Netflix® n Chill?- or..Hulu® n Couch Glue, or...Prime n Downtime...Sooooo Much to Choose From!!
----Spoiler Alert----
For several months now, I've been trying to find a niche to fill on Steemit. For a man in his forties and currently facing my own mid-life crisis, that has proven to be a difficult task.
Oh, and by "Netflix® and Chill", I mean, (ahem) actually watching something on Netflix®, not the street code for a Tinder® hookup...
This is actually meant to be an informative post and help the peeps out there find a few, little hidden gems to watch. Because, I know just how overwhelming and frustrating it can be, that I spend more time actually searching for something to watch, than I do actively watching anything at all...
It seems like every month, there is a new streaming app or platform that enters the market, thus making it even more difficult and cumbersome to find some simple mind numbing entertainment to escape our harsh reality.
I've been a rabbit hole researcher pretty hardcore for about the last 12 years and I first dipped my toes in the waters of the Truth/Conspiracy/Freeman/Sovereignty movements shortly after 9/11 and have been on an amazing journey ever since.
Lately, I've given in to the magic, Druidic wand of Hollywood and just decided to take a break from trying to untie the world's Gordian knot. It's actually refreshing to be entertained for a change- especially after spending so many years trying to NOT slip back under the spell of mass hypnosis.
Anyhow, with so many different streaming platforms and * programming * that's available, it's hard as hell to even decide where to BEGIN looking, much less to narrow it down once you've found a few potential, prospective shows.
For my own reasons, I like to find shows that already have a few seasons in the can and are available to binge watch.
It's very frustrating to find a show that you end up liking, watch the first season or two of it, and then find out that it's been cancelled for some unexplained reason or another. This happened to me numerous times, most recently with the entire line of Marvel® shows on Netflix® that included DareDevil™, The Punisher™, and several others. After getting hooked on the superb screenwriting paired with the gritty acting performance of Jon Bernthal as Frank Castle, I was pretty pissed when Netflix® did not renew The Punisher™ for a much anticipated 3rd season.
As it turns out, the Disney® Company's acquisition of Marvel® pretty much put the brakes on anything else coming out of the Marvel® Universe with Netflix® as the producer/distributor. Disney® has since entered the streaming "game" with their own platform, ®Disney+ (Plus). I guess they felt the pressing need to compete with the already well established triumvirate of Amazon Prime, Netflix, and Hulu.
So, from here on out, I will be limiting my recommendations from the main 3 services listed above, since I have the most experience with Prime, Netflix, and Hulu. I've seen some really interesting looking teaser trailers coming from Apple TV®, so at some point in the future I'd like to do a review or two of some of their material.
For all you Game of Thrones™ fans out there, Jason Momoa has a show called SEE™ that is available on Apple TV® and looks pretty dope. If any of my readers have seen it, please feel free to drop some feedback in the comments and let me know what you think about it...
Most importantly, I realize that everyone has different tastes when it comes to shows that they like, so what gets me all hyped up might bore the hell out of you and put you to sleep. Differences in tastes and opinions are what make the world an interesting place and if you tell me that my show recommendations suck and that I have horrible, shitty taste, I won't get offended.
Just tell me some of the stuff you enjoyed and why- then perhaps another reader will benefit from your choices and reviews...
Kicking it off with Netflix®, one of the most psychologically engaging shows I've ever seen is YOU. If you haven't seen or at the very least heard anyone talking about this show, then you are seriously missing out. Currently, 2 seasons are available and the show stars Penn Badgley from most notably, Gossip Girl™. Haven't seen Gossip Girl and I couldn't tell you shit about it, but YOU is definitely a show you'll sink right into...
Penn plays "Joe", a NYC bookstore manager who you almost right away want to like his character, but you can also tell that there's something lying just under the surface that is SERIOUSLY off about this dude. He's definitely a loner, and the entire show is done from his character's first person perspective with the majority of the screenwriting done through his interior monologue/voiceover. It was a complete deal maker for me, because you always HEAR what Joe is thinking, even when he isn't saying it aloud.
He has some major, fucked up stalker tendencies, which fuel his entire character's motivations and his backstory is cleverly and carefully woven into the forward progression of the show...
Being that he is an introverted and introspective guy, he is drawn to the somewhat, same personality type during season 1. The female who becomes his "quest project" turns out to be an aspiring writer that is insulated by her Manhattan socialite friends, whom he must struggle to win over if he has any hopes of getting close to her. Everyone knows her simply as "Beck", which is not short for Becky or Rebecca, but actually her last name- Guinevere Beck.
She has a Manhattanite, upper crust background and her social media profiles are quite the same, larger than life- which allows Joe to glean any and all necessary information about her...enough that he can establish her daily routine, likes and dislikes, immediate friends and colleagues...you get the picture! Lol
Watching this show made me immediately want to scrub all of my social media profiles, not out of fear, but just to be conscious of the kind of collateral damage that can be done to someone's friends and family just by the wrong person having the right information.
Joe is clearly very savvy and capable, and is able to infiltrate Beck's life with ease. It's not until her own obscessive best friend, Paige Salinger,(of the Catcher in the Rye© author's family) begins to suspect Joe is hiding secrets, that things begin to quickly unravel for him...
The show is dark, suspenseful, and moves very quickly at just 10 episodes in each season.
I particularly enjoy this type of show genre, and even though Joe does some pretty devious and evil shit in the show, I still found myself rooting for him. I guess that makes him somewhat of an antihero, its up to the audience to make that call. Joe believes he's justified in his decision making process. While I'm no learned clinical psychologist, I am pretty sure this is a hallmark personality trait of a sociopath!
Watch, Enjoy, and Comment!