Netflix Watch Instantly Recommendation Thread

New York Mag's streaming writer on one of the reasons why GLOW likely got canceled

Netflix probably isn’t totally out of the business of scripted shows that stretch on for five or more seasons. If a series is particularly “efficient” (read: cost effective) or serves a very unique niche, I can see the streamer committing to a longer run. The same goes for shows that are global hits, generating huge viewership around the world, like The Crown or Stranger Things. But Netflix’s tendency these days to walk away from shows after three or four seasons suggests it believes the best way to recruit and retain subscribers is to constantly offer audiences a huge ever-changing assortment of new programming rather than rely on old faves to keep folks in its universe. (That’s what reruns of Seinfeld or Grey’s Anatomy are for.)

This is obviously a radical departure from how network TV has done things for a half-century, but why shouldn’t it be? Netflix doesn’t make money the way broadcasters did. The streamer doesn’t need shows it produces to build up a catalogue of 60, 80, or 100 episodes so that it can make hundreds of millions of dollars in selling syndication rights to other platforms because Netflix shows are designed, by and large, to live their entire lives on Netflix. It doesn’t have to keep moderately successful series around for a decade (or even five years) out of fear that it will be hard to get viewers to sample something new, because the Netflix algorithm and home page mean it can get tens of millions of viewers to at least sample almost anything. (Whether they stick around or like the show is another matter.) And while ending shows prematurely potentially pisses off some producers who would very much love to explore the worlds they’ve created for more than just a couple of seasons, well, that’s the beauty of being a global entertainment super-platform: There will always be other producers willing to play by your rules. NBC needs Dick Wolf and Lorne Michaels to be happy. Netflix needs nobody.

marc maron agrees with your "let's end it with a movie" theory btw
https://www.indiewire.com/2020/10/marc-maron-netflix-glow-ending-movie-finale-1234590944/

I have no issues with them doing that, most shows get stale after 3 seasons anyway, but maybe they could actually plan for and commit to a series length to allow for narratives to resolve and people not to get pissed off?

I never got into GLOW but I'd have to assume that after three seasons it's mostly run its course both narratively and culturally. Tell me I'm wrong!

You're wrong! The fourth season was written as a final, was going to change the setting again in order to advance several leads' since-episode-one character journeys and the programme's overall themes, and they were in production on the second episode when COVID shut it down.

I'm sure that the main reason in cancelling it this week is that it would be expensive to keep re-contracting a large cast over and over until it's safe to film most of them physically rubbing all over their colleagues and sitting on each others' heads.

“The reason I was given from the showrunners was basically a financial one in that they didn’t want to pay to keep the sets alive anymore. We’ve got two offices and soundstages being leased"

Or that, sure.

Isn't Enola Holmes based on a book? I never read the book (or heard of it until the end credits of Enola Holmes), so I've no idea if the book also breaks the fourth wall all the time or not. It was definitely one of those things that I would've absolutely gone nuts for when I was ten. I would've wanted the old-timey bicycle, the corsets, the whole bit.

yes, it's a YA book (or even series of books, didn't look it up). my wife and son watched it the other night thinking it was a series and not a movie (they realized this about 90 minutes in).

Hey, I really liked Enola Holmes! It definitely felt like a YA book. I can't imagine hating it. It struck me as good old-fashioned kids' empowerment lark about out-thinking dumb adults. The lead actor was energetic and light-hearted, it moved quickly, and there was a sweet little love story.

I’d prefer more series to be explicitly one and done, stuff like maniac and Russian doll work as a single series and trying to shoehorn in a second run wouldn’t work. However this should be a goal from the start so it can wrap at the end of a series.

Japanese TV does this a lot, a single series is all you’re going to get so you get a definitive conclusion after 10 episodes.

Pretty bummed that glow won’t be properly wrapped, whilst I’ve enjoyed the 2nd and 3rd seasons it could also have been done in one now we’re in limbo. (See also BBC series The Hour)

I didn't hate Enola Holmes by any means, I think I just like shouting SPUNKY FLEABAG.

From that article...
“The reason I was given from the showrunners was basically a financial one in that they didn’t want to pay to keep the sets alive anymore. We’ve got two offices and soundstages being leased. They were two and a half episodes in on the day they went into lockdown,” Maron said on Instagram. “I was told that they didn’t want to eat the cost of maintaining the sets for another six or seven months to begin production. So that’s what we heard.

killfiled!

russian doll is coming back i think?

I didn't mind Enola Holmes but didn't get much out of it. MBB is kind of an OK lead (I didn't get as much anarchic mischief from her that I felt Enola tried to be channeling), and also felt that the resolution of the film was a MOR moderate cop-out... but I'm probably approaching this from a VERY different angle than its intended audience.

Ok I hated Enola Holmes. Her mother is supposed to some kind of mysterious revolutionary but she abandons her kid? Her own brother imprisons her in a finishing school and Sherlock basically throws up his hands? I just didn't buy any of it, but I guess it wasn't any less preposterous than the Cumberbatch series. The funny thing about EH is that I also thought it was the first episode of a series. For a pilot, it was great. For a movie it just raised way too many unanswered questions.

I didn't hate Enola Holmes by any means, I think I just like shouting SPUNKY FLEABAG.

To the tune of "Funky Gibbon", I hope.

Maron says on WTF today that Sarandon phoned him after he proposed wrapping the story with a single Netflix movie and explained that the health concerns made that impossible.

This is obviously a radical departure from how network TV has done things for a half-century, but why shouldn’t it be? Netflix doesn’t make money the way broadcasters did. The streamer doesn’t need shows it produces to build up a catalogue of 60, 80, or 100 episodes so that it can make hundreds of millions of dollars in selling syndication rights to other platforms because Netflix shows are designed, by and large, to live their entire lives on Netflix.

where does this romantic idea about the networks nurturing underperforming shows come from? if the viewership wasn't there, it got canned. this was as true in the network days as it is now. maybe more so - there are many stories of shows that got cancelled after two or three bad weeks. that doesn't happen on netflix. and the stuff about syndication - networks only made hundreds of millions in syndication rights from big hits. a tiny fraction of what was commissioned!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/According_to_Jim#Ratings

okay good point

it is increasingly hard to remember but pre-internet cable used to desperately need content because, for the most part, they didn't make their own! The paradigm has definitely shifted to the point where I would like to lobby for #LessContentPlease

for sure

until it's safe to film most of them physically rubbing all over their colleagues and sitting on each others' heads

wrestling still exists ftr

i think the presumption is that wrestlers signed on for physical dangers, THESPIANS not so much so

They're all filmed in Florida, with a state govt corrupted by the McMahons... so not good.

― Nhex, Friday, October 9, 2020 6:49 AM (three hours ago)

If Vince McMahon destroys the long-term physical health of several uninsured contractors, business as per his entire decades-long career. If Ted Sarandos murders union members Alison Brie and Geena Davis, it might generate some bad publicity, lawsuits and cancelled subscriptions.
#voteNOon22

The way Netflix pumps out content makes it seem like they're going for basic cable status - always there with something different but not necessarily memorable, let other services be the premium cable option.

This looks great!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRpGNnaDzeE

This is a mess, unfortunately. It barely resembles what you could expect from the trailer and the bulk of it just seems superfluous. Argh! I really wanted it to be good because the trailer seemed so promising.

New season of Kipo is out today 🙂

I saw some webinars with teh people who were making taht 40 year old version a couple of months ago and it did look very promising.
MUst see if I can find a way of getting it.

New season of Kipo is out today 🙂

Oh nice! Season 2 was pretty good but its animation quality took a dip, so given such a surprisingly quick turnaround for S3, I don't expect it to have improved.

Finished Kipo and it's excellent. The animation is still dodgy (save for one episode) but the story is lovely -- I'd say that it's part of the post-Avatar/Korra cartoon boom.

Oh man The Queen's Gambit is extraordinary.

Been wondering about that, as I remember liking the book many years ago.

Oh man The Queen's Gambit is extraordinary.

Just seen this and thought it was fantastic. Anya Taylor-Joy's performance was riveting from start to finish, and I really liked the way all the different themes were explored - addiction, mental illness, sexism, adoption/parental neglect, the loneliness of genius, the tension of high-level competition and all in a lean, clean seven episodes. Also incredible outfits.

Might pick up the Walter Tevis book now too - loved "Mockingbird" but never really checked out anything else by him.

iswydt

ha! didn’t do anything tbh, purely unintentional ;)

omg @ Queens Gambit -can’t stop watching!

I watched the first ep of Queen's Gambit yesterday and I found it to be the strangest mix of boring and upsetting. Too many kid-genius story cliches seemed to be in play: the stone-cold precociousness; the curmudgeonly teacher; handily trouncing the older kids...playing chess on the ceiling was a cool visual idea which I found annoyingly redolent of A Beautiful Mind. I'm going to stick with this because Taylor-Joy is a really compelling actor and I'm assuming it gets more interesting as the character & plot develops.

I'm 3 episodes in, it's certainly not high drama but I find it rather comforting and definitely not too upsetting - every time they seem to telegraph some hugely traumatic event it ends up not working out that way - even the end of ep 2 gets smoothed over pretty much instantly. It all seems a bit Young Adult. The magic drug that causes lucid, persistent and controllable hallucinations within 5 seconds of taking it is lol but ok.

I've been catching up on Dark, but QG definitely caught my eye, looking forward to starting that.

yes I had a friend who stopped queen's gambit 20 minutes into the first episode because he couldn't deal with the orphanage/drugging kids/etc (he's overly sensitive IMO). I told him that all stops with the second episode but he didn't listen to me and went off and watched something stupid

The magic drug that causes lucid, persistent and controllable hallucinations within 5 seconds of taking it is lol but ok

I don't think this is what it's supposed to be doing though? I just figured it was reducing her anxiety/clearing her mind so she could then visualise the board

yeah it’s just a tranq

*just* lol

yeah it’s not causing hallucinations it’s just in taking them she discovered she can visualize the board - my take id she could prob do that without them but she associates w tranqs and thinks that is what helps her maybe

my take ~is~

ok i will accept these hot takes. (the book was 99p in kobo so i bought it & yes she does just seem to be particularly adept at visualisation.)

the lady chess show is very watchable bcz ATJ is extremely watchable -- i never found *her* boring even when festooned w/tropes (or the child that plays her in the first ep). it's kinda hokey schematic bullshit storywise, the moral arc of the drama is 7 eps and it bends towards EXACTLY what you expect at every juncture (but in a pleasing enough way on the whole)

the section in the mid-late eps where she was losing it bcz she's alone and too smart and angry and chaotic and beautiful i found stressy to watch bcz it reminds me of a good friend, who is also sometimes a bit stressy to watch bcz all these same things -- and bcz irl conflicts and causes don't tidily dissove the way hokey schematic-dramatic ones do so i was worrying a bit on my friend's behalf (and wondering if i shd direct them to this show: probably not)

just finished it, even allowing for hokey schematics it whipped ass. acting, production design, cinematography all about as good as i've seen in a limited series/made for streaming thing.