Netflix watchlist: June 2018

June 2018 had the usual suspects in TV shows, but this wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.

TV shows:
Grimm (Season 3) [7/10]
Grimm (Season 4) [7/10]
Happy! (Season 1, Episodes 3-10) [10/10]

Mediocre, but still entertaining are two words that fit quite nicely with the Grimm series, as it’s not as boring or bad that one wants to turn it off, but it’s also not as good that one would remember much of each episode after watching it. The third season might start out strong with more action, but it soon settles into the same monster-of-the-week and family/friends soap opera tradition that doesn’t offer anything particularly new or even Brothers Grimm-related. Even a seasonal episode about Christmas doesn’t do much that hasn’t been done or seen before. It’s also telling that the wolf colleague/friend of the Grimm hero is more interesting and fun to watch, as he tries to struggle with his new relationship that isn’t approved by his parents, than the “star” of the show himself.

The fourth season almost reaches a point where it’s relevant again in the TV show landscape, as topics like racism are touched on with the introduction of a Ku Klux Clan/Nazi-like group. However, this is soon solved and all sorts of other problems are tackled, making this season the most overloaded one, as if it tries to make up for its rather weak monster-of-the-week stories. What is at stake for the group around the Grimm might be much more than it was before, with some very dramatic scenes at the end, but the series still has a long way to go before it reaches the same quality as Supernatural.

What else is there left to say about Happy! except that it’s one of the greatest shows? It kicks the disappointing second season of Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency right out of the park with one weird episode after another. There is so much going on, including violent outbursts and even something similar to Toy Story 3‘s vision of how cute characters can become very horrible ones, that it would be unfair to spoil all the surprises. Suffice it to say that this deserves a second season as soon as possible, as there simply hasn’t been a TV show around with such fast pacing, offensiveness and craziness that makes the Crank movies look like Saturday morning cartoon entertainment.

Movies:
Creep 2 [8/10]

When I discussed Creep in the Netflix watchlist: October 2017 article, I already knew that this was a very special found footage psychological horror movie, and the sequel doesn’t disappoint. As it’s essential to watch the first one, I won’t spoil any surprises, but despite following more or less the same idea of having a documentary turn into terror, this is still different enough and better for it. It’s amazing what you can do without much money, but just two actors (or one actor and one actress), and keep the suspense up for almost 80 minutes. It’s funnier this time around, playing with genre conventions, but it’s still scary and violent enough to make squeamish people take note (or cover their eyes).

So even if last month didn’t offer many surprises in terms of new shows or even movies, it was quite a good one with enough entertaining hours of streaming that will hopefully continue with our next watchlist.

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