Hidden Gems of Netflix's Watch Instantly

Season 2 of Occupied, a Norwegian political thriller, is up.

It's a near-future show where Norway decides to move entirely to clean energy and shuts down its North Sea oil and gas production. The rest of the EU, which is suffering from an energy crisis, isn't happy with that so they turn a blind eye to Russia's increasingly aggressive and open moves to turn Norway into a puppet state.

Season 1 came out in 2015 and featured crazy things like an America that withdrew from NATO and other international agreements and was cool with Russian meddling.

fangblackbone wrote:
SO refreshing to watch something so uplifting and optimistic. The end of episode 4 broke me.

Is that the cop NASCAR fan one?
So. Good.
They need to bring us season 2 pronto. The cast is just, GREAT!

That one was good too, but it was the one where the guy came out as gay to his stepmum by reading out a letter he had always meant to give to his dad (who died before he built up the courage to do so).

LeapingGnome wrote:

Has anyone else seen Nailed It? Baking competition with 'regular' people that turns out hilariously bad. It is like the opposite of Great British Bakeoff, they are super sarcastic and make fun of each other all the time but at least the couple of episodes we've watched so far have a fun tone overall.

I saw that was on there today, it's now on the "to watch" list

OG_slinger wrote:

Season 2 of Occupied, a Norwegian political thriller, is up.

It's a near-future show where Norway decides to move entirely to clean energy and shuts down its North Sea oil and gas production. The rest of the EU, which is suffering from an energy crisis, isn't happy with that so they turn a blind eye to Russia's increasingly aggressive and open moves to turn Norway into a puppet state.

Season 1 came out in 2015 and featured crazy things like an America that withdrew from NATO and other international agreements and was cool with Russian meddling.

Sorry, not a big fan of Reality TV. /s

I enjoyed the 1st ep of Ash Vs the Evil Dead. It is out there.

karmajay wrote:

I enjoyed the 1st ep of Ash Vs the Evil Dead. It is out there.

You haven’t seen anything yet.

Apparently more classic MST3K episodes got added. "He trieeeeeeed to kill me with a fork lift! Ole!"

Rat Boy wrote:

Apparently more classic MST3K episodes got added. "He trieeeeeeed to kill me with a fork lift! Ole!"

But they're losing "I Accuse My Parents"...

Santa Clarita Diet season 2 coming next Friday.

Bonus_Eruptus wrote:

Santa Clarita Diet season 2 coming next Friday.

Yesssssss!!!!!

OG_slinger wrote:

Season 2 of Occupied, a Norwegian political thriller, is up.

It's a near-future show where Norway decides to move entirely to clean energy and shuts down its North Sea oil and gas production. The rest of the EU, which is suffering from an energy crisis, isn't happy with that so they turn a blind eye to Russia's increasingly aggressive and open moves to turn Norway into a puppet state.

Season 1 came out in 2015 and featured crazy things like an America that withdrew from NATO and other international agreements and was cool with Russian meddling.

I watched about half of that, and it was well done, but really strange. There was a degree of Norwegian politeness that I couldn't quite wrap my head around.

"Sure they've invaded us in all but name and shot and imprisoned several innocent people, but there's no reason to be uncivilized about this!"

After re-watching Black Books for the nth time Netflix recommended Episodes

It was a Showtime show with Tamsin Greig (Fran from Black Books), some other Brit I've never seen in anything but I've come to like, and Matt LeBlanc (Yeah, Joey, seriously). It's about a british writing couple that moves to Hollywood to adapt one of their shows for the US. I found it surprisingly clever and enjoyable, and as someone who lived in LA for a while and hated it, I can sympathize.

It's 24-26 episodes are pretty bite sized and I find myself hitting 'next episode' pretty damn frequently. It can be a little cringey, The Office style, but not too frequently.

Just watched episodes 5 and 6 of Altered Carbon and it has really picked up. The reveals are juicier and more plentiful. The fights are cooler and more frequent but I hope it doesn't lose the noir detective element and become gore/sex/twist repetition. I still want it to make me think.

Spoiler:

I am not really a fan of Ortega but the cybernetic arm makes her way cooler. I was mixed on Kovacs because you can only root for waffling ambivalence for so long. But with the Ryker reveal and what transpired with Alboud and Tanaka, he has more credible stakes. So he is easier to follow and root for.

polypusher wrote:

After re-watching Black Books for the nth time Netflix recommended Episodes

It was a Showtime show with Tamsin Greig (Fran from Black Books), some other Brit I've never seen in anything but I've come to like, and Matt LeBlanc (Yeah, Joey, seriously). It's about a british writing couple that moves to Hollywood to adapt one of their shows for the US. I found it surprisingly clever and enjoyable, and as someone who lived in LA for a while and hated it, I can sympathize.

It's 24-26 episodes are pretty bite sized and I find myself hitting 'next episode' pretty damn frequently. It can be a little cringey, The Office style, but not too frequently.

The other British guy is Stephen Mangan, and the fact that you've never heard of him means you haven't watched Green Wing, which is a personal failing on your part that you should seek to rectify as soon as ethically possible.

LeapingGnome wrote:

Has anyone else seen Nailed It? Baking competition with 'regular' people that turns out hilariously bad. It is like the opposite of Great British Bakeoff, they are super sarcastic and make fun of each other all the time but at least the couple of episodes we've watched so far have a fun tone overall.

I really enjoyed it. Nicole Byer is a lot of fun.

Bingewatched season 2 of Occupied last night until 3:30am. It was worth though, I think the first season is the better season. I may be projecting because of all the twitching and grunting of the elephant next door in the last 500 or so days, but it felt pretty realistic to me except for the EU's role in the invasion. It's a very difficult situation with the international community having abandoned Norway, NATO basically not existing, and Russia being more powerful, there doesn't seem to be a clearcut way to overcome that if you aren't prepared.

I tried watching 'Nailed It' but it was too much of a loud American-style reality/competition show for me with an emphasis on the prize to enjoy but the Great British Bakeoff pretty much ruined Top Chef for me 4 years ago because of too much "in the house" nonsense so I guess that's not too surprising. But it is clearly better than the hot garbage that is that Alton Brown competition show.

tuffalobuffalo wrote:

In this Corner of the World is up on Netflix now. It's a very good animated film.

Cool. I will check that out. The academy award nominee The Bread Winner is also available on Netflix. That's probably old news to most here.

Can anyone recommend some newer Anime on Netflix? I'm specifically looking for things that have little to no sexism, pervism, or excessive objectification of women. That probably narrows it down to about 2 titles. I'm already watching Voltron, Zig and Sharko, and Cat Noir.

Thanks in advance.

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I've been watching Hip-Hop Evolution, and it's excellent. I've been a fan of hip-hop since I was a teenager. The first few episodes helped fill in a lot of the gaps of what I didn't know about hip-hop's origins.

Spoiler:

For instance, I had read from multiple sources that New York hip-hop originated with Jamaican toasting. This theory never sat well with me. The two styles seemed very removed from each other IMO.

This show credits a song called "Here Come The Judge" by Pigmeat Markham, as the original inspiration. Once you hear it, you can't deny it.

I never knew much about Africa Bambaataa. He was extremely influential on the origins of hip-hop. So I looked at his Wikipedia page, and was shocked to see...

Spoiler:

a section of his wiki page titled Sexual abuse allegations. I did a web dive, and it seems like he is indeed a child molester. To make things worse, the activist organization that he founded, Zulu Nation, has been covering up for him for 30+ years. :barf:

Little Witch Academia
knights of sidonia
Full Metal Alchemist
Troll Hunters
One Punch Man

They have a lot of new anime that looks ok from the previews but who knows.

Jonman wrote:

The other British guy is Stephen Mangan, and the fact that you've never heard of him means you haven't watched Green Wing, which is a personal failing on your part that you should seek to rectify as soon as ethically possible. :)

Green Wing is absolutely bonkers. Loved it.

I really liked Knights of Sidonia
Full Metal Alchemist hasn't hooked me yet but it is very good. (I think it may be the interjection of the short jokes that are funny but tropey and sometimes delay the understanding of the episode's message)

RawkGWJ wrote:

Can anyone recommend some newer Anime on Netflix? I'm specifically looking for things that have little to no sexism, pervism, or excessive objectification of women. That probably narrows it down to about 2 titles. I'm already watching Voltron, Zig and Sharko, and Cat Noir.

Violet Evergarden - A former child soldier finds a new job writing letters on behalf of others in order to help herself better understand emotions. Great story, beautiful animation. One of the best new series I've seen in a while.

Children of the Whales - A group of people live on an island floating on an ocean of sand. Most are are "Marked", people born with special abilities who rarely live past their 20s. Those without powers, the Unmarked, have normal life spans. It gets a lot weirder.
Overall the story wasn't as good as I'd hoped, but it's a really interesting world and the animation's very good.

B: The Beginning: It's partly about a group of detectives investigating a series of murders, but it's also about a guy who can grow wings and turn his arm into a sword. It's weird, and pretty dark, but I enjoyed it.

AICO Incarnation - Kind of a horror/adventure story, a group of people have to venture into a quarantined area overtaken by rampant synthetic human cells to try and undo the accident that caused the problem. Lots of body-horror-esque giant flesh blobs attacking people.
Good, not great. Worth a watch if you're a fan of stuff like The Thing or Parasyte, but the story is nothing special.

Rat Boy wrote:

Apparently more classic MST3K episodes got added. "He trieeeeeeed to kill me with a fork lift! Ole!"

OMG that's my favorite one! I just bought that via Rifftrax a few months ago!

One Punch Man has little objectification of women but there's one pretty strong instance of it (wasps).

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Serengeti wrote:
Bonus_Eruptus wrote:

Santa Clarita Diet season 2 coming next Friday.

Yesssssss!!!!!

Concurrrrrrrr!!!!!!!

fangblackbone wrote:

I really liked Knights of Sidonia
Full Metal Alchemist hasn't hooked me yet but it is very good. (I think it may be the interjection of the short jokes that are funny but tropey and sometimes delay the understanding of the episode's message)

I lost all patience with Knights of Sidonia when a character was introduced in the second season that was, quite literally, a giant talking penis.

muraii wrote:

One Punch Man has little objectification of women but there's one pretty strong instance of it (wasps).

I gave one punch man an honest Try. I got to that part and noped the eff out. And yeah... giant penis character? I’ll take a pass on that.

I guess they can’t all be Voltron.

I lost all patience with Knights of Sidonia when a character was introduced in the second season that was, quite literally, a giant talking telescoping penis.

FIXED.

fangblackbone wrote:
I lost all patience with Knights of Sidonia when a character was introduced in the second season that was, quite literally, a giant talking telescoping penis.

FIXED.

In their defense, he grows on you.

HEYOOOHHH!

Ya'll about that cult sh*t lemme tell you about Wild Wild Country

oilypenguin wrote:

In their defense, he grows on you.

What is not to admire about secretly penetrating holes all over Sidonia when not blowing the enemy away.

Sorbicol wrote:
fangblackbone wrote:

I really liked Knights of Sidonia
Full Metal Alchemist hasn't hooked me yet but it is very good. (I think it may be the interjection of the short jokes that are funny but tropey and sometimes delay the understanding of the episode's message)

I lost all patience with Knights of Sidonia when a character was introduced in the second season that was, quite literally, a giant talking penis.

Who at Netflix was like, "I think this desperate ploy for survival against an utterly alien enemy is pretty great, but can we lose all the excitng spacejet fighter battles and turn it into a slow-paced harem anime where one of the love interests is a giant talking penis?"