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People are raving about this new Netflix series (7 episodes) based on Walter Tevis's 1983 novel. It is outstanding serial filmmaking, both visually, and as a troubled prodigy's bildungsroman. Excellent cast. You don't need to know anything about chess (I didn't know anything except the basic moves when I read the novel, and that's about all I know now.)

This Netflix Original series (based on a manga series--I can't say how closely) has a lot of potential and some serious Buffy vibes, though it doesn't quite know whether it wants to go with "Note to self: religion freaky" (Buffy 2.9) or fully embrace the "warrior nun" ethos. The main character, Ava, provides a strong focus. The episode titles are well-chosen scripture references, suggesting some among the writers know what's what (e.g., "Psalm 46.5," "Ephesians 6:11"). The plot drags a bit after episode 1, then picks up again about halfway through, so the series probably could have been 8 episodes instead of 10.

link to the 2004 thread on Anchorman, for some wayback yet still relevant commentary on Will Farrell's comedic acting Having had mixed experiences with Will Farrell comedies over the years, I enjoyed Eurovision...Fire Saga (Netflix) much more than I expected: laughed out loud several times (mostly at scenes not primarily focused on WF). Rachel McAdams and the rest of the supporting cast really put their hearts into it. I have only watched a few evenings of Eurovision (including a performance by Conchita Wurst, who won that year) and have seen mixed reviews from Eurovision fans, but at least one, The Atlantic's David Sims, thinks the movie gets the mix of satire and sweetness right. Actually, though, Dan Stevens gives the funniest performance in the movie.

I started watching this 10 episode high-school comedy/dramedy series on Netflix because it pushes a lot of my buttons--inter-cultural issues, Indian culture, Sendhil Ramamurthy. I didn't realize Mindy Kaling (with Lang Fisher) had created it until after I finished. It is both light and funny, and also deals with legitimate trauma and insecurities of both the teen and adult characters. There's an Easy A plotline that's about as raunchy as it gets. The diverse, young cast should have a future--if not in season two, in more TV and movies. As is often the case, I found it interesting that protagonist Devi and her family are practicing Hindus and although Devi finds it "embarrassing" at times to go through the rituals and expresses some doubt as to whether the gods hear her, Devi's friends aren't dismayed and the priest is a kind source of good counsel. Unlike every TV show in which you can count on the Christian minister to be corrupt, stupid, or an outright villain (exception for God Friended Me.) The voice-over narration by an unexpected actor doesn't always work, but the self-aware metacommentary and a few twists are also entertaining, if you just go with it. Recommended for the un-cynical.

David Fincher + Kevin Spacey? I'm intrigued.

The first episode, on Dirty Dancing, is exactly the sort of fun cultural nostalgia one would expect. Lot of stuff I didn't know about the business side (the whole rise and fall of Vestron; Swayze's mom being a dance instructor) were interesting. I have less than zero invested in the film, but I enjoyed seeing how it all came together. (The more 'making of' things I see about any studio film, the more I marvel that any movie actually ever gets made.)

Netflix has ordered 10 episodes of Sense8, a "global story of minds linked and souls hunted" from Andy and Lana Wachowski, and J. Michael Straczynski (Babylon-5), which sounds kind of like the Wachowskis' most recent film,which lost lots and lots of money.

A new Netflix miniseries that is going to be a sort of prequel to the original film, following a group of Gelflings that discover the secret of the Mystics and Skeksis and set out to try to save the world. If one remembers in The Dark Crystal all the gelflings but Jen and Kira have died. That means this prequel's gonna be rather dark. Pros, it seems like the miniseries will do its best to honor Henson and use practical puppetry effects and only cgi as little as possible. It's also being done in part by the Jim Henson Company themselves. Cons, the director of the show,, Louis Leterrier (The Incredible Hulk, Clash of the Titans remake, first two Transporter films, Now You See Me) is not really known for making groundbreaking films but is known for overindulging on the cgi...so...hmmm Here's a fun little video of Jim Henson talking about The Dark Crystal that Netflix is using as a promo for their miniseries. I also enjoyed this discussion about the miniseries on Screen Junkies News.

I know it came up in the Marvel/Disney thread...but it seems like the TV section is the proper place to discuss this deal. So apparently: http://comicsalliance.com/daredevil-drew-goddard-netflix-marvel/ In auspicious news for Daredevil fans, The Wrap is reporting that Drew Goddard is in talks to script the recently announced Marvel series for Netflix. Goddard earned high praise for his work directing and co-writing the horror hit Cabin in the Woods, and his involvement with Marvel’s Cinematic/Televised Universe makes sense given the studio’s close relationship with Joss Whedon, with whom Goddard has collaborated on Cabin in the Woods, Angel and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Also the writer of Cloverfield and a contributor to Lost, Alias and World War Z, Goddard is a self-professed Daredevil fanatic. When asked by Collider about the possibility of a filmed Daredevil project last year, Goddard threw down the geek cred gauntlet, saying, “You’re talking to a guy that had quotes from ‘Daredevil’ painted on his walls all growing up. When I was 18, I still had the blood-red door [with the quote] ‘I have shown him a man without hope is a man without fear.’” ...

We've just started it and the first two episodes were surprisingly above average, both in plotting and acting. Jared Harris is more moving here than I think I've ever seen him. Lithgow is great fun as Churchill. Foy and Smith are a complex pair, and they both communicate a great deal without words. Anyone else started it yet?

I've heard of this before, but now that there's a start date announced it might be a good idea to start a thread. Coming December 12 on Netflix: Marco Polo. Since East/West relations have been increasingly in the news [and increasingly interesting to me], I'm definitely going to be checking this out.

Apparently this just dropped on [uS] Netflix: Wikipedia has a page on the original run. I'm told by a friend that the series was incredibly popular in China. The Netflix version is made up of six 90-minute episodes, which means that what we get a truncated version of the original show. I'm watching it anyway; first episode last night. It's disjointed; you can easily see that lots of material has been cut, and the narrative in the first episode doesn't move as smoothly as it could. It only picks up steam in the last half-hour, but when it does it gets pretty entertaining. And, for all that it takes place in a different era, the show makes interesting counter-programming to Netflix's own Marco Polo (or, perhaps, supplemental programming). I'm going to stick with it, at any rate; it's certainly watchable enough to spend 90 minutes with at a time, but it's not binge-worthy.

Anyone watching NARCOS, on Netflix? The first two episodes are pretty good cops/robbers tv, but it's hindered by an omnipresent voiceover. It's the story of Pablo Escobar, at one point one of the wealthiest men on the planet, and the DEA agent embedded in Colombia who's trying to nail him. Good acting, esp. by the guy playing Escobar. I'm going to give it 1 more episode to see if the VO doesn't become a dealbreaker. The set up of this as "magic realism" in the pilot is total red herring so far--ain't no magic realism at all.

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt was going to be on NBC, but they dropped it, and then Netflix picked it up. It's produced by Tina Fey and stars Ellie Kemper (Erin from The Office) as a woman who moves to New York after spending the past 15 years in an underground bunker while she was in a doomsday cult.

Bloodline was Netflix's "other" new Spring drama--it went up just a few weeks before Daredevil--and seemingly got lost in the shuffle, which is unfortunate, because I think it's one of the best series they've done. It's from the producers of Damages and features a great cast: Ben Mendelsohn, Kyle Chandler, Linda Cardellini, Sam Shapard, Sissy Spacek.(Casting Mendelsohn as Sam Shepard's son is inspired.) The tone of Bloodline is kind of like "Parenthood meets Breaking Bad." It's about a large family of grown-up children and their parents, but instead of just dealing with domestic/interpersonal drama, it also adds a crime spiral plot on top of it. The pace of Bloodline is really slow and deliberate, which is probably one reason the show hasn't gotten as much attention as it deserves. The initial inciting incident is Danny (Mendelsohn), the oldest brother, returning for a family celebration after being away from them for a long time, but the plot doesn't really get going until the fifth episode. The only other show I can think of that moves as slowly is Rectify. And while the details and payoffs are handled quite well, I do think the season could have been 3 episodes shorter without losing too much.

I didn't pay much attention to Orange is the New Black when it first appeared on Netflix--never got more than a couple of episodes into Weeds, Jenji Kohan's previous show; not a fan of most of the cast (Taylor Schilling, Laura Prepon, Jason Biggs); and it also wasn't hyped the way House of Cards or Arrested Development were--but after it got several positive reviews, I checked it out. It's about Piper Chapman (Schilling), who is going to prison because she helped her girlfriend at the time (Prepon) transport drug money. That was ten years earlier, and she's engaged now (to Biggs) and living a normal life, before her crime was found out. I don't think it's as great as some of the reviewers seem to, but it is much better than I was expecting. The tone--it's comedic, but also goes for drama and realism--is difficult to balance, but it works. There's more to the show than I thought, as well. It focuses mainly on Schilling's character, but you also get to know the other inmates, both through their stories in prison and through Lost-lite style flashbacks that show how they ended up in jail. A lot of the performances are quite good, especially Schilling, Natasha Lyonne (another American Pie veteran), Laverne Cox as a transgender woman, and Kate Mulgrew as Red, the Russian prison chef. The episodes are often built around seemingly mundane things--losing a screwdriver, seeing a chicken--that become a big deal in the prison setting. Orange is not for everyone, though. It's quite frank about sexuality, and there are more shower scenes than is really necessary. It's definitely HBO-level, in terms of content. Oh, and Regina Spektor did the theme song.

Here's the actual summary for an apparently real Netflix animated series: The story includes this picture, which is concept art or something, I guess.

Southcliffe is another one of those "Netflix exclusives" that originally aired outside the US (the UK, in this case) last year. It's about a reporter, played by Rory Kinnear, who investigates a mass shooting in his old hometown, Southcliffe. Eddie Marsan is in it, too. The entire series (4 episodes) was directed by Sean Durkin (Martha Marcy May Marlene) and written by Tony Grisoni (The Red Riding trilogy).

(Via EW.) All 13 episodes will be available on April 19th. Trailer: