Amazon Prime streaming video recommendations thread

[Throbbing Angel]

So its suggestions for you are Playboy and schoolgirls?

It was basing that on the selection above, which was Spymaster 's suggestion - so looking at that and the suggestions it'd appear that the explorer is total bollocks

PICK: Brilliant German drama about two family's hot air balloon escape attempt from East Germany in 1979
SUGGESTION: Wank?

 

[Reno]

Watched the first episode of Tales from the Loop, an anthology series based on the artwork by Simon Stålenhag:



Each episode is self-contained, loosely connected by all taking place in the same small town. Strong on art direction, world building and atmosphere but weak on plot and very slow moving. It’s a little too in love with its own wistful artsiness with characters leaving long pauses in their delivery of the dialogue. At an hour this felt 20 minutes too long. In terms of plot, the pilot is very close the the German Netflix scifi series Dark without the clever plot machinations or the emotional depth. I‘ll eventually give this another episode just because it looks so beautiful but I’m not in a hurry to binge this. With the Corona-shut-down my life is slow enough already.

 

[T & P]

Well, I enjoyed it and whereas the pace of ep 1 admittedly isn’t exactly fast, I still found it entertaining. I’d checked a couple of previews online after seeing the series mentioned upthread and was expecting a a Twin Peaks level of weirdness that I was either going to love or hate. But it the first episode turned out to be decent storytelling and it certainly passes the time.

 

[Saul Goodman]

Watched the first episode of Tales from the Loop, an anthology series based on the artwork by Simon Stålenhag:

View attachment 204755

Each episode is self-contained, loosely connected by all taking place in the same small town. Strong on art direction, world building and atmosphere but weak on plot and very slow moving. It’s a little too in love with its own wistful artsiness with characters leaving long pauses in their delivery of the dialogue. At an hour this felt 20 minutes too long. In terms of plot, the pilot is very close the the German Netflix scifi series Dark without the clever plot machinations or the emotional depth. I‘ll eventually give this another episode just because it looks so beautiful but I’m not in a hurry to binge this. With the Corona-shut-down my life is slow enough already.

Was it sponsored by Stihl?

 

[T & P]

Okay, on watching three more episodes I’ve changed my opinion of it somehow and now agree with Reno about the pace. It is bloody slow and the whole fifty-something minutes could have been condensed to 30-35 and the stories would be better for it.

 

[Reno]

Okay, on watching three more episodes I’ve changed my opinion of it somehow and now agree with Reno about the pace. It is bloody slow and the whole fifty-something minutes could have been condensed to 30-35 and the stories would be better for it.

Might skip it completely then, I need a series to really get immersed in right now, not one that puts me to sleep.

 

[T & P]

Might skip it completely then, I need a series to really get immersed in right now.

In my layman opinion it’s trying a bit too hard for its own good. Each episode so far has dealt with an already explored concept- switching bodies a la Freaky Friday, a machine that freezes time for everyone in the world but the person operating it, etc- so not a massively innovative setup.

The stories are decent but whenever the characters experience some kind of misfortune, there are countless long close-up shots of them looking sad with a melancholic piano tune playing in the background to drive home the point.

 

[lefteri]

Tales from the Loop starts today. Will give it a go.

Based around Simon Stalenhag's art.

yeah looks good that, gonna give it a go later

 

[tommers]

Saw the first one last night. I liked it but I can see what you mean about it being padded out. Still I really like stalenhag so I'll watch the rest of them. Sometimes slow and easy is good

 

[Artaxerxes]

Watched the first episode of Tales from the Loop, an anthology series based on the artwork by Simon Stålenhag:

View attachment 204755

Each episode is self-contained, loosely connected by all taking place in the same small town. Strong on art direction, world building and atmosphere but weak on plot and very slow moving. It’s a little too in love with its own wistful artsiness with characters leaving long pauses in their delivery of the dialogue. At an hour this felt 20 minutes too long. In terms of plot, the pilot is very close the the German Netflix scifi series Dark without the clever plot machinations or the emotional depth. I‘ll eventually give this another episode just because it looks so beautiful but I’m not in a hurry to binge this. With the Corona-shut-down my life is slow enough already.

Exactly right.

It's going to be background viewing I think, it looks lovely but it's slow as fuck. I'm also not overly invested in the characters so far.

 

[T & P]

Finished it. The middle episdoes were the least interesting for me, but episode 7 was great, the best of the series and a good rounded story.

 

[chandlerp]

I watched the first which is their opportunity to hook you. Not for me.

 

[T & P]

Just discovered Future Man. Sci-fi comedy series produced by Seth Rogen. Only at episode 2 of S1 but very watchable indeed. Basically if you liked The Boys you should like this.

 

[T & P]

Nearly finished S1 of the aforementioned Future Man and can recommend this to anyone looking for easy entertainment, so long as you like or at least can take Seth Rogan-style comedy.

Plenty of clichés and you see the subplots coming a mile off, but then again this ain’t the kind of series where such concerns should be given any consideration.

 

[equationgirl]

There's a five part series on Ted Bundy, telling of the crimes he committed through the eyes of women involved - not just his victims, but his girlfriend of the time and her daughter, who viewed him as a father figure, police, lawyers. Well worth seeing.

 

[editor]

Tales from the loop was bloody fantastic. Loved it. There's zero similarities with the plot but the pace and pastoral melancholy and understated character exchanges reminded me of the mighty Detectorists.

 

[kabbes]

Nearly finished S1 of the aforementioned Future Man and can recommend this to anyone looking for easy entertainment, so long as you like or at least can take Seth Rogan-style comedy.

Plenty of clichés and you see the subplots coming a mile off, but then again this ain’t the kind of series where such concerns should be given any consideration.

Thanks for this recommendation, I have very much enjoyed series 1 so far. Like you say, this is not some subtle piece of art. But it does what it does very well and is unexpectedly funny (when it’s not tying too hard to appeal to teenage boys). Wolf learning to cook was great, as was the pisstaking of James Cameron.

I also love all the little touches, like the fact that Tiger and Wolf actually say what they’re doing when they’re fighting exactly as if they are in a computer game.

It also gets away with cliche, of course, because it is cliched genre fiction that it is knowingly (lovingly) mocking. It even uses snatches if music from the things it is pastiching, whilst pointing out the pitfalls (eg wouldn’t Marty McFly actually hate living a lie for the rest of his life?). The characters are adorably Genre Savvy - TV Tropes

 

[Spymaster]

We watched The Professor and The Madman last night. It's had a bit of a slating by the critics but I loved it and Sean Penn is brilliant.

True story about the compilation of the Oxford English Dictionary.

 

[Chilli.s]

We watched The Professor and The Madman last night. It's had a bit of a slating by the critics but I loved it and Sean Penn is brilliant.

True story about the compilation of the Oxford English Dictionary.

Yeah I enjoyed that too.

 

[kropotkin]

Just discovered Future Man. Sci-fi comedy series produced by Seth Rogen. Only at episode 2 of S1 but very watchable indeed. Basically if you liked The Boys you should like this.

This is fucking brilliant. It gets much better and funnier through the first series. Really good.

 

[8ball]

Is The Boys also good?

Looks like I've found my next two series once I've finished Preacher.

 

[Chilli.s]

Is The Boys also good?

Having been subjected to Marvel at the cinema for the last few years by the kids (not unwillingly), I found this great fun.

 

[cyberfairy]

Cheers for heads up about The Madman and the Professor- read a book about the 'madman' and very interesting it was too. Just had some great escapism with Decline and Fall based on the book by Evelyn Waugh. All terrible posh, cocktail swilling public school fun with lashings of unpleasantness too.

 

[T & P]

Is The Boys also good?

Looks like I've found my next two series once I've finished Preacher.

The Boys is fucking great. Very quotable indeed.

 

[kabbes]

Karl Urban is great in it

 

[kabbes]

I’m well into S2 of Future Man now. Wolf gets better and better. I love that wherever he goes, he just immediately becomes stupidly excellent at the local craft and the most popular guy in the room in a massively overearnest way

 

[BoxRoom]

I’m well into S2 of Future Man now. Wolf gets better and better. I love that wherever he goes, he just immediately becomes stupidly excellent at the local craft and the most popular guy in the room I. A massively overearnest way

Loved that about the character.
Have only recently binged all 3 series. Worth sticking with.

 

[T & P]

Apparitions: a British supernatural miniseries from about 2008 on the theme of demonic possession and Vatican conspiracy, with Marin Shaw and Siobhan Finneran as the main leads.

Really fucking good, actually. I am sure it must originally been shown on one of the main terrestrial UK channels at the time, but I’d never heard of it before. On episode 4 out of 6, and very entertaining viewing so far.

apparitions series - Google Search

www.google.com

 

[fucthest8]

We watched The Professor and The Madman last night. It's had a bit of a slating by the critics but I loved it and Sean Penn is brilliant.

True story about the compilation of the Oxford English Dictionary.

Yeah I enjoyed that too.

Thought it was excellent, when viewed as a film in its own right, however

Spoiler

the hour prior to the last ten minutes is made up bollocks

 

[The Octagon]

One World Concert live now, just tuned in briefly to see a singer going with the possibly ill advised song choice of "Coffin"