman programmer and hardware engineer. I can't attest to the accuracy of the chronology, but in my opinion it is very well written and exceptionally well cast. Bonus for figure skating fans: fourth episode makes passing mention of figure skating (hint: 1994).

I’m also enjoying the fourth season of Halt and Catch Fire. But I’ve found it a bit sad, compared to the previous 3 seasons. The story arc has taken Cameron and Donna, and even Boz, to places I just wasn’t expecting. And Gordon .... . We’ve got 2 episodes left to watch.