Netflix recommendations

[Jon-of-arc]

This upcoming show The Get Down looks like it could be fun.

Watched the first episode tonight. Reviews are in and they're pretty mixed, but I thought it was ace. Baz Lurmans flamboyant visual style is all over it. Felt the editing at the start was chopping all over the place, but then got caught up in the story and the feel of 70s Bronx, and two ace club scenes (one disco, one hip hop) that worked really well. Likeable cast, pretty decent dialogue, a Romeo and Juliet style love story. Not gonna binge it, as the episodes are pretty long (first one is 90 mins), but will definitely finish it.

 

[High Voltage]

As a mid fifty year old, white, searingly middle class, male who currently lives in green rural England there should be nothing, repeat nothing to draw me to The Get Down yet I was quickly hooked to the show

The characters, who I have nothing in common with and, given where I live, the chance of meeting anyone who's black really would become a topic of note very quickly, became real to me and I want to find out more about them as the story unfolds

Having lived through the era of the horror that was disco and given my highly limited exposure to Hip Hop I enjoyed the music far more than i would have dared to hope for

Both me and Mrs Voltz thoroughly enjoyed this and it's become our new series of choice on Netflix. We're going to limit this to one episode per night at weekends so we will progress through this quite quickly but not at a binge rate of viewing. I'm really interested to see how this is all going to pan out but it looks like they have given the game away a bit as it looks like there is modern day intertwined with flash back. The flash back being the bulk of the show. There will almost certainly be casualties along the way given the back drop of the story and it's setting but so far there been no spoilers as to who they might be

 

[Reno]

As a white, male, searingly middle class and heterosexual male, you would still complain about disco. If you were young, gay and/or black in the 70s it may just have been the soundtrack of liberation.

 

[High Voltage]

Whatever

It's a cracking series, the music's great, the characters believable and the story compelling. And who knows, perhaps, in some small way, watching this will make me a better person

 

[mhendo]

Have any of you British folks watched Marcella? I'm thinking about giving it a try, but was interested to know whether any Urbanites have seen it.

It's done by the guy who did Bron/Broen/The Bridge, which i really love.

 

[High Voltage]

It would appear that we don't get Marcella in the UK

Fuck You Netflix! May SmartFlix rise again from the ashes (and as long as I get the last 2 or 3 months of my 12 months subscription I'll be happy)

 

[mhendo]

It would appear that we don't get Marcella in the UK

Wow, that seems strange, especially since it's set in London, with a British cast. Guess i'll just give it a go and see what it's like.

 

[High Voltage]

I'll double check

 

[Saffy]

It was on ITV earlier on in the year.

 

[High Voltage]

Nope, fuck all - here you go

 

[mhendo]

It was on ITV earlier on in the year.

Ah! So it's marketed as a Netflix Original here in the US, but it's not originally a Netflix show.

 

[The39thStep]

As a white, male, searingly middle class and heterosexual male, you would still complain about disco. If you were young, gay and/or black in the 70s it may just have been the soundtrack of liberation.

Loads of middle class middle age heterosexual males like disco.

 

[Saffy]

Ah! So it's marketed as a Netflix Original here in the US, but it's not originally a Netflix show.

Ahh ok, it was out in the UK back in April on ITV.
I really enjoyed it.

 

[Fez909]

Ah! So it's marketed as a Netflix Original here in the US, but it's not originally a Netflix show.

Yeah, I saw them do this with another show, though I don't remember what it is.

I guess "original" here, means exclusive, rather than funded/made by Netflix.

 

[red & green]

Watched all of the Get Down shame we have to wait a year for the rest - I enjoyed it although I don't like B L films - Jimmy Smits is great in it

 

[High Voltage]

Watched all of the Get Down shame we have to wait a year for the rest - I enjoyed it although I don't like B L films - Jimmy Smits is great in it

Fuck the fuck off - NEXT YEAR

Why can't they binge MAKE THE DAMN THINGS as fast as we can watch them

 

[Orang Utan]

As a mid fifty year old, white, searingly middle class, male who currently lives in green rural England there should be nothing, repeat nothing to draw me to The Get Down yet I was quickly hooked to the show

The characters, who I have nothing in common with and, given where I live, the chance of meeting anyone who's black really would become a topic of note very quickly, became real to me and I want to find out more about them as the story unfolds

Having lived through the era of the horror that was disco and given my highly limited exposure to Hip Hop I enjoyed the music far more than i would have dared to hope for

Both me and Mrs Voltz thoroughly enjoyed this and it's become our new series of choice on Netflix. We're going to limit this to one episode per night at weekends so we will progress through this quite quickly but not at a binge rate of viewing. I'm really interested to see how this is all going to pan out but it looks like they have given the game away a bit as it looks like there is modern day intertwined with flash back. The flash back being the bulk of the show. There will almost certainly be casualties along the way given the back drop of the story and it's setting but so far there been no spoilers as to who they might be

Fuck off. How was disco a 'horror'? It was brilliant and so important and influential. We have a lot to thank disco for.

 

[Jon-of-arc]

Better Call Saul is a "netflix original" in the UK, but is made and broadcast by AMC in the US.

 

[souljacker]

Gotham series 2 has just popped up

 

[High Voltage]

Fuck off. How was disco a 'horror'? It was brilliant and so important and influential. We have a lot to thank disco for.

Then your experience of disco is substantially different to mine. Suit and tie or jacket, smart trousers and tie, smart shoes - NO EXCEPTION

They were alcohol fuelled zones of tension with an general underlaying undercurrent of "unease" - not violence, but unease - the archetypal meat market

Almost exclusively white, it would have been a very, very brave member of the LGBT community to have been open about their sexuality, experiencing, if lucky, ridicule and hostility at worse a kicking - wouldn't have been as bad for any non-white, as the very few that there were at the time I was growing up we'd all gone to school with and they were mates - we looked after our mates

Now take the guns out of the Disco scenes in The Get Down and the disco's of my youth were nothing like that - the music's better, the environment looks to be much more open and inclusive and, dammit, fun

I spoke with Mrs Voltz about this and she's originally from Oop North - and her experience of disco's are markedly different from mine - her experience again sounds fun

The ONLY club that me and my friends eventually gravitated to was, basically, a late night drinking haunt - the dress code was far more relaxed - (Jeans and T's were allowed) - the music policy revolved around 20 minutes of "disco", going into 20 minutes of "chart" music, going into 20 minutes of rock music - Repeat for the night and do the same again next week - you could have a guy in bike leathers stood next to a couple, smartly dressed after a night at the theatre - In the years I went there I only ever saw trouble once - the crowd tended to police themselves - but be clear - this was NOT a disco. It was, probably what would be referred to today as bordering on being in the underground scene. The underground scene is a place I find myself very happy with - certainly in Bristol, where I've had many wonderful nights out

 

[girasol]

Watched the first episode tonight. Reviews are in and they're pretty mixed, but I thought it was ace. Baz Lurmans flamboyant visual style is all over it. Felt the editing at the start was chopping all over the place, but then got caught up in the story and the feel of 70s Bronx, and two ace club scenes (one disco, one hip hop) that worked really well. Likeable cast, pretty decent dialogue, a Romeo and Juliet style love story. Not gonna binge it, as the episodes are pretty long (first one is 90 mins), but will definitely finish it.

On Ep. 5 and still enjoying it. I thought the first long episode was one of the best things made by Netflix. I was actually excited watching it, been a while since something I watched made me feel alive like that

 

[High Voltage]

^^^^^^ This

 

[girasol]

And I thought the first episode had a bit of a Tarantino's Pulp Fiction feel to it...

Just found this break down on The Get Down, it has spoilers
Netflix’s The Get Down is an often brilliant, often frustrating tribute to '70s hip-hop

 

[Orang Utan]

Then your experience of disco is substantially different to mine. Suit and tie or jacket, smart trousers and tie, smart shoes - NO EXCEPTION

They were alcohol fuelled zones of tension with an general underlaying undercurrent of "unease" - not violence, but unease - the archetypal meat market

Almost exclusively white, it would have been a very, very brave member of the LGBT community to have been open about their sexuality, experiencing, if lucky, ridicule and hostility at worse a kicking - wouldn't have been as bad for any non-white, as the very few that there were at the time I was growing up we'd all gone to school with and they were mates - we looked after our mates

Now take the guns out of the Disco scenes in The Get Down and the disco's of my youth were nothing like that - the music's better, the environment looks to be much more open and inclusive and, dammit, fun

I spoke with Mrs Voltz about this and she's originally from Oop North - and her experience of disco's are markedly different from mine - her experience again sounds fun

The ONLY club that me and my friends eventually gravitated to was, basically, a late night drinking haunt - the dress code was far more relaxed - (Jeans and T's were allowed) - the music policy revolved around 20 minutes of "disco", going into 20 minutes of "chart" music, going into 20 minutes of rock music - Repeat for the night and do the same again next week - you could have a guy in bike leathers stood next to a couple, smartly dressed after a night at the theatre - In the years I went there I only ever saw trouble once - the crowd tended to police themselves - but be clear - this was NOT a disco. It was, probably what would be referred to today as bordering on being in the underground scene. The underground scene is a place I find myself very happy with - certainly in Bristol, where I've had many wonderful nights out

Long post and none of it about the f glorious music. D'oh!

 

[Reno]

Then your experience of disco is substantially different to mine. Suit and tie or jacket, smart trousers and tie, smart shoes - NO EXCEPTION

They were alcohol fuelled zones of tension with an general underlaying undercurrent of "unease" - not violence, but unease - the archetypal meat market

Almost exclusively white, it would have been a very, very brave member of the LGBT community to have been open about their sexuality, experiencing, if lucky, ridicule and hostility at worse a kicking - wouldn't have been as bad for any non-white, as the very few that there were at the time I was growing up we'd all gone to school with and they were mates - we looked after our mates

Now take the guns out of the Disco scenes in The Get Down and the disco's of my youth were nothing like that - the music's better, the environment looks to be much more open and inclusive and, dammit, fun

I spoke with Mrs Voltz about this and she's originally from Oop North - and her experience of disco's are markedly different from mine - her experience again sounds fun

The ONLY club that me and my friends eventually gravitated to was, basically, a late night drinking haunt - the dress code was far more relaxed - (Jeans and T's were allowed) - the music policy revolved around 20 minutes of "disco", going into 20 minutes of "chart" music, going into 20 minutes of rock music - Repeat for the night and do the same again next week - you could have a guy in bike leathers stood next to a couple, smartly dressed after a night at the theatre - In the years I went there I only ever saw trouble once - the crowd tended to police themselves - but be clear - this was NOT a disco. It was, probably what would be referred to today as bordering on being in the underground scene. The underground scene is a place I find myself very happy with - certainly in Bristol, where I've had many wonderful nights out

What are you even talking about, of course gay people had better sense then to go to some knuckle dragging, provincial, straight shit hole to dance to music there. There were gay clubs in the 70s and disco was the music which got played there and a lot of it was great and hugely influential.

In your post you referred to "the horror that was disco" as if that was some universally accepted fact, not your personal clubbing experiences and I take that as referring to the "disco sucks" movement which to a large extend was driven by homophobia and racism.

 

[Nanker Phelge]

Then your experience of disco is substantially different to mine. Suit and tie or jacket, smart trousers and tie, smart shoes - NO EXCEPTION

They were alcohol fuelled zones of tension with an general underlaying undercurrent of "unease" - not violence, but unease - the archetypal meat market

Almost exclusively white, it would have been a very, very brave member of the LGBT community to have been open about their sexuality, experiencing, if lucky, ridicule and hostility at worse a kicking - wouldn't have been as bad for any non-white, as the very few that there were at the time I was growing up we'd all gone to school with and they were mates - we looked after our mates

Now take the guns out of the Disco scenes in The Get Down and the disco's of my youth were nothing like that - the music's better, the environment looks to be much more open and inclusive and, dammit, fun

I spoke with Mrs Voltz about this and she's originally from Oop North - and her experience of disco's are markedly different from mine - her experience again sounds fun

The ONLY club that me and my friends eventually gravitated to was, basically, a late night drinking haunt - the dress code was far more relaxed - (Jeans and T's were allowed) - the music policy revolved around 20 minutes of "disco", going into 20 minutes of "chart" music, going into 20 minutes of rock music - Repeat for the night and do the same again next week - you could have a guy in bike leathers stood next to a couple, smartly dressed after a night at the theatre - In the years I went there I only ever saw trouble once - the crowd tended to police themselves - but be clear - this was NOT a disco. It was, probably what would be referred to today as bordering on being in the underground scene. The underground scene is a place I find myself very happy with - certainly in Bristol, where I've had many wonderful nights out

So you lived somewhere shit that had shit clubs that some people might have called 'a disco' but actually had very little to do with Disco music?

 

[Plumdaff]

I've just watched and hugely enjoyed the first series of Crazy Ex Girlfriend.

The title seems problematic, and it's about an unhappy New Yorker who re-locates to California to be in the same town as her summer camp boyfriend. But as the theme song goes "it's much more nuanced than that". It's much more funny, awkward and real on relationships, depression, friednship than a song with this many musical numbers should be. And the musical numbers (the whole cast are Broadway performers) are great. I really liked it.

 

[spanglechick]

Not brand new but Trump's Art of the Deal (or whatever his book was called) is worth a look. Overlong, even at 50 mins, but Johnny Depp's makeup and wig, plus vocal mannerisms are quite disconcerting, and it's always fun to target Trump, even if it is like shooting fish in a barrel.

 

[Reno]

Tallulah which is a Netflix original film is worth watching for its three lead actresses, Ellen Page, Allison Janney and Tammy Blanchard. It's about a drifter who impulsively takes a kid from an unfit mother and then passes the baby off as her own to her missing ex-boyfriend's mother, who takes her in. There are a few Sundance-style indie movie tropes (the uptight, older person learning to loosen up under the Influence of the unconventional outsider) but for all that its well done and he performances make it work.

 

[mwgdrwg]

Series 5 and 6 of Parks & Recreation are now on Amazon. I'm nearing the end