Netflix

Misc thoughts from this weekend’s R&R cycle

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Getting caught up on Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-kun, I was rather happy to see the festival conclude with a happier note. It’s also nice to see another surprise musical number from Clara and her family, which much like the first, was pretty freaking great.

Netflix’s Locke & Key seems worth watching based on the first half, and Marianne is a horror series well worth watching if you like scary stuff. Take the former for the story, and the latter for the chills.

Kemono Michi has been sitting in my Hulu queue since it started. By the time Genzo suplexed the princess, I was pretty sure it was going to be an entertaining series. And yes, it has, mostly because of his craziness, lol.

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Check out “Iron Sky: The Coming Race” on Netflix
https://www.netflix.com/title/81132624?s=i&trkid=14170286

Said what the hell, why not? And was not disappointed. Much like when I watched the original Iron Sky.

Because if moon nazis weren’t enough, let’s throw in aliens, and Hitler riding a T-Rex, motherfickers! The bit with the holy grail and the Steve Jobs cult, and that lucky red shit, oh it was entertaining, lol.

Somehow, I agree with Sasha’s notion that the transport ship was made by Americans, therefore there must be weapons somewhere; and the iPhone / Nokia 3310 jokes. There’s many little nuggets of greatness, not to mention first fighting dinosaurs, and the hilarity with the world leaders.

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Watching Doom: Annihilation on Netflix, I think it doesn’t suck. You won’t rush to theaters for such a film but it beats the last attempt at a DooM movie, hands down. Or should we say, the people at least cared and that tends to make a video game movie that doesn’t suck.

In my experience, video game movies tend to be either pretty good, or pretty awful, and make no one happy. The only exception that really come to mind is the first Mortal Kombat film.

Doom: Annihilation at least does a decent job of presenting a band of doomed space marines, stuck on Phobos, and being attacked by zombies. Also other things. Like the ’16 video game, it tries to put enough narrative around the concept to make it function. Not a deep, far reaching story; because that doesn’t work for Doom. This film on the other hand, ain’t a bad try. I especially loved the many nods to the game, and related Id titles; not to mention bits like the possession warning on the doors.

I’d actually like to see another shot, that takes on Doom II’s notion of the Earth being overrun. It may also be sad that the only reasons why I remember the name of Mars’ moons all related to video games, lol.

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Watching the end of Lost in Space season 2, I can’t help but think it’s been a great second season. Given much less subterfuge and mystery than the first season, it has a lot more focus than the first thanks to the characters having been developed, and the family solidified over the first season.

As someone who would like to believe there’s some bit of good in everyone, I rather liked Dr. Smith’s development over the season—and the robot’s choice of word. But perhaps the best, is John’s last words to his daughter Judy, as the season marches to its conclusion: “You’ll figure it out.” Because honestly, that’s how life works.

And bless the engineer who designed the corridors aboard the Resolute big enough for a Charriot to speed through, lol.

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Watching Small Soldiers (1998) for the first time in a very long time, I think there is just so much wrong with the story that you’ve got to remember the suspension of disbelief factor. Even as a kid, I found it amusing that it calls for compressing at least a decade of R&D into three months to create a children’s toy: that would have to cost more than most people’s first car, just to break even. That’s the least of the issues versus reality.

Thing is, much as when I was a kid, the concept is entertaining enough that I can do that suspension of disbelief thing 🤪

Reality holes aside, there’s a lot more to it that makes it an entertaining yarn. Actually, I kinda wish they had made a sequel just for the hell of it.

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Generally, I don’t expect too much out of Netflix films, but I have to say, Eli is probably a good, true horror film. It’s really, really rare that I watch a horror film and praise it as one, because let’s face it most aren’t very good films. Eli I think is a genuine horror film, through and through, and actually deserves some good ratings.

The first half of the movie rather plays up the terror and the horror, leaving you with the suspense of whether the ghosts are trying to help Eli or if it is all a delusion in his head. In a lot of ways, it makes me think of the 1963 version of The Haunting in the way it works that horror. But, it realizes that for the big screen something a bit more visceral is required for frightening the watcher. As a film, I think that it captures much the same concept of instilling terror and horror, and weaves something that works much better for a film, as it is not so dependent on your interpretation and understanding of the protagonist. Rather it’s gonna keep you curious when you’re not shaking in your boots.

And the twist at the end? That’s one hell of a twist.

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Sitting down to watch an episode of The Good Place during an afternoon break, and ending up binge watching all of season three: reminds me that is kind of how the rest of the show went.

A couple years ago: I had heard about it from a friend and decided to try a couple episodes. Didn’t think much of it at first but then fork, I found myself binge watching the crap out of the first season. #TheGoodPlace was definitely worth watching ^_^.

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Seen “Hi Score Girl” on Netflix yet?

Reminder seeing this listed a good while ago and filling it under “Watch later, maybe.”

Many of the games depicted flash my brain back to my childhood. There’s more than a few, probably most of the ones shown that either landed American Genesis and SNES releases. Not to mention the reoccurring bits of Street Fighter II; which probably was the fighting game my brother and I played the most of in the early ’90s.

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Forbes: Netflix’s Worst Nightmare Has Come True.

I think the notion that Netflix will survive but shrink is likely true. They’re large and successful enough that they won’t go suddenly into the night but quietly over a couple decades.

Along with Hulu they’ve long enjoyed being one of the only whales in the game. Efforts at original content have been a mixed bag but I think this also owes to to simple facts.

One is Netflix isn’t built around making media. They’re not like the big TV networks with the huge pipelines for content and advertising. Their strength has been in their service, and that’s gone well enough that people like me will likely remain customers for many years to come.

Second is they don’t have anti-trust / holy crap that’s comically one sided rights to streaming content. Eventually everything you see in Netflix will end up impacted by a contract and neogotiating them. It’s not like certain old world network blocks that got given away with too little forsight 😝.

Moving towards where we may be nickle and dimed by various networks is still an improvement over the cable situation IMHO. Because greater control versus take it and like it. Net result being: if it’s not in the circle of stuff we subscribe to the we are either going to skip it ’til it is or eventually come to an arrangement.

I know that’s how my streaming subscriptions work, and how several decades as a cable customer worked.