What have we been watching?
9/30 '21
A recap of episodic things from our list. Netflix unless otherwise noted.
- Ted Lasso (Apple) is fantastic.
- Madoka Magica, anime. Dark subversion of Magical Girl genre. Excellent.
- Sailor Moon Crystal, anime. Fluffy, unintentionally hilarious. Watching it across from Madoka Magica was really something.
- DS9. We never watched it all before, so we started fresh.
- My Love. Slow paced, pleasant doc of very old people who love each other.
- Way of the Househusband, live-action anime (fansub). Brilliant.
- Squid Game. Bailed out after one episode. Antiheroes everywhere, glorified gore fest.
- Headspace Guide to Meditation, short doc episodes. d likes it.
- Aggretsuko, anime. Starts off goofy, gets deep, but also hilarious.
- Age of Samurai, live-action doc. It was okay, if gory. Too many white people narrating though.
- Korean Cold Noodle Rhapsody, food doc. Interesting history but watching people cram wads noodles in their face was not pleasant.
- Eden, anime. Short futuristic series, lovely visuals. Cute, pleasant.
- Chef's Table BBQ, food doc. A bit "look at these people" but interesting.
- Masters of the Universe: Revelation. It isn't She-Ra but it made the man-children angry so worth a watch.
- High on the Hog, doc about Black influence on American cooking. Highly recommended.
- Legend of Korra, we tried, we really tried, but the voice acting is just so bad, and the characters act so inconsistently and stupidly.
- Nadiya Bakes, British baking doc. She's irresistably perky but much of what she bakes we can't eat.
- Taco Chronicles, food doc (en español). This was wonderful.
- Black Lightning, superhero. Really well done but didn't stick for us.
- Lupin (en français), heist. Honestly just watch Volume 1 and imagine they capped it off rather than put in the final twist. Omar Sy is great tho.
- Luna Nera, fantasy (Italian). Didn't stick either, a bit grating at times.
- Raja, Rasoi aur Anya Kahaniyan (India), food doc. Season 1 is a wonderful tour of the different regions of India, their cuisines, and how the various ruling classes affected what people eat.
- School Nurse Files (Korean), fantasy/horror. Didn't stick.
- Midnight Diner / Tokyo Stories, short stories in Japan. This is pretty good stuff in general, though some episodes are uneven.
- Umbrella Academy, superhero. We choose to believe that everyone dies at the end of Season 1, and are glad there won't be any more.
- The Good Place. Oh fuck yes.
- Stranger Things. This is pretty good!
- Food Wars, anime. We bailed, it was kinda boring.
- Street Food, doc. This series is very good.
- Korean Pork Belly Rhapsody, doc. Two episode series, quite interesting.
Well that's what Netflix said we watched in 2021.
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My brother swears by Stranger Things and even tried to get the Chipmunks to watch it. It just doesn't hit with me, for some reason.
I remember watching the pilot of DS9 when it very first aired! It (and the series) felt so groundbreaking at the time. Now it seems as clunky as Next Generation to me, though I still like it best of the older stuff, over NG and even Voyager. I've lovedLovedLOVED the new Discovery and can't wait for a new season. LOVE. (And Paramount+ is cheap, which is nice.)
Is there something I'm missing in The Good Place? I mean, I get that it's clever, but I ... I don't know. It just feels like endless sketch comedy but not far enough off the rails to make me laugh? Maybe it's because I have no attachment to a Judeo-Christian moral universe, so subverting that universe also doesn't interest me much? I wish I knew! I feel as though everyone else is enjoying a joke that I just don't get. lol
DS9 is I think the first of Roddenberry's children to bring makeup (prosthetics), writing, and acting to a consistently high level. The ensemble cast and A/B plot structure of many episodes are challenges not always easily overcome. The costumes are a bit of a wreckage IMO.
Stranger Things has been mostly visually challenging due to the use of strobes, which I cannot watch even with eyes closed.
As for Ted Lasso, it's not a comedy. It is a drama that centers on joy in a 3-season arc, and we as a society don't have stories about joy in our heart.
Ted Lasso: best viewed from outside the conventions. Have been following people's week by week reactions to Season 2 and looking forward to the next part of the 3-season arc.
Madoka Magica: tolerable, far too reminiscent of the way the dominant in our culture twist people and circumstances to their own ends. Similar to Neon Genesis Evangelion in a way.
Sailor Moon Crystal, Masters of the Universe, Eden: highly enjoyable, easy to pick up and follow, characters using unconventional strengths effectively.
My Love: in a way, a documentary about health care.
Headspace Guide to Meditation and Guide to Sleep: helpful albeit somewhat fluffy and white-buddhist.
Korean Cold Noodle Rhapsody and Pork Belly: quite enjoyable.
Legend of Korra: I would like to continue this, with the original voice acting. Perhaps on my own to avoid commentary about the production values and decisions made by characters.
Nadiya Bakes: enunciation, enthusiasm, and a surprisingly large portion of wheat-free recipes.
Black Lightning: I was enjoying this but we stopped. I've read up on where it goes, because I had to know what happens and we won't be seeing any more.
Lupin: Season 2 was entirely necessary and well done. Open to but not seeking out a third season, since it's not clear where they could take it that remains true to the original intent.
Luna Nera: learning the secret S doesn't know ruined what interest I had in finishing this.
The Good Place. Oh fuck yes only after most of a season of oh fuck no and several places of meh. Can see how someone would groove on a second review of this clearly complete story.
Stranger Things. Good acting all around, lots of callouts to the 80s in suburban US, far too much unpleasant visual noise.
Food Wars: too much fanservice, though the premise and characters were interesting.
Before watching: We want more Avatar! This looks like more Avatar, let's watch it! Very excited!
After a episode or two: Ugh. The little pet red panda looking thing is cute, but this is NOT Avatar. Sadness.