Watching It Now on Netflix

Stranger Things: Season 2 is a Netflix Original Show. Plot: What happened to Elle? How are the rest of the kids? Who are these new characters? Hardly anything can be speculated on in this blog post without ruining some aspect of Season 1. Therefore, if you haven't watched Season 1, go do that first! My Take :  I can not stress this enough!!! If you've not seen Season 1, go watch it NOW!  Season 2 is far stronger overall than its predecessor. Better writing, plot development, and character interaction are only a few of things that make Season 2 so good.  I watched the final 7 episodes in one go and it was so well worth it!!! One of the most binge-able shows in all of Netflix, and one of the best seasons of any tv show I've ever seen. Highly recommended!!! Check out Stranger Things Monopoly !!! 

Dead Like Me is a 2003-2004 fantasy/sci-fi/comedy/drama television series starring Mandy Patinkin, Ellen Muth, and Jasmine Guy. Plot: Grim Reapers walk the earth, harvesting souls when they die so that they can safely proceed to whatever comes next.  Patinkin leads one very quirky group of Reapers that have their own set of issues: how to survive in a world where they are only semi-living. My Take:  Typical Showtime series.  Exceedingly dark, quirky, and funny in every way.  The acting is stellar, and the characters are all distinctly different and so very inappropriate in different ways. This series only went two seasons because creative differences between the writers of the show and Showtime that led to the cancelling of the well-received, and highly watched, series.  Such a shame. Dead Like Me got ratings for original programming on Showtime that took seven years to match.

Serenity is a 2005 sci-fi movie based on the Firefly television series that ran in 2002.  It is a Joss Whedon project and stars Nathan Fillion, Gina Torres, and Adam Baldwin. Plot:  A bit of time has passed since the events in the Firefly episodes, and the crew of the Serenity have their toughest mission yet.  Harboring fugitives from the over-reaching government called the Alliance, the Serenity crew discover a dangerous secret that could bring it down.  Pursued by the government and a group of flesh-eating savages, the Serenity crew have to rely on each other to survive. My Take: Just as funny and smart as its predecessor, Serenity is a delight in every way.  More action, bigger storyline, and even more character development, fans of the tv show were not disappointed. It's rare when a tv show gets a feature-length movie released in theaters, and even more rare when it's based on a series that lasted less than one full season.  You don't have to ...

Firefly is a sci-fi television show produced by Joss Whedon that aired in 2002 for one season.  It starred Nathan Fillion, Gina Torres, and Adam Baldwin. Plot:  Set 500 years in the future, this show follows the ship, Serenity, and its misfit crew as they go from one dangerous job to the next. Constantly hunted by the Alliance (an over-reaching government) as criminals, this crew has to figure out how to survive this and each other. My Take: Yet another Joss Whedon project that got cancelled far too soon.  14 episodes and one feature length movie (Serenity, to be reviewed elsewhere) are all we have of this delightful, surprising television show. Equal parts western/Star Wars/comedy/sci-fi show, the characters are extremely well-developed and well-written.  The dialogue is crisp and frequently hysterical.  Viewers were so distraught following the premature cancelling of the show that they successfully petitioned to have the show be made into a feat...

Eureka is a current sci-fi, comedy television series (2006-current) starring Colin Ferguson. Plot:  Ferguson plays Sheriff Carter, a former US Marshal, assigned to the town of Eureka.  The town is filled with genius scientists who work at the top-secret, highly dangerous research facility located there.  It seems like every day brings a new "end of the world" scenario to town, and Ferguson has to figure out how to save Eureka, and the world, with the help of his new genius friends. My Take: One of the smartest, funniest, and best written shows I've seen on tv in quite a while.  At least in the "Sci-Fi" genre.  The characters are well-developed and each lends their own distinct voice to the show.  This is my current obsession.  Eureka currently airs on the Sy-Fy channel in the summers, but I only recently became acquainted with the show when it appeared on Netfllix.  There are currently 43 episodes that cover the first 3 seasons of ...

The Guild is a 2007-current comedy internet series starring Felicia Day. Plot: A group of online gamers are joined in their own "Guild" by their obsession with an online game similar to World of Warcraft.  Their lives, however, quickly become even more complicated when they begin to interact outside of the game, which throw most of them into a world that they desperately try and avoid: real life.  Each "episode" on Netflix is a collection of that season's webisodes.  Season 5 has been filmed and should be coming out later in 2011. My Take: Original, inventive, smart, and funny.  Anyone who has spent any time in an online community will understand this show.  The characters are each distinctly different, but meld with each other in unpredictable ways.  The episodes flow very nicely, and the stories are very well-written.  This is one of my current favorite series to watch, and I'm eagerly awaiting the release of Season 5.

Avatar: The Last Airbender is a 2005 American animated tv series originally shown on Nickelodeon. Plot:  In this fantasy world, there are four tribal nations: Fire, Water, Air, and Earth.  Each nation's people are capable of controlling that particular element.  Having lived in peace for generations, the Fire Nation begins a war of total domination of the other nations.  There is one man who can stop this war and bring the world back into peace.  That man is the Avatar, the one person in the world capable of controlling all of the elements. However, that man is actually a young boy who just wants to have fun.  Destiny cannot be avoided, however, and he begins a journey to learn the skills needed to defeat the Fire Nation once and for all. My Take:  This is one of my all-time favorite shows I have watched on Netflix.  It appears to be a show for kids, but clearly it is for anyone.  It is smart, with characters that are developed over the...

Dollhouse is a television series created by Joss Whedon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Firefly)that aired from 2008-2009. Starring Elisha Dushku, this sci-fi/adventure show was cancelled before it could find its proper audience (in my opinion.) Plot: Dushku plays Echo, one of many "Dolls" that are programmed for whatever scenario their handlers desire. Hired out by anyone with a lot of money, a doll can be made into whatever that person wants. A surrogate mother, hooker, counselor, assassin, spouse...anything is possible. Their minds are erased at the end of each mission by those assigned to protect them. Consequently, they don't remember anything of previous missions or of their own lives. Echo is regarded as the best doll in the Dollhouse until she begins to inexplicably experience flashes of memory and visions of her previous life. This begins to create a big problem for her handlers assigned to protect her from others and herself. My Take: This series was a s...