Movie/TV show/Netflix shows (etc) reviews

Have you watched that new Netflix original series Grace and Frankie yet? I haven't watched it and don't know what it's about but I see the promotions for it all over the city, and I wonder if it's worthwhile. My grandparents just emailed us the other day to ask for recommendations for Netflix summer shows, but since I haven't watched much I'm not that helpful. The actors are in their age range so I thought maybe they'd like it. I still haven't watched any episodes from season three of House of Cards. I will definitely watch that and Orange is the New Black when the new season begins sometime this summer.

I saw Avengers with my boyfriend and younger brother, and they liked it but I wasn't as enthralled. It's such a teenage boy movie, haha.

Do you like Downton Abbey? It's on Netflix!

"Grace and Frankie" is about two women whose husbands (played by Martin Sheen and Sam Waterston), partners in a law firm, leave them after 40 years of marriage. In the opening episode the husbands meet them for lunch and announce that they have been in love with one another for 20 years and have decided they want to marry each other.

Grace (Sheen's wife) and Frankie (Waterston's wife) take up residence in the beach house the two families have co-owned, and they are something of a female odd couple. Frankie (Lily Tomlin) is an artist and free spirit who gives art classes to parolees and smokes weed. She and Waterston were "best friends" and remain close despite their pain. Grace owned a successful cosmetics business, now run by her daughter. She is the best looking 70 year old I've ever seen, absolutely perfect. Her relationship with Sheen had been rockier.

I, too, get tired of sitcoms focusing on atypical rather than typical families. When I was growing up watching "Ozzie and Harriet" and "Father Knows Best" perhaps there wasn't enough room for the atypical, but I think the pendulum has swung too far in the other direction. I guess that the reality TV producers of "19 Kids and Counting" thought they were celebrating the Ozzie and Harriet family, but even Ozzie and Harriet families have some skeletons in their closets at times.

The episodes I've seen of "Grace and Frankie" have been well-acted. The men's relationship is affectionate, but there isn't very much onscreen PDA. They go through adjustment problems and disagreements as they see sides of one another's personalities that weren't as evident in the law office, and this is very important, because I think that many opponents of gay marriage are so focused on the sex that they don't look at the idea of two people sharing a life together and experiencing the same relationship challenges that all couples face.

The first couple of seasons of Arrow are on Netflix now. I've just made it into season two. Good superhero series from the DC Comics universe (Superman/Batman/The Flash) rather than the currently in vogue Marvel Comics universe (Avengers, Iron Man, X-Men, etc.).

The show starts a bit slow when it seems like they have the male lead do a little too much posing and sappy stuff that seems designed to appeal to a young female demographic who they think will watch because he is cute, but it seems like as it goes on it develops into a more serious slightly darker adult action-driven show, and gets a lot better from my entirely subjective perspective. All shows like this have some unrealistic elements by design, but Arrow at least in the parts I have been watching steers clear of supernatural powers and space and that kind of thing, and features a vigilante hero in a world that is mostly realistic as it is portrayed on screen, even though some events seem implausible from time to time. Actor John Barrowman (Captain Jack Harkness from Doctor Who and Torchwood) plays a recurring character on the show.

Netflix also has Marvel's Daredevil, which, while not as good as Arrow, was okay. Daredevil gets a little more unrealistic with a blind guy with special powers fighting crime and stuff like that. Slightly more blood and whatnot involved because it didn't have a first-run on network TV (It's a Netflix original). Overall, I think Arrow is a better show, but if you like those sort of shows, no reason not to give both a try.

Oh, and if anyone has a Netflix streaming subscription and hasn't seen "House of Cards", you should do it. Very dark adult drama surrounding a fictional US politician and his wife. The type of intense R-rated drama that would have otherwise been on premium cable.

And of course all the Star Trek shows are available to stream, and some good comedies like Cheers and Friends. The first couple seasons of Sliders are worth watching as well.

I kind of like a movie called "Parallels" that was on there as well. Seems like a pilot to a TV series, but it's just on there as a movie. Maybe they will make a series out of it if enough people watch the movie and rate it highly. About parallel realities, similar to Sliders in some respects.

Oh, and if anyone has seen "The Tudors", that's a great show. I think the entire series is up now. Should mention it's R-rated type material in case some people object to that sort of thing. But I think it's definitely the best Henry VIII historical fiction drama of all-time.

bill5 said:

Something else for the lighter side

Watching "The Tomorrow People" Netflix series now. eh. It's OK and watchable, despite its numerous flaws.

Last movie? "Avengers." .

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Is that the early 1970s cheesy sci-fi I watched as a child?

Most of my netflix is taken up by kids programming But I do like that it has almost all of the new Dr. Who and a good selection of the classic.

The old miniseries Jesus of Nazareth is on there and that is a good watch.

The 80's show Amazing Stories is on there. So is old Kolchak The Night Stalker. Both of those are good and a fun watch.

We watch reruns of Archer and Arrested Development and Its Always Sunny in Philedelphia and very little else.

Davidnic said:

But I do like that it has almost all of the new Dr. Who

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I'm a fan of the new Doctor Who as well. The last 10 years of that show have been wildly entertaining.

I wish All in the Family were on netflix. Probably too racy for today's crowd, though.

My daughter has Netflix (that apparently you can put on up to 8 computers or devices) and I have Amazon Prime.

There are two shows on Prime Instant Video that I really like. My favorite is "Mozart in the Jungle--" what happens in the NY Philharmonic when they retire their former conductor to hire an edgy young child prodigy who ushers in plenty of changes.

The music is awesome, the cast--including Bernadette Peters and Malcolm McDowell--is first rate, and what can I say, I love music and I love NY. I'm sold.

The second is "Alpha House," an American political satire about four senators who share a posh pad in Washington together. John Goodman is from the South, Mark Consuelos is a Floridian Marco Rubio type, and they are joined by a Mormon from Utah and a black Senator from Pennsylvania who hasn't been in touch with his humble beginnings for many years. They do interact with Democrats--Wanda Sykes lives next door, and she's a hoot.

I love "House of Cards," too--both "House of Cards" and "Alpha House" have some Machiavellian moments, but Alpha House's Machiavellian moments are much lighter-hearted than House of Cards'.