Netflix: The good, bad and interesting

Authors note: I'm expanding this to cover all streaming services. I'll specify where I found them when it's not netflix

There have been a few times when I've been asked to recommend titles for friends on Netflix. Despite letting you mark things as recommended or not recommended, there doesn't seem to be a way of passing that information on to others. Therefore, for my own future reference and friends, I'm keeping a list of Netflix shows that are good, bad and interesting.

Regarding the 'interesting' category, if it's good and interesting, it'll be marked 'good'. If it was bad (or average) but interesting, it'll be 'interesting'.

Unfortunately this probably won't be maintained anymore and will be broken up into TV show and movie lists because Netflix keeps taking shows off. 

The Good

  • Black Lightning
  • 3% - Bad English dubbing, but great story
  • Lucifer
  • Limitless - There's a movie by the same name that comes before the show (and isn't on Netflix) but it's only tangentially related so you don't need to watch it first. 
  • Firefly - No longer on Netflix
  • Killjoys
  • Travellers - I particularly enjoy how each iteration of Traveller remembers a different future. 
  • 12 Monkeys
  • Ascension - Feels a bit like Fallout to me, but in a good way.
  • Sense8 - Really slow at times, but when they do the scenes when they're all sharing it is amazing.
  • The Disastrous Life of Saiki K - Imagine Daria as an anime then give her absurdly overpowered telekinetic powers. Very entertaining.
  • Voltron: Legendary Defender
  • Power Rangers RPM - My favourite iteration of power rangers that makes fun of itself and has almost no filler. 
  •  Designated Survivor - also known as 'why I don't want to be a politician'.
  • Train to Busan - There were rumors about turning this into a Hollywood movie. Watch it before they ruin it. 
  • Odd Thomas
  • The Good Place
  • Continuum - The final season is largely pointless, but the rest is good and the ending is well done. 
  • Kantaro: The Sweet Tooth Salaryman: Office worker in Tokyo strives to be the best in his company so that he can slack off and eat sweets while on the job. Covers desert places in the Tokyo area and has a very anime feel to it. 
  • Paradox - Some well built time travel. Can't really say more without spoilers. 
  • Transformers Prime - The girl pisses me off, but it's still a great version of Transformers
  • Frequency - A time travel story where no people actually travel through time. Just an exchange of information.
  • Justice League Dark
  • Love, Death and Robots
  • Palm Springs (amazon prime) -  jake peralta in groundhog day
  • Time lapse (Amazon prime) -  magic camera that can see the future.  Predictable ending but it's consistent time travel done well

The Bad

  • Yugioh Arc V - The story telling in this is horrendous. They don't bother to explain anything and there's lots of plot conveniences (like the main characters deck being full of effect monsters for a technique he couldn't use). Also Pendulum is bullshit. 
  • ID-0: I have no idea where this one was supposed to be going. It doesn't feel like they achieved anything. 
  • He Never Died: This was so freaking boring. 
  • 2101 (amazon prime): feels like a student project the audio mixing is bad, the characters have knowledge that they shouldn't and they couldn't be bothered painting the maguffin artifact. You can see the weld marks from fabrication. 

The Interesting

  • Equilibrium - How are going to explain all of the crazy gun combat and how the protagonist never gets hit? Statistics. An answer that is sensible, but at the same time completely absurd.
  • Synchronicity - The time travel is fairly well done, but it goes off the rails right at the end even though there was an avenue that would have tied it all up neatly. 
  • Horns - The plot is kind of average but the horns themselves make it interesting. 
  • Kakegurui - A card game anime, but based around gambling instead of Yugioh. 
  • Erased - Guy with groundhog day powers gets sent back to stop a child kidnapper. They tend to ignore the time powers for more mundane stuff but it still works. 
  • 2057: The World in 50 Years - A few short stories intermixed with physicists talking about potential future technology.
  • Forensic Files - A real crime show that covers forensic techniques. 
  • ARQ - A gritty groundhog day style movie. 
  • The Toys That Made Us - Histories of famous toys. It was interesting hearing how She-Ra apparently ruined He-Man
  • Rotten
  • Castlevania - It's a shame that it's so short. I was keen to see more.
  • Kerlian Frequency - If it goes a bit more into the overarching story, I'd like to see it continue

Comments