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We need something to watch. Help?


Jenny in Florida
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Between the two of us, my husband and I are dealing with . . . a lot of stuff. By the time we hit the evening, all we want to do is sit in comfy chairs in the living room and stream stuff on Netflix, Hulu, Prime or Disney+. But even with all three of those services, we're running out of things to watch.

Things we've already watched (in no particular order, including series and films):

  • Lost in Space (the Netflix reboot)
  • Grace and Frankie
  • Schitt's Creek (more my speed than his, but he got through the whole series with me)
  • Cobra Kai
  • Great British Baking Show
  • Sherlock
  • The Crown (although I finished that one on my own after he dropped off)
  • Russian Doll (ditto)
  • Fosse/Verdon
  • Nadiya Bakes
  • The Good Place
  • Superstore
  • The Toys that Made Us/The Movies that Made Us
  • Sugar Rush
  • The Big Flower Fight
  • Treehouse Masters
  • The Repair Shop
  • Grand Designs
  • Fixer Upper
  • Good Bones
  • Home Town
  • Hidden Potential/Help! I Wrecked My House
  • WandaVision (despite the fact that I have literally no interest in the rest of the MCU)
  • Nomandland
  • Wild
  • Enola Holmes
  • Moxie
  • Assorted documentaries including: Crip Camp, The Last Blockbuster, Made You Look . . .
  • Pretty much every tiny home series available on any streaming service

There are other things that only one of us has watched and in which the other has no interest. He, for example, is currently working his way through NCIS, having already watched Madame Secretary, Designated Survivor, Homeland, Elementary and other, similar series. (Not my speed.)

I watched Ginny and Georgia, Mrs. America, The Big Day, Marriage or Mortgage, Devs, Leah Remini's series about Scientology . . .

As you can see, when it's both of us, we lean towards relatively gentle titles; that's on my account. With rare exceptions, I cannot handle anything in which I have to worry constantly about children or animals coming to harm or in which plot development depends on violence or cruelty, especially when either is played for laughs. I often lean towards documentaries, but not of the "true crime" or "secret history" flavors. We both like SF/fantasy, but only when it is fairly well written and includes lots of character development. (We've already seen all of the Star Trek series more than once.)

We like some home renovation/remodeling shows, but none of the ones that have especially artificial framing devices or that involve any kind of competition.

With some exceptions (30 Rock, Parks and Recreation, Schitt's Creek, Superstore, The Good Place), we're not big into sitcoms. 

Also, we're old. So, if it's a sitcom that aired on network TV prior to 2000, we've probably either seen it or didn't like it. Ditto with most major theatrical films outside of gross-out comedies and horror flicks.

And while sometimes we are really craving a movie or documentary, it's really nice to be able to just settle in and stream "the next episode."

Edited to add: I probably should have mentioned that my husband dislikes reading subtitles, and I dislike listening to dubbed dialogue, which means we generally need to stick to English-language titles.

So, help? What hidden gems have we missed?

Edited by Jenny in Florida
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Our family really liked Foyle's War, about a police inspector on the British homefront during WW2, filmed in the early 2000's maybe?.  There were murders to solve, but I can't stomach NCIS graphic types, and these were not like that. My teens and husband enjoyed trying to figure out the mystery, and I enjoyed the characters.

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Poldark? The new one with Aiden Turner and Elinor Tomlinson. Last I checked, all five seasons were on Prime. 
 

Friday Night Lights (and for the record, I hate football. Hate it. But I adore this series). 
 

Parenthood 

Zoe’s Extraordinary Playlist. Campy and implausible, but charming in its own odd way. If you watch it, give it  2-3 episodes before you decide for sure. It gets better. And the storyline with the dad . . . Oh my heart. 

Edited by Forget-Me-Not
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I'm enjoying Nick Zentners series on the geology of the PNW.  Through Central washington university youtube channel.  basalt floods, ancient rivers, great earthquakes and tsunamis. . . . yellowstone is just the latest location of that hotspot as the earth's mantle has moved west.  They can trace the (extinct) calderas all the way to the pacific ocean.

 

The mystery of Dark Matter (  amazon) was really interesting.  and you'll learn about how little your college physics professors know about atoms (sorry-  everything - most things in the universe - are NOT made from atoms.)  And the physicist who really pioneered the field, was a woman.  she picked it because there wasn't any competition.

Einstein's Quantum Riddle. - amazon

The genius o George Boole - (you've heard of boolean algebra?  or a boolean search? - thank him.) - amazon.

 

for history - Tudor Monastery Farm, or Victorian Farm.  Amazon.  what happens when an archeologist and a historian live like the periods they study.

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We've enjoyed Harrow, and Bess of Both Worlds.  They're both Australian.  After watching Harrow I'm thinking that Australian coroners have wildly different responsibilities than American ones. 😂 We also just started People of Earth, an alien abduction support group comedy. The Guest Book was weird but entertaining.  If you haven't watched The Great British Gardening Revival, you might want to check that out. It has a DIY feel which you seem to like, but isn't quite as involved as Gardener's World. The trouble with that show is that you want one of each kind of garden after watching the first season..

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Shtisel, Unorthodox (for two different views of Orthodox Jewish life)

Arranged (a favorite movie of mine)

The Spy with Sasha Baron Cohen in a serious role. We have seen two of the six and love it so far. 

The Durrells in Corfu   Highly recommend. We had to stop watching because of something trigger-y for me but it is fantastic

The Syrian Bride   ok, subtitles but worth it

 

 

 

 

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11 hours ago, Jenny in Florida said:

With rare exceptions, I cannot handle anything in which I have to worry constantly about children or animals coming to harm or in which plot development depends on violence or cruelty,

Coming back to add that, while I love Foyle's War, it doesn't always avoid harm to children. It's a WWII mystery... people the viewer cares about, including at least one kid, do get hurt and killed, by other characters' machinations. Nothing of the sort is ever played for laughs, though. It's a superlative, sensitive drama, with incredibly well-drawn, appealing main characters, but overall it's a bit melancholy. Again...WWII.

Edited by Innisfree
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13 hours ago, Innisfree said:

If you can find it, Detectorists. It's gentle and warm and very funny. There's some conflict, but it's good people trying to make things work out, mostly. I hated to see it end.

I think it's on Acorn TV, but we got the DVDs.

I forgot detectorists! Definitely enjoyed that

also second durell’s of corfu

pbs has a few series, one is frontier house, I think there was a Victorian house and one called Tenement house I think too

 

Edited by saraha
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Hopscotch, Glenda jackson, Walter Mattheau, Ned Beatty   (humor, CIA spy writes a tell all, one step ahead of the CIA)  (the dvd has the airline version (so cleaned up) as well as the theater version, which was R.)

you can find the whole thing on youtube.    - funfact, they had to cast his son and step-daughter to get him to go to Germany.  (he lost family in the Holocaust) 

Edited by gardenmom5
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