Hidden Gems of Amazon Prime instant videos

And Brian Blessed was in Episode 5 of Space: 1999 until he... well, melted.

And after about 10 episodes, Space: 1999 is suddenly gated by a paywall for Shout Factory. Jerks.

Fleabag is incredible (just finished series 1).

That is all.

ccoates wrote:

Have any of y'all tried signing up for a Prime channel in another country?

The UK has Arrow Films, which seems like Criterion with an even more cult film focus and higher quality transfers. Would definitely like to give the channel a go, but it requires a UK credit card and address. Not sure how I'd swing that, being a USA resident. Maybe a prepaid card or something?

Didn't find a service online that offers something similar to how if you live in Australia you can pay a company to forward you packages from a USA address.

Found out about them because they did a brand new transfer of John Carpenter's "The Thing", which, yes please.

I’m afraid I haven’t tried another country but I am in the uk and can confirm the arrow channel is great as long as your film tastes swing that way. I have used it to catch up on a bunch of giallo and horrors I wouldn’t have expected to pop up anywhere. Arrow discs are brilliant and I buy the ones that I truly love ( the thing candyman inferno etc) but as they are pricey I use a 5er a month to dip into the more esoteric areas that I probably wouldn’t pay for the disc for. Edited to add I think the channel is on Apple as well I don’t know If that would allow you to access it in the states?

well we took the plunge with Amazon Prime just before Christmas, and have ended up keeping it for the last couple of months. We've watched a fair deal and will summarise below of what I'd made of it all so far:

The Grand Tour My personal guilty - very guilty at times - pleasure. I dunno what it is about Clarkson, Hammond and May but when they get it right they really make me just laugh and be very entertained. Of course when they get it wrong they are crass, borish and incredibly unfunny. So far The Grand Tour hasn't been too bad and their environmental awakening in this years 'Christmas special', while long overdue does at least appear to have actually registered with them all - Clarkson especially. not that they'll do much about it but still. I'd imgaine this review will mean more to UK based GWJers, but there we go.

The Boys Another expected pleasure (for me - far too graphic and rude for Mrs Sorb) that kept me watching right until the end. Really looking forward to season 2.

Mr Robot got through the first season which was very good but didn't grab me enough to make to go straight into season 2. I tend to go cold on global conspiracy shows because they have to make the conspiracy more and more absurd the longer it goes on. Sooner or later my brain just goes "Oh come on" and then I check out. I'll go back to this (probably) but not any time soon

Good Omens Quintessentially British, but also very funny and a real joy to watch as Good Omens is one of my Favourite books. I felt this capture Terry Pratchett in a way that Sky's adaptations early this millennium didn't quite manage. Yes I know Neil Gaiman is just as involved, but this worked for both Mrs Sorb and me and we really enjoyed it.

The Expanse Mrs Sorb and I watched seasons 1 & 2 on Netflix a couple of years back and floundered a bit getting into season 3. However once we'd watched a catch up we were back on it again, after a slow start it turned out to be an absolute belter (no pun intended) of a show. It was better than Battlestar Galactica by the end and we've watched the season through in just a couple of nights. Quite superb and we're going onto season 4 after we've watched Star Trek: Picard.

BadKen wrote:

Fleabag is incredible (just finished series 1).

That is all.

I wish I could watch it again for the first time. Season 2 is even better.

Bonus_Eruptus wrote:
BadKen wrote:

Fleabag is incredible (just finished series 1).

That is all.

I wish I could watch it again for the first time. Season 2 is even better.

Yup. Season 2 was amazing.

I think I posted it earlier that "Fleabag" is the first show in a long time that has me laugh uncontrollably every episode.

Warning: if you haven't watched Fleabag, maybe don't read this message because it might give you such high expectations that the show won't surprise and delight you as much as it could.

I binged season 2 last night in two 90 minute sessions, absolutely glued to the screen and laughing my ass off. I should really take a picture, goodjers, because I have no ass left. One of the reviews I read called it "the perfect television show," and I have to agree. The amount of emotion, character, pathos, comedy, and story portrayed in each < 30 minute episode is unparalleled. The writing alone deserves every award, but every other aspect of the production is just as good.

I read that Waller-Bridge originally intended to leave it at six episodes, as it was a nicely self-contained story. She ended up figuring out a way to put together another three hours, and I'm so glad she did. The ending is perfect, with Fleabag saying farewell to the audience in a way that perfectly suits the character. It left me kind of proud of the character. Article after article calls the ending "bittersweet" but that word is not really sufficient to encompass all the emotion of the closing minutes of the series.

Fun fact: "Fleabag" was Phoebe Waller-Bridge's family nickname growing up.

I don’t know how long it’s been up, but I stumbled across an excellent documentary on Warren Ellis (the comics one, not the Nick Cave one) the other night called Captured Ghosts.

Oh. Must check that out.

We watched Stan &Ollie last night. So charming. Lovely film.

The Farewell was added today.

The Starz version of Howard's End seems to be amazing 2 episodes in. I realized the soundtrack is done by Nico Muhly which makes it a must watch. It's wonderful.

Edit: My pitch is that it's like Downtown Abbey but when you reflect on it, it's good, not bleh.

tuffalobuffalo wrote:

The Starz version of Howard's End seems to be amazing 2 episodes in. I realized the soundtrack is done by Nico Muhly which makes it a must watch. It's wonderful.

Edit: My pitch is that it's like Downtown Abbey but when you reflect on it, it's good, not bleh. ;)

Counterpart is also no longer on Starz and is now on Amazon, too. That was the main reason I wanted to get Starz again, as I still had not watched the second season. But Howard's End is something we had been seeing trailers for and was looking forward to. Good to see it on Amazon now, too.

We've only watched the first episode of season 2 of Counterpart, and holy hell does it jump right back in crank up the pressure. Seriously, it's just a fantastic show. I'm glad it's on Amazon now. It's easily one of my favorite scifi shows.

Yeah, really frustrated Counterpart got cancelled, particularly after playing Control. That sh** is my jam.

Maybe if Counterpart gets a good number of new viewers, Amazon will pick up its third season? Starz has some good stuff, but it is just not watched by enough households. These shows deserve a wider audience. If this ran on AMC or FX, it would be getting a lot more attention.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

The Farewell was added today.

The Farewell sounds really good.

Higgledy wrote:
ClockworkHouse wrote:

The Farewell was added today.

The Farewell sounds really good.

My brother saw it in theaters and said it's great. I heard the original TAL? story so I guess I know what happens, but def still want to watch it.

I finally got to watch it this evening. I hadn't heard the original story, so it was all new to me. I was really struck by how relatable it all was. Billi's family reminded me so much of my wife's family.

Also, one of my favorite parts of the film was Aoi Mizuhara as Aiko, the perpetually baffled Japanese bride of Billi's cousin. Her performance is almost all facial expressions and body language, but it's subtly hilarious throughout.

I was kinda confused by Amazon's new original, Hunters, because I had seen two very different pre-show promos for it: one that was very dark and serious and one that had a much lighter sort of Oceans 11/Catch Me If You Can-but-killing-Nazis vibe to it.

I'm now several episodes into it and it seems both trailers are correct. I'm really enjoying it even though it's a bit of an emotional rollercoaster. Very solid story and great acting.

Started a free Britbox trial on prime. My wife and I are catching up on the deadliest little Island in the Caribbean.

Clumber wrote:

Started a free Britbox trial on prime. My wife and I are catching up on the deadliest little Island in the Caribbean.

I don’t know what Britbox entails but if you have Taskmaster UK in the mix then give it a try. Such a funny show at it’s best (I prefer the earlier series.)

OG_slinger wrote:

I was kinda confused by Amazon's new original, Hunters, because I had seen two very different pre-show promos for it: one that was very dark and serious and one that had a much lighter sort of Oceans 11/Catch Me If You Can-but-killing-Nazis vibe to it.

I'm now several episodes into it and it seems both trailers are correct. I'm really enjoying it even though it's a bit of an emotional rollercoaster. Very solid story and great acting.

I've seen some articles stating this is 'The Boys' but with Nazis. Which couldn't be more wrong.

I love the show so far.

Just got to the origin episode in the second season of Counterpart, and holy hell it's pretty great. It's a massive information dump with four episodes to go, and sets up the endgame pretty well.

The story, with some short bits in the present, is almost entirely in 1987 East Berlin, and it works really well as a self-contained story. And by that, I don't just mean the events, which have a great arc that leads us to where we are today. More than that, it lays out some really interesting ideas about human psychology and makes for a really interesting think piece.

The show is based on a Philip K Dick novel, but this probably the most Philip K Dick feeling episode of the series. Haven't read the book, but this episode makes me want o to see if this story is included, or what inspired.

I cancelled my Starz subscription after Counterpart was cancelled. The show was originally intended to run more than two seasons.

Maybe I should get over it and watch season 2 now that it's on Prime Video.

BadKen wrote:

I cancelled my Starz subscription after Counterpart was cancelled. The show was originally intended to run more than two seasons.

Maybe I should get over it and watch season 2 now that it's on Prime Video.

Definitely, if you want more seasons. I thin they are still shopping it and hoping someone picks it up.

I'm four episodes in on Hunters and so far it is great. It is a show about a group of people hunting nazis. I seen some confusion on the tone of the show. The show is serious at times and dark funny at time. Maybe funny isn't the right word. There are somethings that come off like a comic book villain would think them up but it isn't done for laughs. There was one scene I thought was a dream but it turned out to be real. It was such a cartoon bad guy situation but at the same time serious.

Huh for some reason I thought that show was about monster hunting, like Supernatural.

LeapingGnome wrote:

Huh for some reason I thought that show was about monster hunting, like Supernatural.

There are about 4 or 5 new shows about monster hunting. I'm sure one of them has hunting in the title.

I would posit that the show is about hunting monsters.