Netflix Original Series

[Diabolical]

I've restarted watching Stranger Things.

I watched the first two seasons when they debuted, but never got around so continuing, so with the series wrapping up, I started over.
I forgot a lot of season one, and I remember almost nothing from season two - we'll see if the rewatch jogs my memory.

The acting from the kids is pretty awful so far in season one.

[anarky]

She-Ra and the Princesses of Power: I started watching this a few years ago, and, for reasons I don't even remember, got sidetracked after an episode or two, never got back to it, and always figured I would one day. I recently read that it's leaving Netflix (tomorrow, in fact), and I've been binge watching it, since logically one would think that it would go to Peacock, being a Dreamworks show, but we all thought that about Voltron: Legendary Defenders, which is still missing over a year after leaving Netflix.

And it's pretty great.

This isn't Voltron, where the original was pretty good. The original series was awful. I watched one, maybe two, episodes as a kid and couldn't get into it. It wasn't that it was clearly aimed at girls, it was that it was so clearly aimed at girls that it was laughably transparent pandering. There was She-Ra, who was He-Man's brother, and there were a bunch of female characters who were one-dimensional and completely interchangeable aside from their hair color and powers. The few villains from the She-Ra toyline were so dull, they had to steal the entire Evil Horde from He-Man just to have antagonists. So the bar for improvement is very low. Hermes couldn't limbo under it if the entire Planet Express accounting records depended on it. You could pretty much have any semblance of a coherent plot and be better than the original.

It's clearly aimed at a younger set, but the writing has been excellent so far. (I have two episodes in Season 4 and all of Season 5 to finish by midnight tomorrow, so no spoilers.) It's quite often goofy as hell, but intentionally so, and sometimes mocking how dumb both MOTU and She-Ra were. (There's an episode where He-Man villain Tung Lashor randomly shows up, and several characters laugh their asses off in a gag reminiscent of the Taserface bit from Guardians.) The Princesses are all different, and several are goofy stereotypes (Perfuma is a ditzy hippie, Scorpia is a dumb version of a Jane Lynch character who wants to be everyone's bestie, Mermista is too cool for school and would be constantly on a cellphone if they existed here....), but it works because of the generally irreverent tone. There's also a bit of the "everything isn't as black and white as it was in the 80s show" approach that worked so well on Voltron (most of the villains, even Hordak, have feelings and human weaknesses, and it's been implied the "Ancient Ones"--willing to bet my Orko figure the last episode will reveal them as Eternians even if He-Man never shows up--were up to something pretty dark).

Not sure where it will end up next, but it's definitely worth watching. I only wish Mantenna and Modulok would show up (so far, Grizzlor is the only classic Horde member who's appeared), but some of the developments toward the end of Season 4 sort of open the door for them possibly appearing.

[anarky]

Aaaaand... that may have been the gayest show I've ever seen. Not saying that in a derogatory sense. I think about 75% of the main characters were explicitly into the same gender.

I'm sure the finale fucking pissed off a lot of homophobes. I was mildly annoyed for a different reason altogether (absolutely no concrete connection made to Eternia, but it was still great.

[Tom Foolery]

Aaaaand... that may have been the gayest show I've ever seen. Not saying that in a derogatory sense. I think about 75% of the main characters were explicitly into the same gender.

I'm sure the finale fucking pissed off a lot of homophobes. I was mildly annoyed for a different reason altogether (absolutely no concrete connection made to Eternia, but it was still great.

I’ve never watched an episode, but I’ve seen plenty of memes online. Enough to get the gist that the show is pretty gay positive.

[anarky]

I knew it got a lot of praise for being pro-LGBTQ, but I didn't expect so many characters to be gay or nonbinary. Even the characters who are straight (or asexual or ambiguous) are generally allegorical for different facets of the LGBTQ community. (I was really shocked that Hordak himself became a pretty clear allegory for conversion therapy being a sham that hurts people.)

Also, I have no clue how this (linking instead of embedding in case anyone doesn't want the spoiler) didn't rile the fuck out of the neckbeards, unless they didn't give a shit about the show because either the original was for girls and watching it would make them think they're less alpha or some bullshit, or because the original was just bad. But so many animated shows with no connection to an 80s toyline have one gay character in one episode, and they freak the fuck out, and they're also so fucking absurd they got pissed at the Tynnan character in The Acolyte supposedly being nonbinary because another character who clearly can't tell what gender he is calls him "they" in passing.

[Tom Foolery]

It’s not Netflix(well, it is. But it wasn’t originally) but this is kinda the catchall topic for streaming service shows.

Just started watching The Man in the High Castle. It was originally on Amazon from 2015-2019, but it’s streaming on Netflix now.

I watched the first episode, just looking for something interesting to kill time on Monday. Ended up bingeing the first five episodes in one sitting. And finished the first season today.

[anarky]

The search on this site is wonky, but I cannot find evidence that I mentioned Derry Girls.

One of the funniest goddamn shows I've ever watched.

Watch with subtitles on. The accents are thick, so thick you will miss some gags without them.

[vynsane]

Just started watching The Man in the High Castle. It was originally on Amazon from 2015-2019, but it’s streaming on Netflix now.

not just "originally on Amazon" - wasn't it "an Amazon Original"??? the streaming wars are almost as confusing as the Iran war excursion. this is basically the same as bombing Iran and then lifting sanctions on them due to the price of oil.

[Tom Foolery]

The Amazing Digital Circus. A digital animated series that’s inspired by the Harlan Ellison short story ‘I have no mouth and I must scream’ from 1967.

"I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream" is a Hugo Award-winning 1967 post-apocalyptic science fiction short story by Harlan Ellison, featuring five immortal humans tortured endlessly by a malevolent supercomputer named AM, who hates humanity and keeps them alive to torment them, culminating in a horrific transformation for the protagonist. The story explores themes of suffering, hatred, and the limits of human endurance, and is known for its bleak and disturbing tone.

ADC is short. There’s only been 8 episodes released over the last three years. The final episode doesn’t come out until June. They’re only 30 minutes long. The premise is that normal people wake up in a digitally created VR environment they can’t escape from, in abstract cartoon bodies, and are subjected to ‘adventures’ by an AI named Caine.
The show has garnered somewhat of a cult following, with people poring over every frame of the series, coming up with fan theories and such about its mythology. There are literally hundreds of youtube videos of people breaking down the episodes. On the surface, it’s a zany ADHD explosion of colorful, stimulated antics. But there is an underlying creepiness that sets in as you watch the series. I laughed out loud in a few places. And it takes less time than a viewing of one of the LotR movies to binge the entire series thus far.

Anyway, if you want to know what GenZ is obsessed with, it’s stuff like this.