The Netflix Stream: Week of January 22nd, 2012

All right, I’ll level with you – I’m a little scared this week. Netflix loses a huge amount of programming from the BBC, including a few favorites of mine. ‘Doctor Who’ is on the list at Instant Watcher, which is usually a reliable source. Yet on the Netflix page, the availability section shows “Streaming, Blu-ray and DVD.” If the show were leaving the stream, it should say “Streaming until x/x, DVD and Blu-ray.” So, I have my fingers crossed, because I’ve had a hankering to watch Seasons 1 through 4 again, and finish by bawling along in my room at the last half hour or so of ‘The End of Time’. So crazy good.

I should also point out that the Netflix RSS feed seems to be janked up this week too. Instead of new movies from this last week, it seems to have combined everything that came out this month into one massive update. I still have a few new suggestions this week, of course.

Leaving the Stream:
  1. ‘Dracula’ (1/30): No, not some new version of the film or even the fantastic ‘Bram Stoker’s Dracula’. This is the 1931 classic version of ‘Dracula‘, complete with the great Bela Lugosi (you know, before the whole ‘Plan 9’ thing) and Dwight Frye as Renfield. It’s an essential watch, if just to further your movie literacy.
  2. ‘A Bit of Fry and Laurie’ (1/31): Before they were known as “the dude from Bones” and Dr. House, Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie were incredibly funny sketch comedians. Yes, House is a British comedian. It’s a little weird to see at first, but I got used to it quickly enough. It’s not quite ‘Python’, and there are a few bits in there that are aimed at a British audience, but ‘A Bit of Fry and Laurie‘ is still damn funny.
Entering the Stream
  1. ‘Sherlock’: If you’re not watching ‘Sherlock’, then you’re doing it wrong. The show stars Benedict Cumberbatch as the title character and the very excellent Martin Freeman as Watson. If that’s not enough, it’s written by Steven Moffat, the current head writer and executive producer of ‘Doctor Who’ as well as the writer of ‘Blink’, one of the series’ strongest episodes. ‘Sherlock‘ is an incredible series. Season 1 is broken up into three episodes of 90 minutes each. Watch the first then try not to watch the second and third.
  2. ‘Jingle All the Way’: I know it’s not Christmas, and that ‘Jingle All the Way‘ technically isn’t a very good movie. However, it’s still a notable film, at least as far as I’m concerned. I find Schwarzenegger funny in it, which is rare, and I find Sinbad funny in it, which is rarer. Phil Hartman is his usual wonderfully sleazy self too, which helps things immensely. More impressive is that this move features Jake Lloyd (young Anakin Skywalker from ‘The Phantom Menace’) and he’s actually not too bad in it. I don’t want to smack him around at all. Interesting how a no-name director like Brian Levant can get good performances out of terrible actors while George Lucas manages to make Ewan McGregor and Natalie Portman look like they’ve never acted in their lives.

5 comments

  1. Alex

    Dick, Sherlock’s been up for a little while now (I’ve watched the whole series about 4 times). Are they adding the second season?

    • Super-VHS

      Yeah, I watched “Sherlock” (all three episodes in one day) during the summer. July-ish sometime, I think. Certainly before September when I cancelled because of the whole pricing fiasco.

      • Alex

        That must have been one fun day.

        Seriously, though, Benedict Cumberbatch is the only person who’s ever come close to rivaling Jeremy Brett as the greatest Sherlock Holmes of all time.

  2. Brian H

    I watched the Sherlock series (the 3 eps) a few months ago with a friend. As good as the first episode is, the other two are styled and paced differently(different directors) and so are kind of a letdown after the excellent first episode.

    • Season Two just aired on the BBC and it is much stronger than the first season. All three episodes are very good and the last one is amazing. They will air on PBS here in the states in May and I would imagine Netflix will have them shortly thereafter.

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