Instant Fix: Caelyn’s Netflix Top 5

Ah, Netflix Instant. I love you, and yet I hate you. There are many Sundays where I planned a run, some light reading, perhaps a trip to the Grand Army Plaza farmers’ market, but did none of those things. I blame you, Netflix, with your siren song of all seventeen seasons of every show I watched as a teen. Can you still make your Facebook relationship status, “It’s Complicated”? Because if so, Netflix, I feel we need to own up to the truth.

Especially since I know that you’re doing the same thing with all of my friends, some relatives, and even Jackie. I know she bakes you cookies, but don’t be fooled. You’re better than that.

In spite of your brazen indiscretions, Netflix, I can’t move on. And here’s why:

5. Deadly Women / Disappeared (tie)

You all are about to be privy to a secret only my mom knows: I am addicted to true crime documentaries. As a young(er) woman, I watch A&E and Court TV daytime programming throughout the day during many a school break. Living in New York, without a TV, I got my fix with Investigative Discovery shows on Netflix. The two best, by far, are Deadly Women and Disappeared. I list them here together–not gonna lie–so as to better use the rest of the list to showcase my actual good taste in things other than true crime.

Deadly Women features period re-enactments of atrocious crimes committed by women, often grouped in each episode by time of crime or motivation. A narrator provides the actual dialogue for the whole show and they occasionally cut to expert testimony from talking heads in law enforcement. Is the acting bad? Yes. Do they appear to get all of their actors from Australia, even to play Americans when they clearly can’t do American accents? Yes. Do they use the same criminal profiler for all the episodes, even though she didn’t work on any of the cases at all? Yes. But. this show is deliciously campy and incredibly addicting. It’s like the Laguna Beach of true crime television.

If you’re feeling too frivolous after watching Deadly Women, you can instead turn to Disappeared. This is like Cold Case Files but more recent and also more plentifully represented on Netflix. Beware that you will probably have to get up to check your locks and/or force yourself to stop thinking about how your friends and family would sound being interviewed after you mysteriously vanish whilst getting milk. Such is the hazard of true crime TV, guys.

4. No Strings Attached

I was initially skeptical of the movie No Strings Attached, since it seemed like one of those ‘recommendations’ you keep getting because Netflix has somehow been paid to promote it to you (I’m on to you guys.) However, I was proven wrong by my boyfriend, noted film buff and Cinema Scholar, who watched this movie out of curiosity and then insisted I do the same. This move is great. Natalie Portman is hilarious; the supporting cast is excellent. They take every typical rom-com scene that’s overplayed and schmaltzy–from the ‘I just can’t be with you!’ confrontation to the ’emotional hospital scene with Dad’–and totally turn it on its head into something hilarious. Also, you get a full shot of Ashton Kutcher’s butt. What more could you want?

3. Skins (UK)

Skins is a show I discovered while being locked in my apartment during that other hurricane, Hurricane Irene (2011). The premise is simple: they follow the antics of a group of close high school friends in Bristol for two years, then switch out the cast for a new group of kids who are loosely connected to the last bunch. I think this resonated with me personally due to my antic-prone group of high school friends (though the Skins kids did more drugs and were much cooler.) However, this show is not to be underestimated. It’s daring, funny, and features great young actors. If nothing else, watch the first two series about the first group of kids–it’s classic.

There is a US remake that’s on my list of things to watch; it aired on MTV but apparently was too racy to attract sponsors and thus was canceled after one season. And this from the channel that brought us Undressed!

2. Dollhouse

Everyone reading this blog knows I’m a huge Buffy the Vampire Slayer fan (incidentally, all 7 seasons of that show are on Netflix Instant, so do watch them), so there’s no need for me to list that show in my top 5 here. However, Netflix is where I first discovered another great Joss Whedon show, Dollhouse. It only ran for two seasons, so it’s pretty manageable to watch and you see all the plot lines get wrapped up quite nicely. The story of Dollhouse revolves around a secret underground operation that creates custom personalities and then imprints them on the mind of ‘dolls’–mind-wiped attractive young folks–who are then rented out to the highest bidder for a number of obviously shady activities. As with all Joss Whedon shows, the supporting characters absolutely make the show, and although you do (like with all Joss Whedon shows) have to put up with the occasional apocalypse, the character development and intricate world-building are totally worth it.

1. 4 months, 3 weeks, 2 days

When I first got Netflix, back in the summer of 2009, my friend Maggie and I watched this movie in our living room in Chicago. It’s a sobering, dark movie, completely in Romanian and with subtitles, and it quickly became what’s possibly my favorite movie of all time. Set in 1980s communist Romania, the movie follows the story of a college-age girl who is helping her roommate get an abortion, which was illegal at the time. The film doesn’t show the abortion, but it beautifully captures the terror and panic the girls feel as they prepare for the event–which could get them arrested or worse–as well as the protagonist’s defeated realization that she really has no control over her own life. I don’t often get political on this blog, but I  think this film really captures the ugly realities of underground abortion and the reasons why a woman’s right to choose is so important.

Stay tuned for Jackie’s top 5.

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