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The Official TV Thread


jetsniper

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Haha, I don't think I've come across one Canadian that enjoys our Netflix. The selection is awful (can thank the lovely CRTC for that). I had it for a few months in the summer, ironically enough all I really used it for was watching Arrested Development.

Oh and comedy routines. Mostly Louis CK. And The IT Crowd, a British comedy.

Wait, theres another TV show I can recommend, The IT Crowd. Brilliant show.

"Hello, IT. Have you tried turning it off and on again? Uh... okay, well, the button on the side, is it glowing? ...yeah, you need to turn it on... uh, the button turns it on... yeah, you do know how a button works don't you? No, not on clothes. No, no there you go, no there you go. I just heard it come on... no, no, that's the music you heard when it comes on... no, that's the music you hear when... I'm sorry are you from the past?"

No, balls serve some purpose. Netflix is that corn kernel you just can't shake off on the toilet.

Aw man, never in a million years did I think Netflix would win that bidding war.

Canadian Netflix is balls, I don't want to go back.

I did the Canadian Netflix monthly trial twice and I must watched a few dozen movies on it in that time. There's a lot of good stuff on there, you just need to change your approach. Instead of searching up your favourite movie to see if they have it, you need to browse what they have. If you like art films, they have a lot of good stuff, I wrote a list somewhere of all the movies I saw on it in my second month, I'll try to find it. I know there was lots of Pasolini.

edit: here, this was my second month:

The Straight Story (1999) - USA - David Lynch

Oedipus Rex (1967) - Italy - Pier Paolo Pasolini

Love Meetings (1964) - Italy - Pier Paolo Pasolini

Mallrats (1995) - USA - Kevin Smith

The Short Films of David Lynch - USA - David Lynch

The Gospel According to St. Matthew (1964) - Italy - Pier Paolo Pasolini

The Hawks and the Sparrows (1964) - Italy - Pier Paolo Pasolini

Accatone (1961) - Italy - Pier Paolo Pasolini

Epidemic (1987) - Denmark - Lars Von Trier

As Tears Go By (1988) - Hong Kong - Wong Kar Wai

Days of Being Wild (1990) - Hong Kong - Wong Kar Wai

Under the Sand (2000) - France - François Ozon

Kiss of Death (1977) - UK - Mike Leigh

The Last Mistress (2007) - France - Catherine Breillat

Sex is Comedy (2002) - France - Catherine Breillat

Anatomy of Hell (2004) - France - Catherine Breillat

Iran: A Cinematographic Revolution (2007) - Iran - Nader T. Homayoun

Daniel Tosh: Completely Serious (2007) - USA - Daniel Tosh

Brother (2000) - Japan - Takeshi Kitano

Teeth (2006) - USA - Mitchell Liechtenstein

35 Shots of Rum (2007) - France - Claire Denis

Lie With Me (2005) - USA - Clément Virgo

Swimming Pool (2003) - France - François Ozon

Irma Vep (1996) - France - Olivier Assayas

El Mariachi (1992) - Mexico - Robert Rodriguez

Caché (2005) - France - Michael Haneke

Sukiyaki Western Django (2007) - Japan - Takashi Miike

I Don’t Hate Las Vegas Anymore (1994) - USA - Caveh Zahedi

Following (1998) - USA - Christopher Nolan

Hide and Seek (1996) - USA - Su Friedrich

Lots of awesome movies there and I don't remember what they were but I remember that there was lots more I was meaning to see before my month ran up.

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Wow... way to prove their point, BTH! :P

"Teeth" ... isn't that about the chick with 'vagina dentata'?

Yeah, lol. I thought it would be awesome in the way trashy horror movies sometimes are but it pretty much just sucked.

That is a lot of movies that I would not only not pay to see, but would walk out of if someone turned them on in front of me! ;-)

But you don't know anything about those movies. Actually, it's that you've never heard of them that makes you assume that they aren't worth watching. Netflix can't be held responsible for that attitude. If you're not interested in discovering new movies, then you can hardly blame Netflix for that. Some of those are movies that I'd never heard of but tried watching anyway. Others, like Mallrats, El Mariachi, Teeth, The Following, Private Resort, Waiting, and Pi (watched it in the other month) are mainstream movies even non-film buffs know about. Others are art films but they aren't highly conceptual or experimental or self-indulgent or whatever other stereotype you can think of for art films. They're just like mainstream films except more intelligent and yes, made for more intelligent and open-minded viewers. They aren't that much more "out there" than some Hollywood directors like PT Anderson, Tarantino, Scorsese, and Wes Anderson. Haneke, von Trier, Wong kar Wai, and Miike are pretty much as mainstream as 'art filmmakers' get. There's a ton of diversity in that list, many of which you wouldn't like, many of which you would. You can't just rule them all out because you haven't heard of them. If you do, then Netflix owes you nothing.

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I have a bandwidth cap. I'm not wasting it on streaming movies I haven't heard of and have no idea if I'll like. What a complete waste of money and bandwidth I can use on more important things.

I want good, current TV shows I can sit down and watch while I eat dinner. Let me know when our Netflix has the same TV selection the Americans get.

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I have a bandwidth cap. I'm not wasting it on streaming movies I haven't heard of and have no idea if I'll like. What a complete waste of money and bandwidth I can use on more important things.

I want good, current TV shows I can sit down and watch while I eat dinner. Let me know when our Netflix has the same TV selection the Americans get.

I didn't say every Canadian should pay for Netflix and click on all the videos they haven't heard of. Just that they aren't nearly as bad as you say they are. You make it sound like their selection is nothing but shit. Their mainstream stuff mostly is (so many Ryan Reynolds rom coms lol) but they have a hundreds of movies by big name directors, it's not their fault that you haven't heard of them. I've seen like a thousand movies and they had tons of stuff I wanted to see but hadn't found anywhere else and I know there are lots of others like me who have put it to good use.

Like I said, you just have to change your approach to use it. They probably won't have what you're looking for, so you just have to check for what they have (if you're looking for TV, nothing).

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Yeah, lol. I thought it would be awesome in the way trashy horror movies sometimes are but it pretty much just sucked.

But you don't know anything about those movies. Actually, it's that you've never heard of them that makes you assume that they aren't worth watching. Netflix can't be held responsible for that attitude. If you're not interested in discovering new movies, then you can hardly blame Netflix for that. Some of those are movies that I'd never heard of but tried watching anyway. Others, like Mallrats, El Mariachi, Teeth, The Following, Private Resort, Waiting, and Pi (watched it in the other month) are mainstream movies even non-film buffs know about. Others are art films but they aren't highly conceptual or experimental or self-indulgent or whatever other stereotype you can think of for art films. They're just like mainstream films except more intelligent and yes, made for more intelligent and open-minded viewers. They aren't that much more "out there" than some Hollywood directors like PT Anderson, Tarantino, Scorsese, and Wes Anderson. Haneke, von Trier, Wong kar Wai, and Miike are pretty much as mainstream as 'art filmmakers' get. There's a ton of diversity in that list, many of which you wouldn't like, many of which you would. You can't just rule them all out because you haven't heard of them. If you do, then Netflix owes you nothing.

It's that I have heard of a lot of them and still have zero interest in seeing them. That if I wanted to see art movies, I'd patronize the local art house. I get that that ones you're talking about are great film-making. But did you ever notice how great film-making barely gets by? There's a reason. Sure, great movies, but in general, people want to get away from 'life.' Otherwise these movies would all have made millions and millions. In the end, I most certainly can rule out Netflix because they don't have movies that I want to watch - and since I'm betting good money I'm with the majority in this, there's a reason why Netflix is roundly shunned by the Canadian population.

Pretty movies, but they make me want to rip of my own arm and beat myself to death with it.

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and since I'm betting good money I'm with the majority in this, there's a reason why Netflix is roundly shunned by the Canadian population.

You are, there's been a huge outcry over how bad our Netflix is especially when compared with the US one. That's what most people thought we were getting when it was first announced. I was so disappointed when I fired it up in April for the first time and the big new release they were trumpeting was Mega Shark Vs. Crocosaurus.

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It's that I have heard of a lot of them and still have zero interest in seeing them. That if I wanted to see art movies, I'd patronize the local art house. I get that that ones you're talking about are great film-making. But did you ever notice how great film-making barely gets by? There's a reason. Sure, great movies, but in general, people want to get away from 'life.' Otherwise these movies would all have made millions and millions. In the end, I most certainly can rule out Netflix because they don't have movies that I want to watch - and since I'm betting good money I'm with the majority in this, there's a reason why Netflix is roundly shunned by the Canadian population.

I agree that most people want to watch Hollywood movies and that Netflix isn't very good for this. But you guys were saying that you hadn't heard of a Canadian that likes Netflix and that their selection is crap. So I'm defending their selection. They have a lot of good stuff. And not super obscure stuff that nobody's heard of, but they have lots of titles that would be well-known to a certain demographic that is looking for a certain type of movie.

It's like showing up to a Habs game and booing Price, Subban, and Pacioretty because you wanted to see the Winnipeg Jets. If you want to see the Jets, go to a Jets game. Your disappointment is understandable but that doesn't mean there's nothing to see at the Bell Centre.

Pretty movies, but they make me want to rip of my own arm and beat myself to death with it.

I don't understand that because the term "art film" is sooo incredibly broad. They can be happy, sad, fast, slow, gratuitous, subtle, plot-driven, character-driven, etc. For example, one of the movies I listed above, Sukiyaki Western Django is taken somewhat seriously by cinephiles and yet it's non-stop pure awesomeness and action from beginning to end, hardly stereotypical art house fare.

Some people even consider Tarantino an art filmmaker (I don't). To others, his films are the lowest of the low in terms of artistic value (I don't think this either but he is the face of mainstream cinema). Does he make you want to beat yourself to death? :P

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I'm going to pretend that no one is seriously trying to defend Netflix's attempts in Canada (because that's laughable and I'm just assuming I'm dreaming) and mention that SyFy announced today they're going to produce a Booster Gold pilot which is seriously awesome news.

Only thing is I've never watched a SyFy show before so I don't know what their production value is like. But I think Fanpuck has mentioned he watches Eureka so maybe he can give some insight.

Good time for superheroes on the small screen, if you ignore that awful Wonder Woman idea NBC thankfully passed over (or was it ABC? Probably not since Disney owns both ABC and Marvel. But I can't remember). Especially excited for del Toro's Incredible Hulk show. Yes, that del Toro.

Most likely though is they all bomb ala The Cape and we only get a few episodes of each, lol

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I'm going to pretend that no one is seriously trying to defend Netflix's attempts in Canada (because that's laughable and I'm just assuming I'm dreaming)

Why laughable?

Actual reasons > Sarcasm

Canadians that know cinema will be able to find some use for Netflix. Canadians that don't know cinema will have almost no use for Netflix. The majority don't know cinema but that doesn't mean the entire project is worthless and indefensible. I'm not even talking about them as a business, I don't know if they're making money or not, I'm talking about the service they provide and at the very low price they offer it. My first sentence is the only statement that I think is required in order to defend Netflix. I'd obviously prefer it if they got way more stuff but I'm grateful I got the chance to use it so they're cool in my books even if I wouldn't recommend them to the average person.

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It's such a trivial thing though that I don't even care about giving actual reasons. Why is this something worth debating over? I gave an offhand comment that I don't like Netflix's selection in Canada where if I knew what the response was going to be then I would've just kept it to myself.

I'm just patiently waiting for someone to get back on track now.

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It's such a trivial thing though that I don't even care about giving actual reasons. Why is this something worth debating over? I gave an offhand comment that I don't like Netflix's selection in Canada where if I knew what the response was going to be then I would've just kept it to myself.

I'm just patiently waiting for someone to get back on track now.

Trivial? That's a load of crap. Netflix is an important part of the lives of so many Canadians. They have documentaries, feature films, shorts (the above mentioned by Lynch) etc. It's one of the most popular online film-viewing companies in the world. Etc... :bonk:

lol Nah, I'm just refining my technique at trolling the Lounge. But I do like Netflix. And Teeth sucks (bites).

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Only thing is I've never watched a SyFy show before so I don't know what their production value is like. But I think Fanpuck has mentioned he watches Eureka so maybe he can give some insight.

Eureka is a really fun show. I wouldn't say the production value is top notch, but that's not what the show is about. It's lighthearted and doesn't take itself too seriously. Warehouse 13 is their best (and most watched) show these days, and it's a step up both in production and entertainment value. And of course, there was BSG, which was excellent on so many levels. Only other SyFy show I watched was Haven, but I didn't care for it and gave up on it after half a dozen or so episodes. Their budget for TV shows is clearly multiple times more than their movie, budget, though. It's amazing that the same channel the makes these shows also makes the crap movies they put out, haha.

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Eureka is a really fun show. I wouldn't say the production value is top notch, but that's not what the show is about. It's lighthearted and doesn't take itself too seriously. Warehouse 13 is their best (and most watched) show these days, and it's a step up both in production and entertainment value. And of course, there was BSG, which was excellent on so many levels. Only other SyFy show I watched was Haven, but I didn't care for it and gave up on it after half a dozen or so episodes. Their budget for TV shows is clearly multiple times more than their movie, budget, though. It's amazing that the same channel the makes these shows also makes the crap movies they put out, haha.

Oh, well thats good to hear. Booster Gold is a great character, I think he could be pretty popular with more exposure. Kind of similar to how Deadpool has been gaining a ton of popularity since he appeared in that Wolverine movie, he had the same cult following before Marvel decided to give him a push. And Booster was just in the last season of Smallville and was named head of the JLI so I think DC is trying to do the same.

What is Eureka about? I've always been interested in checking it out since I know Felicia is involved with it (though not sure to what extent). Oh, and I forgot SyFy did BSG. Had I remembered they did that, I would've been less worried since by all accounts they did a great job on that show. Hopefully this works out well.

And I know what you mean with those SyFy movies, some of those are the "so bad it's good" variety. Did you see the one with Felicia Day playing the werewolf hunter? I think she was supposed to be Red Riding Hood

(AH! Colin! This comic book talk reminded me of something though this isn't the appropriate thread. What'd you think of DC's decision to completely reboot everything? You may answer in any thread of your choosing, lol)

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(AH! Colin! This comic book talk reminded me of something though this isn't the appropriate thread. What'd you think of DC's decision to completely reboot everything? You may answer in any thread of your choosing, lol)

It's a bit disappointing that their idea of "sexually liberated" characters means they ###### anything that moves.

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Yep, that's definitely how women bend over to pick something up.

tumblr_lry2oiWT6e1qg6xwh.png

Wow, it's like she's speaking as every woman I've ever known! Is Starfire post-op in the reboot?

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I haven't read a single one yet. Have a pile sitting there, but have been refinishing the basement. I'll let you know when I get to 'em. On the other hand, when do the orange babes with crazy bodies start hitting on me?

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Did you read Catwoman too Triz or just Red Hood? Because Catwoman was a thousand times worse, lol. Especially the last panel. I can't even post pictures of what I mean since I'm pretty sure it would get me banned. But they managed to drag Bats into it too, I felt embarrassed reading it. Not doing anything to change the view all comic writers are misogynists guys. Thank god Gail Simone exists.

Stopped at the comic shop this morning before I came home, picked up Aquaman and a few others. Aquaman is the best by far of the reboot IMO.

We should totally get around to starting a comic's thread but someone else has to do it. >_>

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Did you read Catwoman too Triz or just Red Hood? Because Catwoman was a thousand times worse, lol. Especially the last panel. I can't even post pictures of what I mean since I'm pretty sure it would get me banned. But they managed to drag Bats into it too, I felt embarrassed reading it. Not doing anything to change the view all comic writers are misogynists guys. Thank god Gail Simone exists.

I know of what you speak.

It spread to the Arkham City videogame as well, which is sad because it has Game of the Year potential. I don't want any game to win an award that includes the spoken line, "I'd like to have my way with Harley, whether she wants it or not."

Do these people even like women?

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I know of what you speak.

It spread to the Arkham City videogame as well, which is sad because it has Game of the Year potential. I don't want any game to win an award that includes the spoken line, "I'd like to have my way with Harley, whether she wants it or not."

Do these people even like women?

Oh, I completely missed that. That one isn't too bad though.

Arkham City was freaking awesome.

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What is Eureka about? I've always been interested in checking it out since I know Felicia is involved with it (though not sure to what extent). Oh, and I forgot SyFy did BSG. Had I remembered they did that, I would've been less worried since by all accounts they did a great job on that show. Hopefully this works out well.

The basic premise is that a US Marshall (I think that's what he starts out as) is chasing down his runaway teenage daughter. They come across the town of Eureka and things start going weird. It turns out, Eureka is the home of the country/world's greatest scientists and everyone in the town is essentially a genius. He ends up becoming the sheriff and has to figure out how to save the town each week from experiments gone wrong. Felicia became a pretty significant part of the show this season.

You didn't ask about Warehouse 13, but I'll go there anyway. If you'll recall the end of the first Indiana Jones, they lock the Ark of the Covenant in a secret warehouse (which is revisited in the latest movie). This is basically a spin-off of that idea, as secret service agents guard a warehouse full of supernatural artifacts of historical importance and track down artifacts that are causing trouble. Very good chemistry between the leads makes it an excellent show.

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