It's literally the worst thing created by humans as a species
August 2, 2016 11:40 AM Subscribe
Yo The Nightmare Wold of Leo Lion, I'ma let you finish, but Foodfight! is the worst CGI disaster of all time!
posted by Proofs and Refutations at 11:49 AM on August 2, 2016 [15 favorites]
posted by Proofs and Refutations at 11:49 AM on August 2, 2016 [15 favorites]
This is exactly the kind of movie that my four year old daughter would see as we scrolled through on my Roku and demand to watch immediately. There's a spectrum of children's TV that runs the gamut from delightful to soul crushing and your kids absolutely do not give a shit. Don't get me wrong; they understand that Animaniacs is the Good Stuff. But they will watch anything with bright colors. I fear for the nation's future.
posted by selfnoise at 11:51 AM on August 2, 2016 [10 favorites]
posted by selfnoise at 11:51 AM on August 2, 2016 [10 favorites]
It looks terrible and all, but this author really undersells netflix. I mean, if you think the selection on Netflix compares poorly to the local video store (when they existed), or what's generally on TV, you're probably mistaken. Netflix does have a lot of crap, too, but so does regular old-fashioned TV. And so did Blockbuster.
posted by Hoopo at 11:53 AM on August 2, 2016 [26 favorites]
posted by Hoopo at 11:53 AM on August 2, 2016 [26 favorites]
Blockbuster absolutely had a ton of garbage, but the employees were running a better algorithm.
posted by enjoymoreradio at 11:54 AM on August 2, 2016 [4 favorites]
posted by enjoymoreradio at 11:54 AM on August 2, 2016 [4 favorites]
According to the Netflix tracking website Allflicks.net, there are currently 5,239 titles available to American subscribers, but I’d challenge you to name a dozen.
???
posted by Artw at 11:59 AM on August 2, 2016 [3 favorites]
???
posted by Artw at 11:59 AM on August 2, 2016 [3 favorites]
Is it wrong that I kind of want to watch it now?
posted by sarcasticah at 11:59 AM on August 2, 2016 [7 favorites]
posted by sarcasticah at 11:59 AM on August 2, 2016 [7 favorites]
Man, selfnoise, I hear you - four-year-olds and Rokus are a dangerous combination. Not that seven-year-olds are much more selective. Our Saturday mornings are a tightrope balance between letting the kids choosing their own cartoons so we can sleep in and really really hoping nothing truly soul-scarring ends up on screen. God help us when they discover Youtube.
posted by gottabefunky at 12:02 PM on August 2, 2016 [3 favorites]
posted by gottabefunky at 12:02 PM on August 2, 2016 [3 favorites]
So when War of the Worlds (Tom Cruise) came out, I ran down to Blockbuster to rent it. What I mistakenly grabbed was War of the Worlds (C. Thomas Howell). It was... awful. Simply awful. And I loved it. I rekindled my love for MST3K-level of awful movies, and Netflix's catalog is just a treasure trove of awful films. *happy sigh*
posted by xedrik at 12:03 PM on August 2, 2016 [4 favorites]
posted by xedrik at 12:03 PM on August 2, 2016 [4 favorites]
On a related note, can someone tell me if I'm just going to be wasting my time with Stranger Things? I've been tempted, but now I just don't know*.
* That said, there are even dumber, more grating children's options out there - Paw Patrol and Blaze for example. Almost all of it, really.
posted by ryanshepard at 12:05 PM on August 2, 2016 [1 favorite]
* That said, there are even dumber, more grating children's options out there - Paw Patrol and Blaze for example. Almost all of it, really.
posted by ryanshepard at 12:05 PM on August 2, 2016 [1 favorite]
"It's literally the worst thing created by humans as a species"
Yet AGAIN I initially thought this was another election post.
would you people stop doing that please?
posted by HuronBob at 12:06 PM on August 2, 2016 [6 favorites]
Yet AGAIN I initially thought this was another election post.
would you people stop doing that please?
posted by HuronBob at 12:06 PM on August 2, 2016 [6 favorites]
Netflix has given my daughter Octonauts, Peg + Cat, the Odd Squad, and Martha Speaks. From that she has taken an interest in sea animals, math (not afraid of numbers like her pops)*, science (she wants to be a scientist like Agent Olive!) and reading.
I mean, yeah, there's junk but there's some good stuff too. It's not a garbage fire by any means.
*also having a tool to say "I am totally freeeeeaking out!" in stressful situations like a character on TV has been a sanity saver on multiple occasions.
posted by Tevin at 12:12 PM on August 2, 2016 [22 favorites]
I mean, yeah, there's junk but there's some good stuff too. It's not a garbage fire by any means.
*also having a tool to say "I am totally freeeeeaking out!" in stressful situations like a character on TV has been a sanity saver on multiple occasions.
posted by Tevin at 12:12 PM on August 2, 2016 [22 favorites]
"Further proof that Netflix is largely a st[r]eaming pile."
This is a pretty seriously bizarre statement, given that the company is creating genuinely great TV in addition to its streaming library. Orange is the New Black is as acclaimed as anying on TV in the last decade. Stranger Things is goddamn brilliant. House of Cards had a solid couple seasons before, like many shows, losing its way. I hear great things about Sense8. And, obviously, they're the home for the MCU "street level" shows like Jessica Jones.
So, yeah, totally a "steaming pile" there. Nothing to see.
posted by uberchet at 12:12 PM on August 2, 2016 [20 favorites]
This is a pretty seriously bizarre statement, given that the company is creating genuinely great TV in addition to its streaming library. Orange is the New Black is as acclaimed as anying on TV in the last decade. Stranger Things is goddamn brilliant. House of Cards had a solid couple seasons before, like many shows, losing its way. I hear great things about Sense8. And, obviously, they're the home for the MCU "street level" shows like Jessica Jones.
So, yeah, totally a "steaming pile" there. Nothing to see.
posted by uberchet at 12:12 PM on August 2, 2016 [20 favorites]
Re: Stranger Things
If you took "Stand By Me" and "E.T.", put them in a blender, splashed in a little "Breakfast Club", watered it down with bad CGI and poured it over a string of christmas tree lights, you would basically have "Stranger Things".
posted by HuronBob at 12:12 PM on August 2, 2016 [8 favorites]
If you took "Stand By Me" and "E.T.", put them in a blender, splashed in a little "Breakfast Club", watered it down with bad CGI and poured it over a string of christmas tree lights, you would basically have "Stranger Things".
posted by HuronBob at 12:12 PM on August 2, 2016 [8 favorites]
Stranger Things: Goonies & Firestarter vs. Species.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 12:14 PM on August 2, 2016 [6 favorites]
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 12:14 PM on August 2, 2016 [6 favorites]
It's not a garbage fire by any means.
Please, please. HuronBob has asked us nicely to stop making everything about Donald Trump.
posted by Naberius at 12:14 PM on August 2, 2016 [5 favorites]
Please, please. HuronBob has asked us nicely to stop making everything about Donald Trump.
posted by Naberius at 12:14 PM on August 2, 2016 [5 favorites]
I cancelled my Netflix subscription after a few months; I'd got it when I got my first big tablet, and thought it would be a good lounging-around option. Lots of my friends were positive about it. But it didn't take long to realise there was no there there, just piles of really bad movies of absolutely no interest to me. (Amazon is a bit better, but I rarely bother to check it.)
It seems I have no tolerance for bad films. I have also recalibrated my opinion of my friends' taste in movies.
posted by Devonian at 12:16 PM on August 2, 2016 [3 favorites]
It seems I have no tolerance for bad films. I have also recalibrated my opinion of my friends' taste in movies.
posted by Devonian at 12:16 PM on August 2, 2016 [3 favorites]
i probably should have linked directly to these tumblr posts that are buried in the nymag article because oh my god everyone needs to see these screencapped nightmares especially the lion/elephant hybrid horror babies
posted by burgerrr at 12:19 PM on August 2, 2016 [5 favorites]
posted by burgerrr at 12:19 PM on August 2, 2016 [5 favorites]
If you took "Stand By Me" and "E.T.", put them in a blender ...
Better call the producers with this. That Blu-ray cover isn't gonna blurb itself.
posted by Flexagon at 12:19 PM on August 2, 2016 [2 favorites]
Better call the producers with this. That Blu-ray cover isn't gonna blurb itself.
posted by Flexagon at 12:19 PM on August 2, 2016 [2 favorites]
Stranger Things: Goonies & Firestarter vs. Species.
If you took "Stand By Me" and "E.T.", put them in a blender, splashed in a little "Breakfast Club", watered it down with bad CGI and poured it over a string of christmas tree lights, you would basically have "Stranger Things".
I'm still not sure what you people are trying to tell me here.
I grew up on a steady diet of 1980s garbage / grindhouse VHS sci fi and horror, so my definition of "good" when it comes to this kind of thing is hopelessly intertwined with childhood nostalgia and thus, basically, defective at best. It is "good bad" or just "bad bad"?
And thanks for hipping me to the fact that Octonauts is available through Netflix, Tevin - my son likes it, and I find it tolerable.
posted by ryanshepard at 12:19 PM on August 2, 2016
If you took "Stand By Me" and "E.T.", put them in a blender, splashed in a little "Breakfast Club", watered it down with bad CGI and poured it over a string of christmas tree lights, you would basically have "Stranger Things".
I'm still not sure what you people are trying to tell me here.
I grew up on a steady diet of 1980s garbage / grindhouse VHS sci fi and horror, so my definition of "good" when it comes to this kind of thing is hopelessly intertwined with childhood nostalgia and thus, basically, defective at best. It is "good bad" or just "bad bad"?
And thanks for hipping me to the fact that Octonauts is available through Netflix, Tevin - my son likes it, and I find it tolerable.
posted by ryanshepard at 12:19 PM on August 2, 2016
Netflix (for backlogs) + Hulu (for new stuff) is a TV replacement. They don't do movies well. I rent any movies I want to watch for ~$3.99 on Google Play. All told I spend maybe $50 on watching just about everything I want if I happen to watch a lot of movies in a given month.
posted by Tevin at 12:21 PM on August 2, 2016 [4 favorites]
posted by Tevin at 12:21 PM on August 2, 2016 [4 favorites]
If you've got a very particular sense of humor / general sensibility, Netflix's BoJack Horseman is astonishingly good, off-putting name aside.
posted by the phlegmatic king at 12:22 PM on August 2, 2016 [23 favorites]
posted by the phlegmatic king at 12:22 PM on August 2, 2016 [23 favorites]
Netflix isn't competing with the Criterion Collection, it's competing with basic cable. I much prefer stumbling across a food show like Raja, Rasoi Aur Anya Kahaniyaan than a three hour block of Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives.
posted by bendybendy at 12:23 PM on August 2, 2016 [5 favorites]
posted by bendybendy at 12:23 PM on August 2, 2016 [5 favorites]
Netflix has Sarah & Duck, and thus it is worthwhile.
posted by aramaic at 12:24 PM on August 2, 2016 [6 favorites]
posted by aramaic at 12:24 PM on August 2, 2016 [6 favorites]
Stranger Things is not any kind of bad. It is good.
posted by prize bull octorok at 12:25 PM on August 2, 2016 [36 favorites]
posted by prize bull octorok at 12:25 PM on August 2, 2016 [36 favorites]
Of course there's a ton of less than stellar content on Netflix, but I'll gladly keep paying - the BBC content alone makes it worth my money.
posted by davebush at 12:28 PM on August 2, 2016 [5 favorites]
posted by davebush at 12:28 PM on August 2, 2016 [5 favorites]
They're bizarrely good on Asian action cinema at the moment. My personal rec would be to check out The Assassination, which is all kinds of great once it gets going.
posted by Artw at 12:30 PM on August 2, 2016 [5 favorites]
posted by Artw at 12:30 PM on August 2, 2016 [5 favorites]
The list format of old Netflix, where you had a backlog of discs waiting for you when you finished what you currently had at home, is dead. Not for a lack of its existence, but for licensing. I had a well-manicured list back when I was getting discs in the mail but I don't think I've looked at my saved list (if it's even still there) for over a year. If I did look at it, I'd find out exactly how few titles they currently have the rights to stream. For completists and more accomplished diggers, it's still an option, but the interface acknowledges that it's not the best way to use the service now.
So you get an interface that's a hodgepodge of what you might want to see and what Netflix wants you to see -- the new movies they actually have, acclaimed films and blockbusters of yesteryear, and the original content they push to let you know it's a good service worth keeping in those months when you've finished binging all your Daredevil and Stranger Things episodes. Lists make you think there's a known progression and give you the impression you have your own library of shows. If you can look at the list and note that things are gone, it's a negative for the service.
If you want to revisit a series, like the Battlestar Galactica series from 2003, you're out of luck on Netflix and Amazon Prime, but it's there on Hulu. Fringe is on Amazon Prime and Netflix but absent on Hulu. But it could be gone tomorrow.
The only consistent experience you can be offered is the inconsistent experience, and the user interface reflects that to keep the shell game going. But all those blank spots in the recommended content and searches have to be filled with something, so they stock the virtual shelves with commodity content bought at market rate.
posted by mikeh at 12:37 PM on August 2, 2016 [4 favorites]
So you get an interface that's a hodgepodge of what you might want to see and what Netflix wants you to see -- the new movies they actually have, acclaimed films and blockbusters of yesteryear, and the original content they push to let you know it's a good service worth keeping in those months when you've finished binging all your Daredevil and Stranger Things episodes. Lists make you think there's a known progression and give you the impression you have your own library of shows. If you can look at the list and note that things are gone, it's a negative for the service.
If you want to revisit a series, like the Battlestar Galactica series from 2003, you're out of luck on Netflix and Amazon Prime, but it's there on Hulu. Fringe is on Amazon Prime and Netflix but absent on Hulu. But it could be gone tomorrow.
The only consistent experience you can be offered is the inconsistent experience, and the user interface reflects that to keep the shell game going. But all those blank spots in the recommended content and searches have to be filled with something, so they stock the virtual shelves with commodity content bought at market rate.
posted by mikeh at 12:37 PM on August 2, 2016 [4 favorites]
Stranger Things is a period 80s piece straight-up, with no apologies or, what would have been killer for me, no golden halo of a fondly recalled youth that never really was. Kids are rotten to each other, as kids are. Kids are great with each other as kids can be. It's mostly just what the early 80s was like.
What it is, is a really fantastic story that wouldn't be out of place in an X-files season. But Mulder and Sculley didn't ride bikes with gorilla hangers and banana seats.
posted by bonehead at 12:40 PM on August 2, 2016 [8 favorites]
What it is, is a really fantastic story that wouldn't be out of place in an X-files season. But Mulder and Sculley didn't ride bikes with gorilla hangers and banana seats.
posted by bonehead at 12:40 PM on August 2, 2016 [8 favorites]
Stranger Things is legitimately good. It draws pretty heavily on 80s film tropes, but not in a lazy way -- it's pretty much the conceptual underpinning of the series. If you like that kind of thing, you'll like it.
posted by a mirror and an encyclopedia at 12:41 PM on August 2, 2016 [9 favorites]
posted by a mirror and an encyclopedia at 12:41 PM on August 2, 2016 [9 favorites]
Hulu has the Criterion Collection. Just sayin'
posted by Doleful Creature at 12:45 PM on August 2, 2016 [3 favorites]
posted by Doleful Creature at 12:45 PM on August 2, 2016 [3 favorites]
Fellow parents, learn from my sleepless nights of ear wormed torment and never, ever allow your children to watch Gon on Netflix.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 12:50 PM on August 2, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by robocop is bleeding at 12:50 PM on August 2, 2016 [1 favorite]
The 8-episode format manages to avoid a lot of the meandering that seems to plague 26-episode season arcs, and for that matter I think Jessica Jones could have been a bit tighter than it was. Relationship plotlines become ridiculously tedious in a mainstream television season, like Remains of the Day stretched out to 26 hours, but without any clear reason for evading emotional development.
posted by CBrachyrhynchos at 12:55 PM on August 2, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by CBrachyrhynchos at 12:55 PM on August 2, 2016 [2 favorites]
They have also been surprisingly good on European genre films from time to time - and the thing that bugs me most about Netflix is how things come and go so frequently that you can't keep track.
This where I discovered a couple really great French zombie films that I've talked about beefore - Mutants and The Horde. (Sorry, there is an English dub trailer out there, but it's so horrible I thought it better to actually just link to the unsubbed French.) They're polar opposites, but good in their own very, very different ways.
This is where I discovered Timecrimes, in which a guy is hanging out in his back yard, minding his own business, when time travel (the very concept of it) just shows up out of nowhere like a gamergate troll and ruins his life for no apparent reason but the lulz.
I've found a lot of really good Spanish end of the world movies on Netflix as well (not just the REC series of found footage zombie romps). It's where I found Before the Fall, (aka Tres Dias) in which a small town loser finds redemption in protecting a group of children from both a dangerous predator out for revenge, and from the knowledge that an asteroid is about to destroy the world.
It's also where I found The Last Days, which surprised the hell out of me. Agoraphobia destroys the world, and a guy tries to find his girlfriend in Barcelona without going outside. I loved the inventiveness and the characterizations in this movie, and I never would have found it without Netflix and its mountain of crap.
posted by Naberius at 12:55 PM on August 2, 2016 [13 favorites]
This where I discovered a couple really great French zombie films that I've talked about beefore - Mutants and The Horde. (Sorry, there is an English dub trailer out there, but it's so horrible I thought it better to actually just link to the unsubbed French.) They're polar opposites, but good in their own very, very different ways.
This is where I discovered Timecrimes, in which a guy is hanging out in his back yard, minding his own business, when time travel (the very concept of it) just shows up out of nowhere like a gamergate troll and ruins his life for no apparent reason but the lulz.
I've found a lot of really good Spanish end of the world movies on Netflix as well (not just the REC series of found footage zombie romps). It's where I found Before the Fall, (aka Tres Dias) in which a small town loser finds redemption in protecting a group of children from both a dangerous predator out for revenge, and from the knowledge that an asteroid is about to destroy the world.
It's also where I found The Last Days, which surprised the hell out of me. Agoraphobia destroys the world, and a guy tries to find his girlfriend in Barcelona without going outside. I loved the inventiveness and the characterizations in this movie, and I never would have found it without Netflix and its mountain of crap.
posted by Naberius at 12:55 PM on August 2, 2016 [13 favorites]
Further proof that Netflix is largely a st[r]eaming pile.
Right, just like carrying The Celestine Prophecy means your entire local library's holdings are polluted by association.
It's not a punchbowl, dude.
posted by psoas at 12:58 PM on August 2, 2016 [18 favorites]
Right, just like carrying The Celestine Prophecy means your entire local library's holdings are polluted by association.
It's not a punchbowl, dude.
posted by psoas at 12:58 PM on August 2, 2016 [18 favorites]
There are a number of obscure but very good time-travel movies on Netflix. Unfortunately I can't remember their names off-hand, but it brings to mind a philosophy of watching Netflix, that can also apply to Youtube and even Reddit.
Don't just go to the site and see what they recommend. Only go there already knowing what you are going to watch--shows/sites recommended by friends, articles, blogs, etc.
If you just go to these sites and just start clicking what they present, you are going to see some really awful stuff and then have a low opinion of the site, not even realizing that there is hidden gold underneath the slop.
posted by eye of newt at 1:06 PM on August 2, 2016
Don't just go to the site and see what they recommend. Only go there already knowing what you are going to watch--shows/sites recommended by friends, articles, blogs, etc.
If you just go to these sites and just start clicking what they present, you are going to see some really awful stuff and then have a low opinion of the site, not even realizing that there is hidden gold underneath the slop.
posted by eye of newt at 1:06 PM on August 2, 2016
Letterboxd is telling me that there are 68 films from my watchlist currently streaming on Netflix so I'm not in any danger of running out of things to watch.
posted by octothorpe at 1:07 PM on August 2, 2016 [4 favorites]
posted by octothorpe at 1:07 PM on August 2, 2016 [4 favorites]
Doleful Creature: "Hulu has the Criterion Collection. Just sayin'"
Only until November when they start their own channel with TCM.
posted by octothorpe at 1:09 PM on August 2, 2016 [5 favorites]
Only until November when they start their own channel with TCM.
posted by octothorpe at 1:09 PM on August 2, 2016 [5 favorites]
Very recently Amazon poached all the PBS Kids shows away from Netflix. I learned this last weekend after promising Wild Kratts, settling impatient preschooler front of the TV, and then failing to find Wild Kratts in the watchlist. I was able to divert her to some David Attenborough, so Netflix and I are still on good terms.
When I looked, it appeared that not all of the PBS Kids stuff on Amazon is free with Prime, which seems extraordinarily shitty. I believe at least two seasons of Peg+Cat are free, while they demand money for other seasons. As I recall, there was only one season of Peg+Cat on Netflix, so I haven't yet figured out how much to calibrate my hate for Amazon.
posted by polecat at 1:15 PM on August 2, 2016 [2 favorites]
When I looked, it appeared that not all of the PBS Kids stuff on Amazon is free with Prime, which seems extraordinarily shitty. I believe at least two seasons of Peg+Cat are free, while they demand money for other seasons. As I recall, there was only one season of Peg+Cat on Netflix, so I haven't yet figured out how much to calibrate my hate for Amazon.
posted by polecat at 1:15 PM on August 2, 2016 [2 favorites]
I'm still not sure what you people are trying to tell me here.
My friend, Stranger Things was created by an algorithm to directly stimulate the nostalgia centers of the brains of Gen Xers. It's fantastic. I unreservedly love every second of it.
posted by soren_lorensen at 1:17 PM on August 2, 2016 [6 favorites]
My friend, Stranger Things was created by an algorithm to directly stimulate the nostalgia centers of the brains of Gen Xers. It's fantastic. I unreservedly love every second of it.
posted by soren_lorensen at 1:17 PM on August 2, 2016 [6 favorites]
If you've got a very particular sense of humor / general sensibility, Netflix's BoJack Horseman is astonishingly good, off-putting name aside.
Between BoJack, Lady Dynamite, and (to a degree) Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Netflix has a really formidable stable of high-quality comedy series about depression.
posted by psoas at 1:18 PM on August 2, 2016 [13 favorites]
Between BoJack, Lady Dynamite, and (to a degree) Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Netflix has a really formidable stable of high-quality comedy series about depression.
posted by psoas at 1:18 PM on August 2, 2016 [13 favorites]
Netflix DVD still exists. My wife convinced me to cancel it when we got Amazon Prime so we could watch Man in the High Castle, but after the fourth or fifth movie I wanted to watch that wasn't available I reinstated DVD for one disk at a time.
Licensing is a nightmare that will haunt streaming for decades. Say what you want about those quaint physical discs being mailed around, since they are physical discs once they exist they continue to exist until someone breaks them. Licensing expires. I can count every movie I have ever wanted to see that Netflix DVD has failed to get me on the fingers of one hand. Amazon Prime racked that same count up in a week. And $3.99 to watch one streaming movie is ridiculous when for $9 you can watch four or five a month from a much vaster catalog. Sure the convenience is nice and I have made use of my Prime account, but it hasn't put me in the mood to pay anyone else for the privilege of streaming. The OP is exhibit #1 as to why.
posted by Bringer Tom at 1:18 PM on August 2, 2016 [9 favorites]
Licensing is a nightmare that will haunt streaming for decades. Say what you want about those quaint physical discs being mailed around, since they are physical discs once they exist they continue to exist until someone breaks them. Licensing expires. I can count every movie I have ever wanted to see that Netflix DVD has failed to get me on the fingers of one hand. Amazon Prime racked that same count up in a week. And $3.99 to watch one streaming movie is ridiculous when for $9 you can watch four or five a month from a much vaster catalog. Sure the convenience is nice and I have made use of my Prime account, but it hasn't put me in the mood to pay anyone else for the privilege of streaming. The OP is exhibit #1 as to why.
posted by Bringer Tom at 1:18 PM on August 2, 2016 [9 favorites]
Very recently Amazon poached all the PBS Kids shows away from Netflix.
Thus ruining the lives of parents of preschoolers everywhere. I can tell you the precise day that it happened because my son watches either Daniel Tiger (yay!) or Caillou (sigh) literally every day with breakfast and has for the past 2 years. (He's like me--when he finds something he loves, he wants to do that one thing forever.)
He doesn't actually watch TV on the TV but on a tablet or laptop, so we've been able to subsitute the PBS Kids app or the PBS Kids website. But let me tell you, the PBS version of Caillou is (bizarrely) completely different than the one that was on Netflix and I now understand all the rampant parental Caillou hate out there.
posted by soren_lorensen at 1:20 PM on August 2, 2016 [3 favorites]
Thus ruining the lives of parents of preschoolers everywhere. I can tell you the precise day that it happened because my son watches either Daniel Tiger (yay!) or Caillou (sigh) literally every day with breakfast and has for the past 2 years. (He's like me--when he finds something he loves, he wants to do that one thing forever.)
He doesn't actually watch TV on the TV but on a tablet or laptop, so we've been able to subsitute the PBS Kids app or the PBS Kids website. But let me tell you, the PBS version of Caillou is (bizarrely) completely different than the one that was on Netflix and I now understand all the rampant parental Caillou hate out there.
posted by soren_lorensen at 1:20 PM on August 2, 2016 [3 favorites]
Stranger Things, four episodes in: Millie Bobby Brown (Eleven) sells the series for me as something worth watching beyond the oogly boogly mashup of Spielberg, King, and Carpenter.
posted by CBrachyrhynchos at 1:23 PM on August 2, 2016
posted by CBrachyrhynchos at 1:23 PM on August 2, 2016
More examples of how Netflix is far from "a st[r]eaming pile" -- Grace and Frankie, Master of None, and Longmire.
Tevin: Netflix has given my daughter Octonauts, Peg + Cat, the Odd Squad, and Martha Speaks.
Except for Octonauts, the rest are PBS programs, which you can also pick up in their daily airings with a (DIY) over the air antenna, and then record with a (DIY) DVR.
posted by filthy light thief at 1:26 PM on August 2, 2016 [2 favorites]
Tevin: Netflix has given my daughter Octonauts, Peg + Cat, the Odd Squad, and Martha Speaks.
Except for Octonauts, the rest are PBS programs, which you can also pick up in their daily airings with a (DIY) over the air antenna, and then record with a (DIY) DVR.
posted by filthy light thief at 1:26 PM on August 2, 2016 [2 favorites]
So now that I've bothered to RTFA, a question: it says "The difference between the cost of licensing a movie like Leo the Lion and the potential gains for Netflix is a very wide chasm" ...but how does Netflix realize any sort of profit on an individual title like this if its only revenue (to my knowledge) is overall subscriptions?
posted by psoas at 1:28 PM on August 2, 2016
posted by psoas at 1:28 PM on August 2, 2016
This is exactly the kind of movie that my four year old daughter would see as we scrolled through on my Roku and demand to watch immediately. There's a spectrum of children's TV that runs the gamut from delightful to soul crushing and your kids absolutely do not give a shit. Don't get me wrong; they understand that Animaniacs is the Good Stuff. But they will watch anything with bright colors. I fear for the nation's future.
Oh dear gods, they haven't found YouTube yet? You are so very lucky, because there's some really weird things that kids will not want to stop watching.
BUT they're all 99% better than standard TV. Why? No commercials. I realized how much easier it is to manage the demands of a 5 year old boy when his biggest demands are for more kinds of prehistoric animals. We watched live TV a bit while on vacation, and the first toy ad had him asking "can I get those things?" for a few days.
Endless singing of Finger Family can get annoying, but that's nothing compared to demands for nonsense toys and junky food. In fact, we can shop with him and while he can identify major characters on various boxes, he's not asking for those branded foods.
Live TV (excluding PBS) is so very obnoxious when you haven't had it for a few years.
posted by filthy light thief at 1:32 PM on August 2, 2016 [2 favorites]
Oh dear gods, they haven't found YouTube yet? You are so very lucky, because there's some really weird things that kids will not want to stop watching.
BUT they're all 99% better than standard TV. Why? No commercials. I realized how much easier it is to manage the demands of a 5 year old boy when his biggest demands are for more kinds of prehistoric animals. We watched live TV a bit while on vacation, and the first toy ad had him asking "can I get those things?" for a few days.
Endless singing of Finger Family can get annoying, but that's nothing compared to demands for nonsense toys and junky food. In fact, we can shop with him and while he can identify major characters on various boxes, he's not asking for those branded foods.
Live TV (excluding PBS) is so very obnoxious when you haven't had it for a few years.
posted by filthy light thief at 1:32 PM on August 2, 2016 [2 favorites]
No commercials.
I'll occasionally watch live broadcast TV for a sports game or news event and I'm always amazed all over again at how terrible commercials are.
posted by octothorpe at 1:35 PM on August 2, 2016 [8 favorites]
I'll occasionally watch live broadcast TV for a sports game or news event and I'm always amazed all over again at how terrible commercials are.
posted by octothorpe at 1:35 PM on August 2, 2016 [8 favorites]
Live TV (excluding PBS) is so very obnoxious when you haven't had it for a few years.
Agreed. One of the more annoying markers of bad TV writing is expository dialogue every 10 minutes or so to remind people of what happened before the break.
posted by CBrachyrhynchos at 1:37 PM on August 2, 2016 [3 favorites]
Agreed. One of the more annoying markers of bad TV writing is expository dialogue every 10 minutes or so to remind people of what happened before the break.
posted by CBrachyrhynchos at 1:37 PM on August 2, 2016 [3 favorites]
No commercials.
Or as bad as commercials but with NO END.
posted by Artw at 1:42 PM on August 2, 2016
Or as bad as commercials but with NO END.
posted by Artw at 1:42 PM on August 2, 2016
I know there are DVR options for just about all the shows but I do appreciate the ease of just having it right there, even if it is spread across Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon.
But in all of this can we please not forget that the enemies aren't Netflix but the owners of the IP who make it especially onerous for potential customers to receive their content? If the corporate shitlords weren't trying to fragment everything and run their own streaming services through their shitty cable we could have nice things.
posted by Tevin at 1:45 PM on August 2, 2016 [1 favorite]
But in all of this can we please not forget that the enemies aren't Netflix but the owners of the IP who make it especially onerous for potential customers to receive their content? If the corporate shitlords weren't trying to fragment everything and run their own streaming services through their shitty cable we could have nice things.
posted by Tevin at 1:45 PM on August 2, 2016 [1 favorite]
Netflix is great if you want a steady diet of zero-budget garbage horror movies.
Which I do.
posted by Faint of Butt at 1:45 PM on August 2, 2016 [8 favorites]
Which I do.
posted by Faint of Butt at 1:45 PM on August 2, 2016 [8 favorites]
Know how I know you've never seen SHARKBOY AND LAVA GIRL?
posted by PsychoTherapist at 1:46 PM on August 2, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by PsychoTherapist at 1:46 PM on August 2, 2016 [1 favorite]
Our youngest has just really discovered YouTube, so he's now getting ads for pretty much the first time in his life (not counting our brief stays in hotels or at the grandparents'). He is also totally obsessed with fan-created content about videogames which he has never been allowed to play. (No, I'm not interested in seeing Five Nights at Freddy's recreated in Minecraft, or Roblox, or any other game, thank you.)
posted by Four Ds at 1:51 PM on August 2, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by Four Ds at 1:51 PM on August 2, 2016 [1 favorite]
The low, low bar that Netflix has to clear is; for $12/month, do I get more entertainment value out of it than I do going to the movie theatre once a month? The tv shows my wife and/or I have worked our way through (Breaking Bad, The Mindy Project, Bojack Horseman, Brooklyn 99, Archer, Stranger Things, Community...and American Dad when we feel like the tv equivalent of Pizza Hut) justify the expense on their own. The movies? Ehhhhhhh....
posted by The Card Cheat at 1:52 PM on August 2, 2016 [8 favorites]
posted by The Card Cheat at 1:52 PM on August 2, 2016 [8 favorites]
> Live TV (excluding PBS) is so very obnoxious when you haven't had it for a few years.
I can't ever go back to cable, because the only time I watch it is when we visit my wife's parents, and within two days I turn into an old man shaking my cane at the TV and yelling about how stupid everything is. I mean, I've got MetaFilter for that.
posted by The Card Cheat at 1:56 PM on August 2, 2016 [10 favorites]
I can't ever go back to cable, because the only time I watch it is when we visit my wife's parents, and within two days I turn into an old man shaking my cane at the TV and yelling about how stupid everything is. I mean, I've got MetaFilter for that.
posted by The Card Cheat at 1:56 PM on August 2, 2016 [10 favorites]
But it didn't take long to realise there was no there there, just piles of really bad movies of absolutely no interest to me. (Amazon is a bit better, but I rarely bother to check it.)
This is backwards for my tastes, which is smaller movies, foreign, and horror. Netflix regularly has decent little films like Force Majeure, Housebound, We Are The Best!, Zero Motivation, Phoenix, He Never Died, Nightcrawler, Late Phases, Creep, A Hijacking, Dead Snow. And, Peep Show.
There's veins of good stuff, I'm saying, unlike Amazon Prime which only rarely has like a speck of good among the mountains of crap. (Bone Tomahawk and Slow West are the only ones I remember atm.)
There's bad shit on Netflix too, a lot of it. Sometimes it can be difficult to find something when we're in the mood to watch a movie. But there's bad stuff everywhere. The worst movie I saw recently which was "how did this even get made" bad was At Middleton which I posit is worse than the subject of this FPP, but it wasn't on Netflix.
posted by nom de poop at 1:57 PM on August 2, 2016 [2 favorites]
This is backwards for my tastes, which is smaller movies, foreign, and horror. Netflix regularly has decent little films like Force Majeure, Housebound, We Are The Best!, Zero Motivation, Phoenix, He Never Died, Nightcrawler, Late Phases, Creep, A Hijacking, Dead Snow. And, Peep Show.
There's veins of good stuff, I'm saying, unlike Amazon Prime which only rarely has like a speck of good among the mountains of crap. (Bone Tomahawk and Slow West are the only ones I remember atm.)
There's bad shit on Netflix too, a lot of it. Sometimes it can be difficult to find something when we're in the mood to watch a movie. But there's bad stuff everywhere. The worst movie I saw recently which was "how did this even get made" bad was At Middleton which I posit is worse than the subject of this FPP, but it wasn't on Netflix.
posted by nom de poop at 1:57 PM on August 2, 2016 [2 favorites]
Related: The Flop House Podcast’s Foodfight! episode.
posted by blueberry at 2:07 PM on August 2, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by blueberry at 2:07 PM on August 2, 2016 [1 favorite]
Blockbuster absolutely had a ton of garbage, but the employees were running a better algorithm.
I can count on one hand the number of times netflix has recommended me something that was actually good i had never heard of. My Local Independent Video Shop would recommend me something awesome(even if that meant awesome cringe bad) every single time i went in.
There was also a lot of videodrome/vibrations type badgood stuff that never came out online, or on anything but VHS, that i really miss.
Netflix seems to have a glut of bad animated kids movies, and bad knockoff horror movies and such. And the thing is, almost none of them are actually funny or entertaining. They're just kind of there.
I've given so many movies that seemed weird or badgood a try, and they're almost always just... bad, and not entertaining on netflix. This basically never happened at the video shop, where it either surprisingly pulled through in some way or was just so bad you were crapping your shorts laughing.
Oh well.
posted by emptythought at 2:09 PM on August 2, 2016 [1 favorite]
I can count on one hand the number of times netflix has recommended me something that was actually good i had never heard of. My Local Independent Video Shop would recommend me something awesome(even if that meant awesome cringe bad) every single time i went in.
There was also a lot of videodrome/vibrations type badgood stuff that never came out online, or on anything but VHS, that i really miss.
Netflix seems to have a glut of bad animated kids movies, and bad knockoff horror movies and such. And the thing is, almost none of them are actually funny or entertaining. They're just kind of there.
I've given so many movies that seemed weird or badgood a try, and they're almost always just... bad, and not entertaining on netflix. This basically never happened at the video shop, where it either surprisingly pulled through in some way or was just so bad you were crapping your shorts laughing.
Oh well.
posted by emptythought at 2:09 PM on August 2, 2016 [1 favorite]
I mean, yeah, there's junk but there's some good stuff too. It's not a garbage fire by any means.
They really should make a garbage fire screensaver film though. I'd watch it at xmas with my family.
posted by srboisvert at 2:24 PM on August 2, 2016 [2 favorites]
They really should make a garbage fire screensaver film though. I'd watch it at xmas with my family.
posted by srboisvert at 2:24 PM on August 2, 2016 [2 favorites]
Hulu has the Criterion Collection. Just sayin'
So does The Toronto Public Library.
As for Stranger Things, I'd give it a pass if I were you. The kids are mostly excellent, but the story is fluff, the adult characters are *terrible* and, rather than learn from the 30 years since the 80s and truly write some interesting shit, we get a tubby kid who always talks about food, a mom character who can do nothing but cry, a cop character who's incompetent and unbelievable in most situations, and stereotypical bad guys, etc.
posted by You Should See the Other Guy at 2:31 PM on August 2, 2016 [3 favorites]
So does The Toronto Public Library.
As for Stranger Things, I'd give it a pass if I were you. The kids are mostly excellent, but the story is fluff, the adult characters are *terrible* and, rather than learn from the 30 years since the 80s and truly write some interesting shit, we get a tubby kid who always talks about food, a mom character who can do nothing but cry, a cop character who's incompetent and unbelievable in most situations, and stereotypical bad guys, etc.
posted by You Should See the Other Guy at 2:31 PM on August 2, 2016 [3 favorites]
Nope, Stranger Things is awesome.
posted by blueberry at 2:37 PM on August 2, 2016 [14 favorites]
posted by blueberry at 2:37 PM on August 2, 2016 [14 favorites]
Stranger Things is from a place where Winona Ryder and Matthew Modine grew up to be great grown-up actors, and is worth it for that alone.
posted by Hogshead at 2:41 PM on August 2, 2016 [9 favorites]
posted by Hogshead at 2:41 PM on August 2, 2016 [9 favorites]
Gotta second You Should See the Other Guy here. I'm a Netflix subscriber, but my local public library has a better selection of new movies, and it's free. On topic, Leo the Lion looks extremely creepy.
posted by hyperizer at 2:49 PM on August 2, 2016
posted by hyperizer at 2:49 PM on August 2, 2016
To shift the discussion back to terrible kids' CGI for a moment, I fell down that hole a couple of years ago. There is something about computer animation that allows a film to be much worse, objectively, than a live action movie. Live action movies at least have the physical underpinnings of our universe to prop them up. Once you take those basic aspects away away from them, once you unmoor them from the dock of the plainly possible, movies become free to become much weirder, and infinitely more awful.
posted by JHarris at 2:59 PM on August 2, 2016 [6 favorites]
posted by JHarris at 2:59 PM on August 2, 2016 [6 favorites]
The most disappointing thing about Netflix is how their DVD selection is slowly dwindling. I see more and more things on my queue becoming "very long wait" or "availability unknown"--it seems like the business model is failing, and they're not spending the money to acquire as many titles.
It's so strange to me that this model is failing, since it takes only like 2 days to see such a wide variety of stuff. The selection on streaming is so poor by comparison.
I get the "I just want to queue something up and marathon it" but you run out of stuff to marathon after a while....
posted by Kutsuwamushi at 3:06 PM on August 2, 2016
It's so strange to me that this model is failing, since it takes only like 2 days to see such a wide variety of stuff. The selection on streaming is so poor by comparison.
I get the "I just want to queue something up and marathon it" but you run out of stuff to marathon after a while....
posted by Kutsuwamushi at 3:06 PM on August 2, 2016
The kids are mostly excellent, but the story is fluff, the adult characters are *terrible* and, rather than learn from the 30 years since the 80s and truly write some interesting shit, we get a tubby kid who always talks about food, a mom character who can do nothing but cry, a cop character who's incompetent and unbelievable in most situations, and stereotypical bad guys, etc.
It's a pastiche of 80s horror movies that manages to be better than most of them at its best and pretty much on their level at its worst. The cop is lazy, drunk, and way out of his depth. As someone that is frequently some combination of those things, I find him pretty believable. And I don't want to spoil anything, but...I'd like to think most peoples' moms would cry a lot faced with what that mom character is faced with. That's not the kind of thing you just move on from.
posted by Hoopo at 3:11 PM on August 2, 2016 [6 favorites]
It's a pastiche of 80s horror movies that manages to be better than most of them at its best and pretty much on their level at its worst. The cop is lazy, drunk, and way out of his depth. As someone that is frequently some combination of those things, I find him pretty believable. And I don't want to spoil anything, but...I'd like to think most peoples' moms would cry a lot faced with what that mom character is faced with. That's not the kind of thing you just move on from.
posted by Hoopo at 3:11 PM on August 2, 2016 [6 favorites]
I think somebody watched the Upside Down version of Stranger Things
posted by prize bull octorok at 3:21 PM on August 2, 2016 [9 favorites]
posted by prize bull octorok at 3:21 PM on August 2, 2016 [9 favorites]
According to the Netflix tracking website Allflicks.net, there are currently 5,239 titles available to American subscribers, but I’d challenge you to name a dozen.
I can do you one better: Daredevil season 1 episode 1, episode 2, episode 3, episode 4, episode 5, episode 6, episode 7, episode 8, I mean I can go on. Episode 9. Episode 10. Surely I don't need to continue. Episode 11. You see? Episode 12. Episode 13.
Daredevil season 2 episode 1...
posted by turbid dahlia at 3:21 PM on August 2, 2016 [3 favorites]
I can do you one better: Daredevil season 1 episode 1, episode 2, episode 3, episode 4, episode 5, episode 6, episode 7, episode 8, I mean I can go on. Episode 9. Episode 10. Surely I don't need to continue. Episode 11. You see? Episode 12. Episode 13.
Daredevil season 2 episode 1...
posted by turbid dahlia at 3:21 PM on August 2, 2016 [3 favorites]
I've been paying for Netflix for six months now basically for two reasons:
1.So my partner can come from her 12hr workdays and veg out on the couch watching crap (Beverly Hills 90210 reboot has given way to Nashville ... she's a crap connoisseur!)
2.In the other room I feel vaguely less guilty about torrenting my niche horror/indie/arthouse interests
Meanwhile the two content providers I am interested in paying - NHL & HBO - don't seem to want to take my money; nhl.tv still has regional blackout restrictions, and hbo's on demand service in Canada is through Bell, requires a cable subscription, and according to reviews is a completely buggy/crashy app anyways.
I'm interested in this Criterion streaming service coming in the fall but won't be surprised if that isn't available in Canada either.
posted by mannequito at 4:10 PM on August 2, 2016 [2 favorites]
1.So my partner can come from her 12hr workdays and veg out on the couch watching crap (Beverly Hills 90210 reboot has given way to Nashville ... she's a crap connoisseur!)
2.In the other room I feel vaguely less guilty about torrenting my niche horror/indie/arthouse interests
Meanwhile the two content providers I am interested in paying - NHL & HBO - don't seem to want to take my money; nhl.tv still has regional blackout restrictions, and hbo's on demand service in Canada is through Bell, requires a cable subscription, and according to reviews is a completely buggy/crashy app anyways.
I'm interested in this Criterion streaming service coming in the fall but won't be surprised if that isn't available in Canada either.
posted by mannequito at 4:10 PM on August 2, 2016 [2 favorites]
Tumblr users noticed that the subtitles for the film do not line up at all with what happens in the film. Broadly, the arcs are similar but character names, terminology, and jokes are completely different.
My kid watches Garfield on Netflix. We've had episodes where the captions were to a different episode. It's awesome.
posted by not that girl at 4:36 PM on August 2, 2016 [6 favorites]
My kid watches Garfield on Netflix. We've had episodes where the captions were to a different episode. It's awesome.
posted by not that girl at 4:36 PM on August 2, 2016 [6 favorites]
I dunno. My kids watch a movie maybe every 2 weeks or so, and there's always something decent.
According to the Netflix tracking website Allflicks.net, there are currently 5,239 titles available to American subscribers, but I’d challenge you to name a dozen.
I had very low expectations for Home and was pleasantly surprised. Boxtrolls was pretty good. The first SpongeBob movie isn't bad. Minions, eh. HTTYD2, eh. The Tinkerball movies (4) are nothing worth noting, but better than say Mickey Mouse or Garfield... a Cat in Paris was OK. The Last Unicorn was bizarrely and horribly awesome! (The original Robin Hood has the most excellent Whistle Stop song.) The Little Prince is great (gets added to Netflix 8/5).
So that's 13. Just for kids. I like Kimmie Schmidt and OITNB. Shrug. It's worth $7.99/mo. For sure.
posted by mrgrimm at 4:57 PM on August 2, 2016
According to the Netflix tracking website Allflicks.net, there are currently 5,239 titles available to American subscribers, but I’d challenge you to name a dozen.
I had very low expectations for Home and was pleasantly surprised. Boxtrolls was pretty good. The first SpongeBob movie isn't bad. Minions, eh. HTTYD2, eh. The Tinkerball movies (4) are nothing worth noting, but better than say Mickey Mouse or Garfield... a Cat in Paris was OK. The Last Unicorn was bizarrely and horribly awesome! (The original Robin Hood has the most excellent Whistle Stop song.) The Little Prince is great (gets added to Netflix 8/5).
So that's 13. Just for kids. I like Kimmie Schmidt and OITNB. Shrug. It's worth $7.99/mo. For sure.
posted by mrgrimm at 4:57 PM on August 2, 2016
And I mean, have you heard some of the bad music on Spotify?! The chum makes it a little hard to find stuff sometimes, but it's easily ignored. Discernment is a skill worth practicing.
posted by mrgrimm at 4:58 PM on August 2, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by mrgrimm at 4:58 PM on August 2, 2016 [1 favorite]
We don't actually do many movies on Netflix, and there are more than enough series to hold our interest. I do buy a few series a la carte from amazon: Dr. Who, Elementary, Steven Universe are the big three.
posted by CBrachyrhynchos at 5:07 PM on August 2, 2016
posted by CBrachyrhynchos at 5:07 PM on August 2, 2016
Stranger Things only seems good because of the rest of the crap on Netflix. I mean, it's totally watchable, which is a high standard for Netflix. Basic cable, on the other hand, is totally unwatchable unless you enjoy and want to encourage anomie.
posted by ennui.bz at 5:37 PM on August 2, 2016
posted by ennui.bz at 5:37 PM on August 2, 2016
Um. right. That's totally how that works.
posted by Artw at 6:07 PM on August 2, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by Artw at 6:07 PM on August 2, 2016 [1 favorite]
"last chance U" and "chef's table" nuff said.
posted by HappyHippo at 6:15 PM on August 2, 2016
posted by HappyHippo at 6:15 PM on August 2, 2016
I subscribe to Netflix, Hulu & Amazon Prime. I do not have cable. Yeah, all three have a lot of terrible things but they also have a lot of good stuff. Hulu -- if you take out the Criterion Collection -- is probably the most hit or miss, but I'm always surprised at what I'm able to find there (and, let's be real -- we're not watching the Criterion stuff as much as we pretend we're going to). Prime has good stuff, but there is also so much bad mixed in. So much bad. I think it's worse than Netflix on that account (and honestly, so much harder to browse and search).
Netflix is not perfect, no, but I find plenty of good stuff to watch there, both in terms of TV and movies. Do I wish the catalog was a little bit older than it was? Yeah, but I complain about that with all three. I still watched Gentlemen Prefer Blondes last week on Netflix and was happy. I also find a lot of great, recent documentaries on Netflix. All of Netflix's original programming hasn't been my thing, but I think it's more on target than either Prime or Hulu has been (although, Difficult People forever).
I will happily rent movies I want to watch. I will happily pay for seasons of TV shows I want to see. I still find paying for these services better than cable. I am, on occasion, left to my own devices at my boyfriend's house, who has cable and I'm just baffled by it -- the channels he doesn't get, the lack of selection. We honestly just mostly end up watching those end-of-the-dial over-the-air channels like Grit or MeTV or Comet. You don't need cable for those (I need an antenna because I live in a basement, but ...).
Do I want more from Netflix(/Hulu/Prime)? Sure. But at about a total of $360 a year for all three, it's worth it enough for my entertainment needs. Now, my internet is included in my rent, but even taking that into account, I still don't see how even the most basic of cable is worth it.
I like movies. I like TV. I found my Roku to be life-changing (and yeah, there's also the PBS app and Crackle -- also a mess -- and TubiTV -- also ... who knows? -- and more). Somehow, I manage to be entertained and watch things that are good that I haven't seen.
(I'm in the beta trial for FilmStruck. I really, really want to like it because I've said I would subscribe to TCM if it was offered as a standalone but so far, I'm not overly impressed, but I get it's early. If it's good enough, I may quit Hulu for it, but for now ... I'm not convinced. I watch enough TV on Hulu that it still feels worth the monthly cost. If/when they lose Criterion, well, we'll see.)
posted by darksong at 7:38 PM on August 2, 2016
Netflix is not perfect, no, but I find plenty of good stuff to watch there, both in terms of TV and movies. Do I wish the catalog was a little bit older than it was? Yeah, but I complain about that with all three. I still watched Gentlemen Prefer Blondes last week on Netflix and was happy. I also find a lot of great, recent documentaries on Netflix. All of Netflix's original programming hasn't been my thing, but I think it's more on target than either Prime or Hulu has been (although, Difficult People forever).
I will happily rent movies I want to watch. I will happily pay for seasons of TV shows I want to see. I still find paying for these services better than cable. I am, on occasion, left to my own devices at my boyfriend's house, who has cable and I'm just baffled by it -- the channels he doesn't get, the lack of selection. We honestly just mostly end up watching those end-of-the-dial over-the-air channels like Grit or MeTV or Comet. You don't need cable for those (I need an antenna because I live in a basement, but ...).
Do I want more from Netflix(/Hulu/Prime)? Sure. But at about a total of $360 a year for all three, it's worth it enough for my entertainment needs. Now, my internet is included in my rent, but even taking that into account, I still don't see how even the most basic of cable is worth it.
I like movies. I like TV. I found my Roku to be life-changing (and yeah, there's also the PBS app and Crackle -- also a mess -- and TubiTV -- also ... who knows? -- and more). Somehow, I manage to be entertained and watch things that are good that I haven't seen.
(I'm in the beta trial for FilmStruck. I really, really want to like it because I've said I would subscribe to TCM if it was offered as a standalone but so far, I'm not overly impressed, but I get it's early. If it's good enough, I may quit Hulu for it, but for now ... I'm not convinced. I watch enough TV on Hulu that it still feels worth the monthly cost. If/when they lose Criterion, well, we'll see.)
posted by darksong at 7:38 PM on August 2, 2016
I had to copy a crap-ton of files off of a friend's dying MacBook, and so I was able to have The Rockford Files just play episode after episode to keep me company. Man, there were a lot of car chases in that show (at least one per), and man if there's a more charistmatic guy than James Garner, I don't know that I've seen him.
posted by blueberry at 9:32 PM on August 2, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by blueberry at 9:32 PM on August 2, 2016 [2 favorites]
I've spent most of my time in countries that are not so big on enforcing copyright/IP rights, and the concept of paying for content has just never really taken hold for me. My media is pretty exclusively stuff that people on Metafilter mention as good, and that I am able to find for free on various specialized Internet sites. It works excellently!
posted by Meatbomb at 3:15 AM on August 3, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by Meatbomb at 3:15 AM on August 3, 2016 [2 favorites]
Is it wrong that I kind of want to watch it now?
I am holding off on telling my husband about Leo the Lion because I know he would a) laugh hysterically and b) want to watch it. Maybe if I can convince him to watch it in the 7 days before I return from Argentina so that I don't have to be exposed.
Knowing his sadistic streak, though, he would wait until I got home to watch it, so that I too could suffer. Reader, I married him?
posted by chainsofreedom at 5:51 AM on August 3, 2016 [3 favorites]
I am holding off on telling my husband about Leo the Lion because I know he would a) laugh hysterically and b) want to watch it. Maybe if I can convince him to watch it in the 7 days before I return from Argentina so that I don't have to be exposed.
Knowing his sadistic streak, though, he would wait until I got home to watch it, so that I too could suffer. Reader, I married him?
posted by chainsofreedom at 5:51 AM on August 3, 2016 [3 favorites]
I watched this last night and am here to report back. Overall it was pretty WTF but it seems like Netflix may have silently updated the version they are streaming with a slightly less WTF version than the one shown in the tumblr screencaps. The version they are talking about in the post appears to be an English dub with hard-subs of a literal translation of the script (or something). When we watched it our Wii U would only let us watch the Italian language version no matter what options we picked and the only subtitles were closed captioning (soft) subtitles that, while often out of sync or showing the lyrics to songs that nobody was actually singing, at least it did an OK job of conveying the basics of how the plot was moving along. If anyone know how to watch the hard subbed version referenced on tumblr I would appreciate a link. I later confirmed that the English audio (no subtitles) did work on my computer, but by then I had already watched the whole thing in Italian so I only watched the first minute or two.
Some highlights not featured in the posts:
The baby elephants are connected by their tails until the very end of the movie to the point that in one scene one is walking backwards because they can't walk side-by-side. This is never mentioned or explained but at the very end they 'let go' of each other's tails in a way that makes it seem like it is supposed to be something very important and dramatic.
The pair of trash talking crocodiles whose hunting plan is to wait at the bottom of a ravine waiting for someone to fall down while crossing the log which is the only way to get to the other side. Their plan backfires when they get what they want and an elephant falls on them.
The bit where Leo and his posse find the mother of the two young zebras that have been traveling with them and instead of returning them to their mother in a straightforward manner they instead decide to trick the mother, pin her to the ground, make her think Leo is going to eat her and THEN bring out her children.
The fast talking tortoise who manages to run through a truly mind boggling amount of lines in a single 5 minute scene, the only one he has in whole movie. The movie is seriously worth watching just for this character alone (at least in the Italian language version, they may have messed up the English dub, I didn't check) I would seriously watch a spinoff show about that tortoise—it's the best thing about the whole movie.
posted by metaphorever at 12:30 PM on August 3, 2016 [1 favorite]
Some highlights not featured in the posts:
The baby elephants are connected by their tails until the very end of the movie to the point that in one scene one is walking backwards because they can't walk side-by-side. This is never mentioned or explained but at the very end they 'let go' of each other's tails in a way that makes it seem like it is supposed to be something very important and dramatic.
The pair of trash talking crocodiles whose hunting plan is to wait at the bottom of a ravine waiting for someone to fall down while crossing the log which is the only way to get to the other side. Their plan backfires when they get what they want and an elephant falls on them.
The bit where Leo and his posse find the mother of the two young zebras that have been traveling with them and instead of returning them to their mother in a straightforward manner they instead decide to trick the mother, pin her to the ground, make her think Leo is going to eat her and THEN bring out her children.
The fast talking tortoise who manages to run through a truly mind boggling amount of lines in a single 5 minute scene, the only one he has in whole movie. The movie is seriously worth watching just for this character alone (at least in the Italian language version, they may have messed up the English dub, I didn't check) I would seriously watch a spinoff show about that tortoise—it's the best thing about the whole movie.
posted by metaphorever at 12:30 PM on August 3, 2016 [1 favorite]
Is that really what bootleg means?
posted by humboldt32 at 1:29 PM on August 3, 2016
posted by humboldt32 at 1:29 PM on August 3, 2016
So when War of the Worlds (Tom Cruise) came out, I ran down to Blockbuster to rent it. What I mistakenly grabbed was War of the Worlds (C. Thomas Howell)
Wait -- did all The Outsiders do a version of War of the Worlds?
posted by Sys Rq at 4:10 PM on August 3, 2016 [2 favorites]
Wait -- did all The Outsiders do a version of War of the Worlds?
posted by Sys Rq at 4:10 PM on August 3, 2016 [2 favorites]
I must have terrible taste because I love netflix. I watch vicar of dibley religiously and love all the murder mystery shows. They have futurama, which is my go to whenever I do my chores, and black books, the IT crowd, and I really liked stranger things. Call the midwife is great as well.
I like amazon prime, but it's not super user friendly. They have doctor who, and you have the option of renting stuff, although I rarely do that.
Those who are complaining about netflix, I would like to know what they miss?
posted by Tarumba at 4:16 PM on August 3, 2016 [1 favorite]
I like amazon prime, but it's not super user friendly. They have doctor who, and you have the option of renting stuff, although I rarely do that.
Those who are complaining about netflix, I would like to know what they miss?
posted by Tarumba at 4:16 PM on August 3, 2016 [1 favorite]
The Tinkerball movies (4) are nothing worth noting, but better than say Mickey Mouse
Oh! Just to point something out: The Disney stuff that looks like this is the real deal classic 1930s and '40s stuff, and is awesome. Don't be put off by the modern cover art that makes it look like some throwaway crapfest.
posted by Sys Rq at 4:22 PM on August 3, 2016 [1 favorite]
Oh! Just to point something out: The Disney stuff that looks like this is the real deal classic 1930s and '40s stuff, and is awesome. Don't be put off by the modern cover art that makes it look like some throwaway crapfest.
posted by Sys Rq at 4:22 PM on August 3, 2016 [1 favorite]
No mention of DinoTrux???
posted by betsybetsy at 11:57 AM on August 4, 2016
posted by betsybetsy at 11:57 AM on August 4, 2016
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Further proof that Netflix is largely a st[r]eaming pile.
posted by mcstayinskool at 11:48 AM on August 2, 2016