What titles are in your Netflix/Amazon etc list?

[Willie Oleson]

Richard Madden isn't in it though

I'll trump you with a German hunk.

 

[Jason73]

I'll trump you with a German hunk.

I’ll be the judge of that. Please.

 

[Willie Oleson]

Watching the other three episodes of Criminal UK now. "Julia" was amazing and "Danielle" is also very intriguing. They're almost like real people.
The interview team have become familiar faces now even though they still keep it very low-key.
I even laughed a few times but I'd struggle to describe what it was that made me laugh. Just some of those "things", you know, like, just because it happened, not because it was funny.

 

[James from London]

Watching the other three episodes of Criminal UK now. "Julia" was amazing and "Danielle" is also very intriguing. They're almost like real people.
The interview team have become familiar faces now even though they still keep it very low-key.
I even laughed a few times but I'd struggle to describe what it was that made me laugh. Just some of those "things", you know, like, just because it happened, not because it was funny.

I didn't realise when I was watching it, but apparently it was all filmed during the pandemic with social distancing and whatnot. It's really the perfect show for that.

 

[Willie Oleson]

I think it's very good and I enjoy it very much and still I find it difficult to rate Criminal. Not that everything has to be rated, but just in case someone would ask...

The best part is the performances, they're all consistently strong and I'd be hard-pressed to pick a favourite from series 2. Guest starring in Criminal UK almost looks like a prestige job. (haven't watched the other versions yet).

But at the same time it also wants to be a suspenseful thriller with plot twists, and that doesn't always work in this particular setting which is all about the interaction between the characters.
We don't see how it happened or could have happened, we don't see the other characters (unless they show a picture) so every new/unexpected development is created right there and then, kinda like pulling a rabbit out of the hat.
Alternatively, instead of a plot device, it could be seen as a new angle that turns the interaction between the characters upside down - and then it's back to the performances again. And once we know everything about Danielle we see a completely different person.

And once again I disagreed with The Guardian's review because they thought that the last episode was the best.
I liked it too but I found all that bluffing a bit too movie-esque which - imho - did not exploit but undermine the narcissism of this particular character.
But I understand that every case has to be unique.

 

[James from London]

It's quite theatrical, in a way. You've got the performance going on in the interview room and the audience watching behind the two-way mirror. And certain characters have got things up their sleeve which they choose to reveal at a certain moment, while other characters are lying, or pretending, throughout. It's a bit like a courtroom drama in that respect. You could easily imagine watching the whole thing happening on stage.

 

[Willie Oleson]

It's quite theatrical, in a way

I think it has to be, otherwise there's nothing.

But at the same time it also wants to be a suspenseful thriller with plot twists

Although....it's not really about solving the crime. Their job is to get a confession out of the suspect.
Julia's mistake (the convoluted details of the murders) was so bizarre, a crime-solving story would never get away with that.
But in this case it had to be very noticeable because it rebooted the story, and the big counter-plot point was that Vanessa failed to notice it.

Danielle looked like an American soccer mom from hell. The kind of person that would end up in a dramatized netflix documentary starring Christina Applegate.

 

[Willie Oleson]

I couldn't decide between Line Of Duty and Better Call Saul, so I started with Fargo. Saul is in it, too.

 

[James from London]

Fargo's really fun!

 

[Willie Oleson]

Yeah, things spiralled out of control pretty fast, I wondered if there would be any characters left at the end of the first episode.
It also looks a bit Stephen King i.e. devilish stranger arrives in small town and suddenly everybody's killing everybody. Lester is great!

 

[Ukdallasfan]

Just started watching The Undoing with Nicole Kidman and Hugh Grant. Seems promising

 

[Emelee]

What I need to watch this year:

• A Series of Unfortunate Events --- based on the books by Lemony Snicket
• Emily in Paris
• Dead to Me season 3
• Bletchley Circle

 

[Willie Oleson]

Emily in Paris

Will she find Steven Carrington /Anders?

 

[Willie Oleson]

Fargo's really fun!

Yeah! Lots and lots and lots of fun! I love all the characters, the snowy Minnesota scenery and, best of all, the perfect editing as it remains consistently fresh, suspenseful and funny throughout the entire series.
It is partially a black comedy so most characters are caricatured/exaggerated e.g. very unlucky (Lester), very cool (Malvo), very ignorant (Bill Oswalt), very underachiever (Gus) and very dumb & dumber (Sam Hess' boys).
There's some of that in OZARK too, but not in such an obvious way.

Molly is not as quirky as the rest of the ensemble, but not so different that it sticks out like a sore thumb. And she does great drama with very little.
Sometimes I forget why Malvo ended up there in the first place or why the duo are looking for Sam Hess' killer. Speaking of which, I found the OTT sign language a little exhausting but in the last episode I've watched (#6) they sub-titled the ridiculous sign language and then it becomes really funny.
It's so addictive I binged 5 episodes non-stop and then I had to force myself to go to bed.
I'm super-glad I've started watching Fargo eventhough that decision was purely based on indecisiveness.

I see that Ted Danson is going to be in series 2, I hope he'll be as great as he was in Damages.

 

[James from London]

There's some of that in OZARK too, but not in such an obvious way.

Yeah, I got a "Fargo-but-less-obvious" vibe from Ozark too (at least for the first couple of seasons).

in the last episode I've watched (#6) they sub-titled the ridiculous sign language and then it becomes really funny.

I noticed watching New Dynasty on Netflix that they don't automatically subtitle the Hispanic bits - you have to put the subtitles on yourself. Maybe it's the same thing signing-wise on Fargo.

I see that Ted Danson is going to be in series 2, I hope he'll be as great as he was in Damages.

Yeah, he is, but very different to how he was in Damages.

 

[Willie Oleson]

I noticed watching New Dynasty on Netflix that they don't automatically subtitle the Hispanic bits - you have to put the subtitles on yourself. Maybe it's the same thing signing-wise on Fargo

I think the difference is that in most scenes they do the sign language and then explain it to the third person in that particular scene, which makes it unnecessary lenghty.
The scene in the diner also shows the over-complicated sign language but it's immediately juxtaposed by the pettiness of the real conversation in the English sub-titles, which makes it more effective (imho).

 

[Willie Oleson]

That was a great and beautiful first season, I was even aware of how much I was loving it while I was watching it.
The last episode (the last part of it) was not quite as epic as I thought it would be.
I thought Lorne Malvo was going to be FARGO's Killer Bob, and in that case it would have been Twin Peaks meets Breaking Bad meets True Detective.
I also played with the name, thinking it was an anagram that would reveal something diabolical.

It looks like season 2 is about Molly's father? He's mentioned Sioux Falls a few times.

 

[James from London]

It looks like season 2 is about Molly's father? He's mentioned Sioux Falls a few times.

I think the connections between Seasons 1 and 2 completely passed me by until it was nearly over. The characters are great though, whoever they are.

 

[Willie Oleson]

I vote for grandma too.

 

[Willie Oleson]

"TV is the new cinema" certainly applies to Fargo Season 2.
There aren't many modern movies and tv series that successfully capture the period in their period stories, but Fargo almost looks like the real thing.
And interestingly, without too much use of "seventies" staples, references and Easter eggs.
There's no greatest hits soundtrack and overall it resembles the same effortlessness of a real 1970s production, because back then they simply didn't have to sell it as being a production of its time.
Although I'm pretty sure that a lot of effort went into the production of Fargo's second season.
Their most clever and manipulative device was the yellow-ish filter (or colour processing) of the film itself. This is not new and is often used in modern productions to decolourize (if that's a word) the film to emphasize the gritty setting and/or atmosphere. And it usually looks very fake.

The only obvious gimmick was the frequent use of split screen sequences, presumably for the comic book effect.
Speaking of comic books, I found the bad guys on both sides of the cartel war very one-dimensional, but at the same time I don't think it was about them, or even the cartel war itself for that matter.
It was all about the characters caught in the middle of it, and there was almost something biblical about the Blumquist couple, with Peggy's quest for self-realisation being the metaphor for The Apple in paradise.
Then there was the God-like Ted Danson (he understood what was wrong with the world) and the evil entity, Hanzee. If he's the same creature as Lorne Malvo then maybe my Killer Bob theory makes sense.
My favourite comeuppances: the death of Floyd Gerhardt and Mike Milligan's promotion, Vic Mackey-style.

Setting-wise it's a bit all over the place and I'm not sure if there was a scene that actually played in Fargo (same goes for season 1) but somehow it never bothered me.
I'm still feeling a bit overwhelmed so I'm going to take a little break from Fargo and watch something else instead, unless I change my mind.