Hidden Gems of Netflix's Watch Instantly

We're part way through Cobra Kai S3 and whilst the novelty has worn thin it remains enjoyable, and sometimes even heart warming.

I do appreciate how it shifts perspective to see how people can be both good, or less good, or even horrible, depending on who they're dealing with, and depending on the situation. Context. History. Whilst definitely not an excuse both can provide reason.

I personally root for characters to be able to come back from the dark path they've chosen. And even for the supposed "good" crew to make amends for dishonourable action.

We're also still finding a lot to chuckle at.

PSA and I'm probably LTTP, but Miss Fisher's Mystery Murders is really a lot of fun.

I also want to recommend Lupin with our national treasure Omar Sy. I just about binged the five episodes in a day or two and can't wait until they release the second part of that cliffhanger. The vast majority of it takes place in Paris, and it looks glorious.

Eleima wrote:

PSA and I'm probably LTTP, but Miss Fisher's Mystery Murders is really a lot of fun.

I'm sure I posted about it here, but I love that show. Unfortunately it's no longer on Netflix in the US, but it's available on something called Acorn. I signed up for a free trial there to watch the movie they made after the series was over and the spinoff show Miss Fisher's Modern Mysteries (set in the 1960s revolving around a distant relative of Miss Fisher).

Acorn is great if you like mysteries from both Britain and around the commonwealth.

To second Eleima, we're also really enjoying Lupin at episode 4. Omar Sy is a great lead. The supporting cast is very strong too. I'm really hoping he gets the Big Bad, who is terrifically boo-able.

My mum got me to read Lupin books when I was trying to learn French at school. If this is the same Lupin I will jump straight on board, especially if they stick with the marvellous copyright evasion character of Herlock Sholmes.

Edit: Bonus points if they can get Benedict Cumberbatch to play it wearing a very dodgy moustache and credit him as Cendict Bumberbatch

The Miss Fisher movie (Crypt of Tears) is on Amazon Prime here on Australia.

bbk1980 wrote:

My mum got me to read Lupin books when I was trying to learn French at school. If this is the same Lupin I will jump straight on board, especially if they stick with the marvellous copyright evasion character of Herlock Sholmes.

Edit: Bonus points if they can get Benedict Cumberbatch to play it wearing a very dodgy moustache and credit him as Cendict Bumberbatch

It's not the same Lupin at all. It takes place in the modern era (90s, the 00s and today, there's a tiny bit of jumping back and forth, but nothing too confusing) and focus on a big fan on Lupin who borrows some of his MO. I don't want to say too much, because it does a wonderful job of pulling you in from the getgo. And yes, it's definitely steeped in Maurice Leblanc's Arsène Lupin lore.

Eleima wrote:
bbk1980 wrote:

My mum got me to read Lupin books when I was trying to learn French at school. If this is the same Lupin I will jump straight on board, especially if they stick with the marvellous copyright evasion character of Herlock Sholmes.

Edit: Bonus points if they can get Benedict Cumberbatch to play it wearing a very dodgy moustache and credit him as Cendict Bumberbatch

It's not the same Lupin at all. It takes place in the modern era (90s, the 00s and today, there's a tiny bit of jumping back and forth, but nothing too confusing) and focus on a big fan on Lupin who borrows some of his MO. I don't want to say too much, because it does a wonderful job of pulling you in from the getgo. And yes, it's definitely steeped in Maurice Leblanc's Arsène Lupin lore.

Sounds like I’m in then thanks Eleima!

Lupin is really enjoyable but for the love of everything watch in the original French and use your subtitles if you need to. We watched the default English dub for the first episode because my wife was doing some grading and couldn't watch the screen the whole time. For the second episode we were able to enjoy it in the original audio. The difference was startling. The English voice over cast was really miscast and convey very little of what's happening on screen. Totally changed the experience.

Lupin is really enjoyable but for the love of everything watch in the original French and use your subtitles if you need to. We watched the default English dub for the first episode because my wife was doing some grading and couldn't watch the screen the whole time. For the second episode we were able to enjoy it in the original audio. The difference was startling. The English voice over cast was really miscast and convey very little of what's happening on screen. Totally changed the experience.

Rahmen wrote:

Lupin is really enjoyable but for the love of everything watch in the original French and use your subtitles if you need to. We watched the default English dub for the first episode because my wife was doing some grading and couldn't watch the screen the whole time. For the second episode we were able to enjoy it in the original audio. The difference was startling. The English voice over cast was really miscast and convey very little of what's happening on screen. Totally changed the experience.

I concur. I've tried to watch this as "background" while I work but the English dub is terrible!

I never watch English dubs of anything given a choice. Other than those who are blind or can't read very well, there is no excuse for not watching movies in their original languages.

Heck, I have English subtitles turned on for every native-English show I watch, too.

merphle wrote:

Heck, I have English subtitles turned on for every native-English show I watch, too.

Haha me too!

EvilDolphin wrote:

The Miss Fisher movie (Crypt of Tears) is on Amazon Prime here on Australia.

The show and the movie are on Acorn here in the States, all totally worth watching. So fun. She's like a 1920's Australian female Batman.

RnRClown wrote:

We're part way through Cobra Kai S3 and whilst the novelty has worn thin it remains enjoyable, and sometimes even heart warming.

Finished Season 3 today, and while overall it was pretty good there is one major sticking point for me.

Spoiler:

Kreese's character makes no sense. He exists as a villain solely to be a villain. The flashbacks to his Vietnam history explain somewhat why he is such a hard bastard, but they don't explain anything about what he is doing here. What is his motivation? What is his endgame? He wants to run the baddest dojo (with 5 students) and maybe indulge his masochism a bit? It's jarring compared to the development of the other characters. He's a cartoon.

bekkilyn wrote:
merphle wrote:

Heck, I have English subtitles turned on for every native-English show I watch, too.

Haha me too!

Same. Until Hollywood people can figure out sound mixing, I have to. Music and special effects so loud that they shake your house and dialogue so quiet you can't hear a word.

Every damn TV show and movie.

And if you actually watch a broadcast, commercials are even louder.

Watched We can be Heroes and liked it. Basically Spy Kids with super heroes. I think kids will dig it. Adults might be put off by the horrible acting, the look, and dumb plot. Or they might enjoy the ride like I did.

Re: Subtitles

I get irritated by a fear of missing out on subtle visual cues, or on brief scenery details. I can't help but feel my attention is being drawn away from where it should be.

Dubbing can be horrible, though. Lips being out of sync is also a no-no. So I end up going for subtitles and living with the distracted rankle.

In video games, where audio and subtitles align, I often toggle subtitles on to compensate for volume discrepancies (between sound effects, music, and voice) and distance irregularities. I can usually ignore the subtitles or speed read them where applicable.

Baron Of Hell wrote:

Watched We can be Heroes and liked it. Basically Spy Kids with super heroes. I think kids will dig it. Adults might be put off by the horrible acting, the look, and dumb plot. Or they might enjoy the ride like I did.

I thought the ‘horrible acting’ was all part of the ideal to be honest. Mini-Sorb really enjoyed it, I thought it was silly fun to be honest.

RnRClown wrote:

Dubbing can be horrible, though. Lips being out of sync is also a no-no.

What amuses me about this line is the first sentence is often a result of the second.

There's nothing wrong with it; art is about emotions and you react how you react. I just find the conflict interesting.

Personally I want to like subtitles but if my ears don't have anything to do then I'll either get distracted or fall asleep. So Cowboy Bebop was easy to watch subbed because the music was awesome and engaging, but lots of other things that I wish I liked have been hard to get into. Some people can read subtitles and listen to the actor's vocal performance but I have difficulty doing that with languages I don't understand.

The only thing I've watched with dub version of recently was Aggretsuko. The English version of the Death Voice is a lot better, and the dialogue is done really well too. My only complaint is that they didn't make subtitles of the English dub, the English subtitles are an English translation of the Japanese audio, so I had to turn them off.

Stengah wrote:

The only thing I've watched with dub version of recently was Aggretsuko. The English version of the Death Voice is a lot better, and the dialogue is done really well too. My only complaint is that they didn't make subtitles of the English dub, the English subtitles are an English translation of the Japanese audio, so I had to turn them off.

Look for "closed captions for the hearing impaired" or some variant thereof. As I understand it those tend to match the dubbed dialog. As for the subtitles, the audience that prefers those tends to want them to be as strictly transliterated as possible.

Vargen wrote:

As for the subtitles, the audience that prefers those tends to want them to be as strictly transliterated as possible.

That's actually one of the reasons I prefer dubs to subtitles. The translation is often better (in the sense of "better at getting the intention across", not "closer to the exact original wording", which a lot of literal-minded geeks mistakenly think is desirable).

RnRClown wrote:

I get irritated by a fear of missing out on subtle visual cues, or on brief scenery details. I can't help but feel my attention is being drawn away from where it should be.

That's the other reason

(Bad lip sync doesn't bother me at all.)

The thing with subtitles is that I've used them for so long, I don't tend to realize they are even there. It's like I listen first and the subtitles are more of a backup. Obviously, I depend on subtitles more when I don't know the language being spoken, but I definitely notice they are missing if I forget to turn them on and the actors start whispering and mumbling when the music goes into one of those annoying fanfares with trumpets blasting and cannons booming.

I found the English dub of Dark to be pretty bad and the English dub of Money Heist was not as bad but still not good. I'm typically multi-tasking when watching Netflix so it's hard to watch shows with subtitles.

Vargen wrote:
RnRClown wrote:

Dubbing can be horrible, though. Lips being out of sync is also a no-no.

What amuses me about this line is the first sentence is often a result of the second.

There's nothing wrong with it; art is about emotions and you react how you react. I just find the conflict interesting.

Glad to be of amusement.

I find lip sync a secondary annoyance to that from bad voice over performance. Thus the ordering. If the latter is good I can tolerate the former. Pronunciation. Enunciation. Casting.

I also found this dubbing and subtitles tangent quite interesting. It's good to shoot the breeze.

Boudreaux wrote:
RnRClown wrote:

We're part way through Cobra Kai S3 and whilst the novelty has worn thin it remains enjoyable, and sometimes even heart warming.

Finished Season 3 today, and while overall it was pretty good there is one major sticking point for me.

Spoiler:

Kreese's character makes no sense. He exists as a villain solely to be a villain. The flashbacks to his Vietnam history explain somewhat why he is such a hard bastard, but they don't explain anything about what he is doing here. What is his motivation? What is his endgame? He wants to run the baddest dojo (with 5 students) and maybe indulge his masochism a bit? It's jarring compared to the development of the other characters. He's a cartoon.

Spoiler:

Cobra Kai is where Kreese landed once his army days were through. It was all he had. It became his identity. When Cobra Kai went under Kreese literally became a transient without purpose. He tried to re-enlist. They wouldn't have him. He was lost. He had nothing. He was nothing.

Then Johnny Lawrence revived and rejuvenated Cobra Kai. Something Kreese thought impossible. Something Kreese had given up on. Kreese, ever the opportunist, forever knowing how and where to lean, slithered his way back in before reclaiming what was once his. He literally rediscovered his purpose. He was alive once more, rather than merely existing.

Kreese views this second chance through a fractured lens of surviving long enough to overcome those who would take from him, who would step on him. He is still the villain. He views everything as conflict. He is willing to hurt anyone in his way if he cannot influence them for his benefit. He's still at war. He was always at war, in his own mind.

It's a combination of thinking this is where he belongs, if not the military (who won't have him). And a fractured view to thinking he may be preparing these kids and young adults for a world that is cruel and unkind, in such a way to never be a victim, and to never be trodden on. He has nothing else to impart. He never found nor learned anything else. It's this or back to bouncing around without meaning until his time is through.

I had wondered if they'd try to make a road back for Kreese. Maybe they shall. Or maybe it's too late for him. What happened with his mother. I believe depression and suicide. His being bullied in his youth. Coming from nothing. His significant other dying whilst he was serving. What he experienced whilst at war. Being humbled by Mr. Miyagi and losing everything as he failed to learn, failed to rebound. He needs serious help. PTSD counselling. A de-escalation program. It depends if they'd rather him remain their cartoon villain, so to speak.

Outside the Wire is a really confusing film that appears to merge the plots of several different movies (ranging from Eye in the Sky, the Terminator and Ex Machina), giving it all a good shake and seeing what falls out. Anthony Mackie is one of those actors whom I'm fairly sure is much better than the fodder he gets served, while at the same seemingly content to get continually typecast with this sort of fare. However new comer Damson Idris is more than up to the task of playing foil to Mackie, and the rest of the supporting cast do well enough. The action sequences / fight scenes felt little small scale for what the plot was driving towards to places, but it did give them some intimacy and all in all they weren't half bad.

Not bad certainly. But it's central anti-war message just gets lost in all the noise of the plot and it could have dispensed with the last third (and third major plotline!) entirely and have been a much better movie for it.