Monday Media: Recommend Your Favorite TV Programs or Films

What should we be watching? Naturally, the less obvious, the better. ("There's an interesting and influential movie from 1977, called Star Wars, I think": Not very helpful.) Post your recommendations below. Please avoid music, books, podcasts, and other such materials; I plan to have other threads in the coming weeks covering those media.

Comments

[m4019597]

People who post at 3:01am, even if they’re renowned legal experts, probably are drinking too much coffee.

For that reason, I’ll recommend the movie Bokeh. Guaranteed to make anyone hyped on stimulants fall asleep within 25 minutes.

[DaivdBehar]

Once Upon a Time on Netflix, an Egyptian soap opera, showing life in the past, and in the present. The take home message is, striving will be crushed. It explains the problems of that country. Several encounters with the law, and it does not look good.

[DaivdBehar]

The law in Egypt is entirely corrupt and ineffective. These actors report an actress missing. She happens to be the mistress of a high official. They end up in a hellhole cell for a month. In Egypt prison, everyone is standing in the cells, due to lack of room. No charge is filed. They just made a report. Arrested for no reason. Released for no reason.

The US system is not subtantively better in terms of failure. The US system corruption is less in your face.

[DaivdBehar]

Kung Fu Hustle for Chinese mythology and comedy.

[Craig Johnston]

If you like space westerns, “Firefly” is a very good but short series. My wife and I just finished enjoying “Mentalist”, which is a good “person with special talents helps the police investigate crimes” sort of series.

[Á àß äẞç ãþÇđ âÞ¢Đæ ǎB€Ðëf ảhf]

I'll second Mentalist; he's a former psychic charlatan who puts his observational powers to Sherlock Holmes-style use. Its core long term plot does eventually wear out its welcome, like fish and guests, but is still watchable.

[PeteRR]

If you enjoy Brit detective shows that aren't cookie-cutter mysteries, I recommend to watch, in this order:

Morse, then Lewis, then Endeavour.

[Lee Moore]

The Sweeney, Foyle's War

[Del Varner 2]

Yes, that's thoe order to watch. Especially watch all of Morse before Endeavour. You want to get his late adult character before you get to the development of it.

[jb]

Kind of a variation on a theme, but I really enjoyed Giri/Haji which is a joint Japanese/British detective show that breaks the mold in a few ways that I mostly found satisfying.

[santamonica811]

Comedy: Community. The Good Place.
Drama: The Kominsky Method (disclosure: I'd watch Alan Arkin read the phone book, so I'm completely un-objective here.)

I'll also go into the Wayback Machine, and mention "Fawlty Towers" for comedy. I'm finding far too many people who have never heard of this. Two episodes (Basil the Rat; The Germans) are the two best episodes of any comedy ever shown on TV. Anywhere, at any time. Mic drop.

[Lee Moore]

On comedy I'll offer Two and a Half Men.

A (fairly) recent US comedy show with jokes that are actually funny, and plenty to offend everybody.

Obviously very familiar to many, but not to everybody.

[Lee Moore]

Up to Series 7 of the original Charlie Sheen version. By Series 8 it had run out of steam, and the Ashton Kushner follow on was just picking at a carcase.

[LawTalkingGuy]

For older British comedy I really enjoy Blackadder and Yes, Minister/Yes, Prime Minister.

[Ridgeway]

+1 on Fawlty Towers. I doubt you will be able to see an unedited version of "The Germans" for long, assuming you even can today.

[Ridgeway]

Who had the Prawn Goebbels?

[WuzYoungOnceToo]

Drama: The Kominsky Method (disclosure: I’d watch Alan Arkin read the phone book, so I’m completely un-objective here.)</i?

Drama? TKM was very much a comedy. That said, though I also am very much an Alan Arkin fan, his performance was the only thing that made me want to keep watching the show (though Reiser was good as well). Most of the dialog just had an...I don't know...clumsy feel to it.

[WuzYoungOnceToo]

Damn....screwed up the formatting.

[Nelson]

I'll +1 The Good Place. Like a lot of the ones I like, quirky and unexpected.

[Michael 11]

Like A Flowing River (or 大江大河) is a Chinese period drama focused on the economic reforms of the 1980s. (It's available with English subtitles on Viki.)

[Ruqt]

A Russian tv crime series featuring Russia's most popular actor 15 years running. The Method, Russian language, subtitles based on true crime files. Each episode has acting, plotting, setting, something that will surprise and or shock, or likely revolt you. An ominous primal like theme seems to ground the series .... human lust for vengeance?

[Ruqt]

or is it intended to contrast Old Testament themes of Justice?

[Brett Bellmore]

Existenz is a 1999 horror movie involving VR. I think it might have been inspired by one of Stanislaw Lem's Cyberiad stories.

[Del Varner 2]

Interesting that 3 movies in rapid succession came with them of your world being a simulation: The Matrix, Existenz, and The 13th Floor.

[Krayt]

There's a web site devoted to the not-so-curious observation Hollywood rushes out clones once a major new idea is greenlit.

Volcanoes in major cities (2), asteroids hitting Earth (2). Entire other planets hitting Earth, guaranteed to destroy it, and it's about peoples' final days (3), and many, many more.

[Krayt]

I tell a lie. They're often not actually new ideas, just a redo of an already-done one decades earlier. Those weren't the first movies with giant planets swinging by Earth.

[Ruqt]

Law student should be required to watch the Rumpole of the Bailey episode "a la Carte" (Series 6, episode 1) in which Rumpole lectures the jury about its civic duty to do justice, not follow the law. Jury nullification never better explained.

[WashRep]

Speaking of legal series - I would re-watch the entire "The Paper Chase" if I knew where it could be seen.

[Doug Huffman]

*Professor T* (Teerlinck, Belgian. Not the woke BBC crap).

*Astrid* French TV police procedure drama featuring Aspergers/AS

*MODUS* Norwegian police procedure drama featuring cartoonish American religious conservative right-wingers.

Sabine Hossenfelder You Boob Tube channel Physics Without Gobbledygook

Leonard Susskind SITP The Theoretical Minimum physics lectures.

[WuzYoungOnceToo]

Sabine Hossenfelder You Boob Tube channel Physics Without Gobbledygook

She's clearly brilliant and does a very good job explaining some extremely difficult topics in quasi-layman's terms. I just wish she would drop the cringey attempts at humor. They just don't work.

[neoteny]

Vibes (1988)

[hobie]

Yep

[PopsHobby]

"Dead Still" is the most unusual crime drama I've seen. It's about the intersection of the invention of photography and murder. The main character's business is posing the recently dead in natural poses with family members and taking those new-fangled photographs.
The cops see clues everywhere, the photographer and his team seek the truth, and it is just an odd, very enjoyable series.
I saw it on Acorn.

[Archibald Tuttle]

Peoples Court. Judge Milan has long experience, and she does it well, despite the lack of decorum.

[darkknight9]

Keeping out the more popular/obvious ones:
Seven Samurai (1954) Shichinin no samurai (original title)
Le Samouraï (1967)
The Killer (1989) Dip huet seung hung (original title)
By Dawn's Early Light (1990)
Heaven and Earth (1990) Ten to Chi to (original title)
Hard Boiled (1992) Lat sau san taam (original title)
True Romance (1993)

And, as odd as it might be to recommend it given the crowd that hangs out here, Night Court was a pretty good TV show.

[jimc5499]

By Dawn’s Early Light was a good one. I'll throw in Crimson Tide. One of the few movies that really scared me. I was in the Navy when the Cold War almost went hot in the 80's.

[Darth Buckeye]

I know that a lot of people prefer THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER to CRIMSON TIDE, but I think TIDE is the better film. They both play fast and loose with procedures, but I think people are harsh on TIDE because it tried to be more realistic. The first time I saw it I was in a theater next to a Navy officer who had served on a Trident sub. He loved it. He pointed out a lot of the errors, but loved it just the same. Most films take dramatic license and get a lot of details wrong.

[darkknight9]

Should also add TV:
Farscape
The Shield

[Ridgeway]

If you liked Le Samourai, Melville's other gangster movies are also great -- try Le Doulos (my favorite), Le Cercle Rouge and Le Deuxieme Souffle.

[darkknight9]

Thank you!

[darkknight9]

OMG how could I forget!

Diggstown (1992) Its not just good for a sports related movie, its a good movie above and beyond with solid character actors in their prime.

And, its incredibly cheesy, and has gratuitous explosions galore (directed by Woo) but:

Hard Target (1993) is entertaining and actually makes Van Damme look good. 🙂

If you want a similar story to Hard Target but a darker tone, Ice-T, Rutger Hower, and Charles S Dutton deliver in:

Surviving the Game (1994)

I am really trying to keep it to non popular titles!! 🙂 🙂 🙂

[LawTalkingGuy]

Really enjoying Impeachment: American Crime Story. Not quite as absolutely engrossing as The People v OJ Simpson, but still pretty good.

Also watched a very offbeat MacBeth adaptation starring Christopher Walken called Scotland, PA. Dark comedy putting Macbeth as a fry cook at a 70s diner in rural PA, with Walken as a police lieutenant investigating the killings.

[JohnSteed]

Movies: Breaker Morant, Paths of Glory, Iphigenia, District 9.

TV: The Last Kingdom, Fauda, Wiseguy (Older), Bosch.

Miniseries/DVD: Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy & Smiley's People.

[Ridgeway]

TTSP and SP are both great. I'd add Brideshead Revisited to round out the list.

[Lee Moore]

Miniseries / DVD - yup and you can add "I Claudius"

[Lee Moore]

Oh yeah, and I'll also add "The Onedin Line" as a historical addition to the Miniseries / DVD thing - for those who like sailing ships.

[WuzYoungOnceToo]

The Last Kingdom

Ditto.

[WashRep]

I second both Breaker Morant and Bosch.

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

MOVIES:

A Man Called Ove (a heartening, assumption-bending examination of an easy-to-overlook life).

Midnight Run (DeNiro comedy and insightful character study)

The Dream Team (the inadvertently escaped mental patients include Michael Keaton, Christopher Lloyd, Peter Boyle, and Flounder)

Night Shift (Michael Keaton and Henry Winkler sparkle in a Ron Howard comedy about a whorehouse in a morgue)

Up (no amount of darkness or sadness could overcome the joy to be found in this animated work)

The King of Comedy (Martin Scorcese's Rupert Pupkin story)

Trapped In Paradise (Nicholas Cage, Dana Carvey, and Jon Lovitz demonstrate that aim-low laughs are still great laughs)

The Verdict (Paul Newman is perfect in a story of failures, trial (literally), and redemption)

Johnny Dangerously (whatever happened to Roman Moroni?)

And if you watch just one movie from this list, make it:

. . . And Justice For All (Ted Kramer, a no-talent hack, is the only blemish here)

TV:

The Wire

Deadwood

Boardwalk Empire

Breaking Bad

[Currentsitguy]

Glad you cited some of the early Michael Keaton work. That was back from when we locals remembered him from so crew appearances on Mr Rogers Neighborhood. I was an extra when he returned to film Gung Ho. Great fun and educational experience.

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

I lived a block or so away from Mrs. Douglas (Michael Keaton's mother) for a while. Encountered him a few times along the neighborhood streets. Always liked him.

Watched "Worth" last night (Netflix, I think) and liked that, too .

[Currentsitguy]

Way back when I was in college, I lived a few blocks from Fred Rogers. He would walk by on his way to the WQED studios many mornings. He would always have a nice word for everyone he passed on his way, so I suppose at one time I actually did live in Mr. Rogers Neighborhood.

[Nelson]

I've never been as jealous of anyone as I am of you right now.

[The Drill SGT]

"The Verdict (Paul Newman is perfect in a story of failures, trial (literally), and redemption)"

add "Absence of Malice"

another great Law flick.

The Willford Brimley scene is priceless.
https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=youtube+absence+of+malice+ending&view=detail&mid=4042D722BCA40F09997B4042D722BCA40F09997B&FORM=VIRE

[Commenter_XY]

Loved The Verdict! It was a great movie.

[Ridgeway]

Arthur may be a nut, but he has pretty good taste in movies and music.

[santamonica811]

"Midnight Run" is one of my go-to recommendations for 'Hidden Sleeper' films. An excellent comedy, with perfect casting.

Another one (absolutely a drama) is "House of Games." I almost never meet anyone who has heard of it, let alone watched it. But I also have never met anyone who HAS seen in and not loved it. David Mamet, at his best. [Spoiler alert: Do *not* Wiki the plot if you're thinking of seeing it...pointless to watch this movie with foreknowledge of its twists and turns.]

[Ridgeway]

I don't know if I would say Midnight Run was a sleeper -- it was pretty popular when released. Of course, I could be channeling my inner Pauline Kael: everybody I knew liked it.

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

If the Conspiracy made me its beer, movies, and music correspondent, I would probably have less time to devote to countering the right-wing excesses around here.

Well, I'd probably need an apology for the inappropriate censorship, too.

[Ridgeway]

Semi-seriously, you might also see how much you otherwise have in common with people you otherwise despise based on 20-word internet posts.

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

The elected official who has sought my advice or help most often over a substantial period is a Republican.

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

Very seriously, I also have spent nearly as much time curbing impractical left-wing extremists as I have devoted to countering conservatives (excepting work against vote suppression) for many years.

[Ridgeway]

Politics, schmoloticks.

Now to the big question.

What are you talking about with Ted Kramer in AJFA? Wasn't he the Robert Hays character in Airplane. Or was he the guy that Meryl Streep threw over for another woman in K v. K.

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

Ted Kramer is the talent-devoid hack who received an Academy Award instead of . . . another nominee

[DaivdBehar]

OK, Boomer. It is time to go, and to be replaced by a diverse.

[Darth Buckeye]

Definitely agree about A MAN CALLED OVE. My wife and I watched it and GRAN TORINO on consecutive nights. Interesting to watch movies about cranky old white men who earn the respect of their diverse neighbors. As cranky old man, I try my best to be nice to the people around me no matter how different they are from me.

[Jedi Master Yoda]

And to be clear, A MAN CALLED OVE was a much, much better film; GRAN TORINO was too much a "fairy tail" (though, so was OVE).
I would have recommended OVE to the rest of my family but for the scene where he tried to suicide with a shotgun. I had an older brother who did that for real in 1971; it left a wound in our hearts that never healed.

[Roman Moroni]

I was deported to fargin Sweden! lol

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

That outrage against a common patriotic citizen such as yourself by those no-good lousy fargin iceholes is what precipitated my lifelong interest and activity in journalism, politics and the law.

[JohnSteed]

More TV: Murder One, Ally McBeal

BTW: When you think about it, Yes, Minister is about the deep state subverting the elected government.

[wolfefan]

I really enjoyed Murder One. Daniel Benzali was great, and it was my first exposure to Stanley Tucci.

[Dan Schiavetta]

"Our Time" (1974) with Pamela Sue Martin and Betsy Slade. Best argument I've seen for legalized abortion.

"The Last Survivors" (1975) with Martin Sheen. Lifeboat ethics, never done better, in my view.

[susancol]

The 5000 Fingers of Dr. T This film is gloriously "Dr. Suess-ian", and cannot be explained by a one-liner, but is definitely a hidden gem.

[Brett Bellmore]

I think I prefer The Circus of Dr. Lao. Is it still legal to watch?

[WuzYoungOnceToo]

The wife and I recently rewatched that for the first time in at least 30 years, and that was my first thought as well.

[susancol]

I'm delighted to report that, so long as our DVD player holds out, our family will not need to seek others' opinions as to whether we should watch Dr. Lao educate the townspeople. 😉 Pretty sure we can't invite anyone else to watch it, though.

[Jedi Master Yoda]

I love 5,000 FINGERS

[garysixpack]

Man Bites Dog
Reservoir Dogs
Kalifornia
Bad Lieutenant

It seems many of my favorite films were from 1992. I don't remember the details, but I must have been going through some tough times that year.

[Ridgeway]

I still maintain that The Rockford Files was the best show ever on network TV.

[santamonica811]

There are a bunch of shows (R Files, Taxi, Soap) that I never see on any of my 270 available channels, and I just can't understand it. There is a market for airing repeats of "Saved by the Bell," but not for The Rockford Files?!?!!!!???

Same for my favorite show of the past 30 years, Mystery Science Theater 3000. But for MST3K, I gather that the unavailability on cable TV is due to the difficulty of again obtaining the rights to the original movies that are being spoofed.

[Ridgeway]

Rockford, 30 Rock and the Sopranos are the only shows I have bought on DVD.

My 30 Rock collection is probably going to be valuable on the black market since it contains the now-verboten episodes.

PM me if you want to see noted RACIST!!! Jon Hamm with a couple of smudges of charcoal on his face, saying "Banjo."

[Krayt]

I was watching some WKRP in Cincinatti on YouTube and was shocked to find myself actually laughing. Actually laughing.

I didn't know that happened with TV shows.

[Paladin_44]

Dix Pour Cent (aka Call My Agent), in French with English subtitles.
The Kominsky Method (seasons 1-3)
Eating Raoul
Fawlty Towers

[M L]

Nothing. It's all junk.

No, but actually The Mandalorian (TV Series) is pretty decent compared to the schlock being produced today. The kids loved it.

[santamonica811]

I finally watched The Mandalorian, after hearing friends rave about it for a few years. A few episodes were pretty good. But many were really unremarkable. And I never like shows or movies that depend on magical coincidences or totally unbelievable character actions. Watching The Mand. was my biggest viewing disappointment of the past many years, based on expectations vs actual reaction to seeing.

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

I made it through a half-dozen or so episodes before concluding it was unlikely to improve.

[Á àß äẞç ãþÇđ âÞ¢Đæ ǎB€Ðëf ảhf]

Second-Hand Lion is an old-fashioned family movie. It would be terrible if Hollywood produced nothing but movies like this, but it's equally terrible that these are so few.

There are a couple of deleted scenes which should not have been deleted, as they explain why so many traveling salesmen show up; and one of the bonus features has Michael Caine switching between his Texas and English accents mid-sentence, which kind of boggled my mind.

Netflix had a marvelous one or two season Japanese show, half hour episodes about the characters who wander into a late-night ramen shop. Unfortunately, they've rearranged their streaming section and I can't find it now. It did make me hungry, every episode, so dieters beware.

[DonP]

Eclectic mix?
Movies:
Army of Darkness ("This is my Boomstick! Now listen up all you primitive screwheads...") Sorry, but Bruce Campbell is funny)
Kung Fu Yoga (A strange, but fun hybrid of Jackie Chan Kung Fu and huge Bollywood Musical numbers that would make Busby Berkley blush)
Platoon (Some parts were the closest I've seen on film to actual Vietnam Jungle combat. Made my palms sweaty in the theater.)
Unforgiven (Clint Eastwood's masterpiece Western)
Flash Gordon (1980, the Queen Soundtrack and colors alone are a reason to watch it, but it's pure, escapist fun start to finish. Brian Blessed as Vultan shouting: "Dive my Hawkmen!" has been parodied in Family Guy, The Simpsons, et. al)
Lagaan, (Indian production, based on an actual event of a cricket match between the locals and the British Raj, at it's most arrogant)

TV:
Pushing Daisies (Great cast, quirky plot device, Very well written)
Firefly (of course, ... but watch it in the intended sequence of episodes, finishing with the Serenity Movie)
Fawlty Towers (I prefer the "Handyman" episode over the "Germans", personal taste)
Finally,
Any fishing show from the '70's and early '80's, before they hired professional staff and had their cousin running the camera and editing. (Action; Pointing to the back of the boat and mumbling away from the Microphone; "... and y'all gonna need a 50 horse, ummm, ummm, ummm, better cut that Tom".

[Brett Bellmore]

Practically everything by Bruce Campbell is worth watching, if you like B movies. Though Raimi can make mistakes if you give him too long a leash; I bought the director's cut of Army of Darkness, and can you believe he cut the classic, "Good, bad. I'm the guy with the gun." line?

[Darth Buckeye]

I met the man who made the armor for ARMY OF DARKNESS. I actually got to put Evil Ash's helmet on my head.

[Brett Bellmore]

I met a guy once who owned the original Batmobile, from the Allen West TV series. He said it was a real chick magnet.

[Nelson]

Pushing Daisies is amazing. Quirky and fun. And definitely not typical TV. It reminds me of "Big Fish" , which is my movie recommendation below.

[David Bremer]

You just reminded me that there was this low-budget show called "Fishmasters" that aired on local television. It was basically Beavis & Butthead of fishing shows. Not sure if I should just remember it nostalgic or risk re-watching and seeing if it's as funny as I remember.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0AgIFqCBVs

[WuzYoungOnceToo]

I'll see your Kung Fu Yoga and raise you a Kung Fu Hustle.

[IamtheBruce]

If you didn't already upon learning of Norm McDonald's death, take a few minutes and watch the clip of him on Conan with Courtney Thorne-Smith.

[WuzYoungOnceToo]

I watched several of his appearances telling old jokes on Conan, and had me chuckling more at the body of the joke than at the punch-line (which you could see coming from a mile away). He was living proof that it's all in the delivery.

[ah....Clem]

Not a best of list, but some things that deserve wider attention.

"Scotland PA" - Shakespeare's Macbeth as imagined in late 70s/early 80s suburbia. Christpher Walken's charcter seems to be the only character who understands that he's basically living in a David Lynch movie. Be sure not to miss all the doughnut jokes.

"Wild Wild Country" - Netflix documentary about the cult led by Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh that seems too weird to be true, but is. One of the main interviewees is the group's attorney, who was also a member, Worth the watch for his interviews alone if you're of a legal mind.

"The Prisoner" lat 60's BBC quasi-spy drama that's probably the best TV series ever. Only 17 episodes, so a fairly quick binge watch.

"Eraserhead" - David Lynch's first film, and probably the most artistically successful as well as the weirdest. Considered by many to be the most effective form of birth control.

"Cold Comfort Farm" - based on a 1932 book that parodied nineteenth century British doom-romance novels is one of the funniest movies I've seen. Stephen Frye and Joanna Lumley co-star.

[Á àß äẞç ãþÇđ âÞ¢Đæ ǎB€Ðëf ảhf]

I watched The Prisoner as a kid, as it came out, and was entranced; I still want a Caterham Seven as a surprise birthday present 🙂

But I watched the whole series again recently and was bored stiff by the last few episodes. Whether it hasn't aged well, or my memories got in the way, I do not know. It reminded me a lot of Sergeant Pepper; ground-breaking when it came out, but awfully dated now, even if I still like individual songs (other than Number Nine).

[Brett Bellmore]

I think the term you're looking for is "jaded".

[ah....Clem]

Agree that the last two episodes of The Prisoner are shall we say "dated". Well, the whole series is dated, but the first 17 episodes have endured well while the finale falls flat today for trying a little too hard.

Also agree about The Beatles, although Revolution #9 is on the White Album, not Sgt Pepper.

[Krayt]

A bud of mine had a vanity plate to match The Prisoner long ago.

[teiwnc]

Top of my head
Netflix:
The OA….wild but fun sci-fi
The Dark…thought it was a murder mystery but was time travel…german
Babylon Berlin…German but police mystery in the 1920s/30s…. Really good and worth the subtitles

Hulu:
The First (hilarious and fun comedy about the stupidity of Kings)
Legion …wonderfully subversive series based on a minor comic book character…it’s just wonderful and weird
Future Man…another comic book with time travel…hilarious and fun and perfect

Paramount+
Anything written by Michelle & Scott King…who gave you The Good Wife/The Good Fight/Evil and Braindead …Their shows is available on Paramount + (which used to be CBS) Their Good Wife/Fight shows are lawyer dramas which always highlight the evil of prosecutors and government overreach…they seem to understand that politics isn’t democrat versus republican and they always highlight corruption in govt…plus they’re fun to watch with great characters…Braindead is just hilarious and seems to be the best explanation for frankly both Trump and Biden…. (It’s aliens)

[Pettifogger]

Lone Star (1996) with Kris Kristofferson, Matthew McConaughey, and Chris Cooper is a cut above. I discovered it in a video rental store and selected it, because I was in the mood for a forgettable B movie about cowboys. But that's not what it is.

[Harvey Mosley]

Movies: No Way Out (Gene Hackman, Kevin Costner), Support Your Local Sheriff (James Garner), Major League, Remember The Titans

TV: Justified, Nero Wolfe (the A&E version), Life (cop framed for murder and is exonerated, gets his job back)

[ducksalad]

Generally any movie where Hackman plays the bad guy is worth watching. No Way Out, Unforgiven, Absolute Power.

[Aladdin's Carpet]

As a film fan, I'd recommend: Before Sunset (really the entire before trilogy), The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Ad Astra, Solaris, Colombus, Brazil, Three Times (Taiwan), After the Storm (Japan), A Silent Voice (Japan), Roman Holiday, Cold War (Polish?), and ...

I am sure I can think of others, but this list is already 30 hours worth of movie so I think that's plenty for now. I'm sort of at the point in film where people who are super into it I'm too causal and people who aren't think I'm too pretentious so I'm not sure if any of these are too popular for this list but *shrugs*

I cycle through a number of podcasts at work, in no particular order: Animal Spirits, Firewall, Masters of Scale, How I built this, the Colossus network, Conversations with Tyler. Mostly business. Most of these are too liberal tbh for my general views on things but its nice to get perspective. A lesson from reading comments here more people need 🙂

[jimc5499]

I'll throw in "Adam-12" the older it gets the more relevant it becomes.

[PeteRR]

When I was at home recovering from an accident, I watched the entire series. It was shown on MeTV.

It is amazing that their entire bag of LE tools consisted of two revolvers, a 12 gauge scattergun, a car-mounted radio, and some road flares. And a badass '68 Plymouth Belvedere.

[Rev. O.T. Medal]

I will limit myself to TV recommendations and will treat the caution "the less obvious, the better" as disqualifying any original programming from HBO, Netflix, or Amazon Prime. Here are a few recommendations.

SyFy's version of Battlestar Gallactica -- great cast (Edward James Olmos, Mary McDonnell, Katee Sackhoff, et al.), and interesting stories.

Slings and Arrows -- a Canadian dramedy about the cast and crew at a Shakespeare festival. The first season is fantastic. The next two seasons are uneven but still worth watching if you like Shakespeare.

Justified -- Timothy Olyphant was good in Deadwood. He is better in Justified, playing a US Marshal in Kentucky.

The Magicians -- The elevator pitch for season one must have been, "Harry Potter but with College students, booze, sex, and a portal to different worlds." The show is quite fun and more interesting and creative than that elevator pitch suggests. After season one the show gets darker and stronger. While the last season (season 5) is a bit thin, the show as a whole is terrific.

Finally, I will add my voice to those recommending Firefly and Foyle's War.

[teiwnc]

I agree with all of these…I gave up on the Magicians after the series veered far off the books …but it’s been so long since I read the books that I would probably enjoy again.

[Nelson]

TV series:
Pushing Daisies: Mentioned above but I had to +1 it because it is that original and well-done. Only two seasons because, of course, unusual, original, and interesting things get ignored in America

Orphan Black: Tough to describe, but basically a grifter sees a woman who looks exactly like her commit suicide and she ends up sucked into a giant conspiracy. If for nothing else, watching Tatiana Maslany play seven or eight different characters with separate accents, behaviors, and personalities so well that you know who she is before she speaks is worth it.

Ghosts: Warning. This is a brand new show and I've only seen one episode, but I figured it would be one of those "the trailer showed all the funny parts" show and was pleasantly surprised. There's always a chance that it will end up sucking, but it's a delightful and light comedy.

Movies:
Big Fish: Really hard to explain because it is so weird, inspiring, and delightful. A rational and pragmatic son with a strained relationship with his dying father, due to his insistence that the extravagant and dramatic stories he has told his whole life were true, searches for a way to connect with him. A wonder-filled and well-done adventure.

Pulp Fiction: Since it seems like most of us are middle aged this may be too obvious, but an awesome (albeit with Tarantino-level violence) movie.

A Clockwork Orange: An older movie that is eerily relevant to modern times.

[Rev. O.T. Medal]

I completely agree with the rave review for Orphan Black and Tatiana Maslany. I should have included Orphan Black on my list and you should watch it.

[ducksalad]

If you (or the person you live with) is into period pieces and you've run out of Austen/Dickens/Merchant Ivory, check out the 2004 TV series of Gaskell's "North and South".

Foreign films that are entertaining, stay off the lecturing, have a plot, and are worth putting up with subtitles:
"La Ley de Herodes" (Mexican)
"The Salesman" (Iranian)
"Nine Queens" (Argentine)

[Intelligent Mr Toad]

The original episodes of "The Fugitive".

The movie LIQUID SKY (1982)

The "blaxploitation" production of Mozart's opera DON GIOVANNI, directed by Peter Sellars (no relation to Peter Sellers of DR. STRANGELOVE fame). It's on YouTube, easy to find. I'd link but I don't want to be tagged as spam.

[Lee Moore]

Yes, I watched the whole original series of The Fugitive on during last year's lockdown, and was surprised how good it was.

Also that several episodes repeated more or less the same plot, but it was still fun.

[Darth Buckeye]

That may have been back in the day when weekly dramatic series had 30 episodes per season. That was the case for this show, so I give them a little slack for repeating stories. Plus, they would reuse scripts for different shows (just change the names of the characters).

[Intelligent Mr Toad]

ADDENDUM: for everyone, but especially fans of "The Fugitive", I recently saw, and loved, the neo-noir movie WARNING SHOT (1967), with David Janssen in the lead role, backed by Ed Begley, Keenan Wynn, Lillian Gish, Stephanie Powers, Walter Pidgeon, Joan Collins, a comprimario appearance by Vito Scotti, and, in a small but powerful role (analogous to the Emperor in the original STAR WARS trilogy or to the Grand Inquisitor in Verdi's opera DON CARLO - the guy you seldom see but who really runs things on the bad side), George Sanders.

[grb]

Wow! I didn't think anyone else had seen Liquid Sky (starring Anne Carlisle and Anne Carlisle). A movie that helps you learn a new word (tribbling) has something going for it right out the gate. I just checked and, yes, its now available in Blu-ray.

I'm tempted, but it surely won't match the original theater experience.

[Currentsitguy]

As a huge fan of the original book series, I am intrigued by Foundation, currently airing on Apple TV. The jury is still out, they have taken a lot of liberties with the cast, but so far I'm still watching.

[Cal Cetín]

I'd recommend the show about the hardboiled female police officer who solves murders.

[santamonica811]

Heh

[JohnSteed]

Thanks, but I prefer Prime Suspect.

[wolfefan]

I was just getting ready to recommend the MacNee/Rigg British episodes of The Avengers when I ran across your username!

[The Drill SGT]

TV: Hill Street Blues, particularly the pilot

Movie: Rio Grande
RED

[Cal Cetín]

Also, I really like that movie where the renegade monk kills the protagonist's master and the protagonist goes through training and then takes vengeance on the bad guy.

[Cal Cetín]

And there's a great movie - I forget the name - where this charming guy and this nice woman meet each other, fall in love, go through some kind of misunderstanding which almost destroys the relationship, then get together again.

[Ridgeway]

Are you sure you are not thinking that movie about the soldiers with the wisecracking guy from Brooklyn?

[Cal Cetín]

I think it was Queens.

[Ridgeway]

It is always Brooklyn.

[Jedi Master Yoda]

CHARADE, Audrey Hepburn and Cary Grant. Public Domain film (they messed up the copyright). The best Hitchcock film not directed by Hitchcock (directed by Stanley Donen). Watch it. You will be glad you did.

OBSESSION, 1976, Cliff Robertson and Genevieve Bujold. Another thriller, more a suspenseful romance than a thriller. A lushly romantic film; a soap opera aimed at men. Deals with love at first sight and tragedy. You have one of John Lithgow's first performances.

[Jedi Master Yoda]

Meant to post this as it's own entry, not as a reply. Problem with using a phone browset

[Cal Cetín]

And there's this great cartoon show with this sensitive guy with superpowers and his love interest, a girl with eyes almost as large as her breasts.

[Cal Cetín]

I think the girl has superpowers, too - I mean, in addition to the large breasts.

[Cal Cetín]

I really recommend that historical drama where people in period costumes throw sophisticated insults at each other.

[Lee Moore]

In French.

The version of Cyrano de Bergerac with Gerard Depardieu is excellent.

[Redjinn]

I’m surprised no one has mentioned “the bridge,” a danish-Swedish cop series. The female cop has asbergers and has difficulty relating to people. Both countries involved b/c in episode 1 a corpse is found halfway across the bridge connecting the countries. Difficult to find how to watch (for me). We scrambled to find some ????s and used YouTube too. I actually created a reason account to recommend this show.

[teiwnc]

The Bridge is top notch…it’s the reason we now get murder mysteries that aren’t solved in an hour….it’s brutal but so worthwhile and somehow uplifting…I’ve watched all the other incarnations as well…the American/Mexican version which is excellent…and also The Tunnel which is the British/French version…always with an autistic blonde….but the writing and acting in all of them is really good.

[Stephen Lathrop]

Movie: The Bedford Incident. Best yet film version of Moby Dick, even if it is allegory.

One of the best: Nashville. Sort of over the top when it was made. Great music. Astounding cast. Plus, Replacement Party candidate Hal Phillip Walker, to make it all look prescient.

If you like memorable pictures in your movies: Days of Heaven.

Just re-watched: Chicago. Several very good actors each turn in what may be a career best performance. Also, a showpiece of direction and production.

Propaganda film made on the cheap: Alexander Nevsky, memorable scenes.

Coen Brothers: Burn After Reading, sort of like modern Shakespearean tragedy, played for laughs. Also, Oh Brother Where Art Thou, for the soundtrack, if nothing else.

[Jedi Master Yoda]

CHARADE, Audrey Hepburn and Cary Grant. Public Domain film (they messed up the copyright). The best Hitchcock film not directed by Hitchcock (directed by Stanley Donen). Watch it. You will be glad you did.

OBSESSION, 1976, Cliff Robertson and Genevieve Bujold. Another thriller, more a suspenseful romance than a thriller. A lushly romantic film; a soap opera aimed at men. Deals with love at first sight and tragedy. You have one of John Lithgow’s first performances.

[Ridgeway]

I think Obsession was just on TCM a few nights ago. Is that why you thought of it?

I have a weird antipathy toward Genevieve Bujold, and I don't know why.

[Jedi Master Yoda]

Actually no. We don't get TCM. I will be visiting California next month to visit family including a cousin who is 88 years old. Last time I saw him was in 1978 when I was a budding film student and he was a California businessman who moved from New Orleans a few years earlier. He mentioned in passing that he bought a part interest in OBSESSION. I was floored. I saw it in the theater in 1975 and it was my favorite movie back then.
I got the soundtrack and played it to death. I had some other friends who also loved that film. I looked up info about the soundtrack last week and saw that they released a 2 CD set with the complete score. I was about to order it and then I saw that I already owned it.

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

I watched Charade a couple of weeks ago (after enduring a half-hour or so of a low-grade remake of Charade my wife found on a cable channel).

Charade is excellent.

[Flight-ER-Doc]

The only new show I kind of make a point of watching is NCIS. Sometimes NCIS Los Angeles. Never NCIS New Orleans, and NCIS Hawaii is just ... repulsive.

[Jedi Master Yoda]

THE DEATH OF STALIN. "Motion passes...u...u...unanimously."

[Ridgeway]

Here are five that I find infinitely re-watchable that aren't super-famous:

Body Heat -- Brilliant casting
The Friends of Eddie Coyle -- one of Mitchum's best performances.
Out of the Past -- Another Mitchum; great noir
Tender Mercies -- Robert Duvall at his best
I'm All Right Jack -- early Peter Sellers. Great send-up of post-war England

[wolfefan]

I don't know if they've been mentioned above or not, but I'll recommend The Americanization of Emily (James Garner/Julie Andrews), The Avengers (UK Rigg/Macnee episodes) and the film noirs on TCM hosted by Eddie Muller that air Saturday nights and repeat Sunday mornings.

[Ben_]

You may have missed

- Tucker and Dale vs. Evil
- The Disastrous Life of Saiki K. — on Netflix (watch it in Japanese with the subtitles. English voice actors did a bad job.). It’s great.
- Legion on FX was really good but I don’t know if it’s available to watch any more.
- Parasyte on Netflix
- Tientsin Mystic on Netflix, but it’s gone now and you can only watch it on iQIYI, and iQiYI edited out the graphic content and the iQIYI subtitles are laughably bad for season 1.

You asked for less obvious stuff.

More obvious:
- The Expanse on Amazon Prime
- Downton Abbey on Amazon Prime
- Altered Carbon on Netflix

[Ben_]

A great film worth watching is Zhang Yimou's To Live. Anything by Zhang Yimou is worth watching.

Also highly recommended films:
Apocalypto
Amelie
Memento
Fight Club
Cabin in the Woods

[Guy]

Two films from the UK, both by Terrance Rattigan:

The Browning Version: the spiritual death and rebirth of a man
The Winslow Boy: "Let right be done!" "How little you know about men."

[TW]

Cobra Kai - about to start its fourth season this December. It's a continuation of the (original) Karate Kid films starring William Zabka (Johnny Lawrence) and Ralph Machio (Daniel Laruso) some thirty years after their match in the first film. I was never a huge fan of the movies growing up and tuned into it expecting to see some cheesy 80s nostalgia but it's actually a well-written, well-paced and well-acted drama that was created by people who clearly have a deep love for and understanding for the original films and characters. I don’t think you need to have seen the first two Karate Kid films to appreciate these as they do reference events in (limited flashbacks) but if you watch them, you’ll be able to appreciate the series on a much deeper level. If you’re expecting from the title that this is going to be a “Daniel was the real bully” series – it’s not. They really do a great job of showing the characters (and there’s about a dozen actors from the first two films who reprised their roles) in a very human and multi-faceted way. The whole series is available on Netflix but the first two episodes are available on YouTube for free (they’re each about 22 minutes long and a season takes about four hours to watch). I have personally recommended this show to about a dozen people and each of them when they finally tried it agreed that it was amazingly good and can’t wait for the next season to start.

[TW]

And another more recent one that just aired its season finale last night is “Heels” on Netflix (also on Amazon Prime). It’s a story about a fictional amateur wrestling league owned by a small-town Georgia family. In wrestling parlance, the heroes are referred to as “faces” while the villains are called “heels.”
The older brother who runs the league is played by the actor who played the Green Arrow (and who actually wrestled for a while in the WWE) and the younger brother who starts out as the main “face” before turning “heel” is played by the son of the protagonist from “Vikings.” It’s more of a family drama with the wrestling being about ten to twenty percent of an episode and it’s another well-written and well-acted drama with great characters. There were eight episodes in season one (each about an hour) and it tells a complete story with definite groundwork for a second season.

[Eric VonSalzen]

Maybe I've missed it, but I don't think anyone has cited any John Wayne movies. Of course, like many other actors of his era(s) he was in a lot of turkeys, and tastes change, but you wouldn't go wrong watching Stagecoach (1939), The Quiet Man (1952), Rio Bravo (1959), and the Shootist (1969).

[Ridgeway]

Red River was so much better than any of those (except maybe Stagecoach). The best scene in the Shootist was when Opie Cunningham pulled the sheet over John Wayne's character, because everybody knew John Wayne was really dying at that point.

[The Drill SGT]

I noted Rio Grande

but could have added The Searchers and Stagecoach

[Bill Poser]

Dersu Uzala, about a Russian officer circa 1900 leading an exploration team in the Far East of Russia and the Goldi hunter (Dersu Uzala) whom he meets and with whom he becomes friends. The director was Akira Kurosawa, who had a spat with the Japanese film industry and went to the USSR to make this film. A poignant story and gorgeous scenery.

[Bill Poser]

The Admiral: Roaring Currents. About admiral Yi Sun-sin, arguably the greatest naval tactician in history, and his victory over the Japanese invasion fleet at the Battle of Myeongnyang in 1597. The Korean fleet consisted of 13 war ships. The Japanese had 120 war ships plus 200 some support ships.

[jsmh9]

"Trapped" - icelandic murder mystery, very artfully done (I've only watched the first season)

[Grifhunter]

Currently obsessed watching HBO's excellent drama series Scenes from a Marriage, the remake with Jessica Chastain and Oscar Issac. Absolutely riveting acting and set design. Dialogue is painful, as this is one of those crippled disintegrating family dramas. Pain never felt so good, as the chemistry from the leads is off the charts. Screw watching old timey movies and shows: there is SO MUCH good TV production out today its overwhelming. (See for e.g., Mare of Eastown, The Affair, etc)

[Kazinski]

My wife and I got our Turkish visas today, so since my wife doesn’t know anything about Turkey so I’m trying to find a PPV of Midnight Express, but that’s probably a bad idea. We are going to Prague first so The Unbearable Lightness of Being might be a better choice.

I would like to thank everyone for their suggestions though to remind me why I live off the grid with no broadband internet in the summer, life’s too short for TV.

[Bill Poser]

I saw Midnight Express when it came out with a Turkish friend. His take on it was that it was unlikely that any one person would have the bad luck to have all of the things shown in the film happen to him, but that individually they were unfortunately quite realistic.

[Liberty Gibbet]

Not the best shows, but obscure ones that are pretty good:
Hap and Leonard
Imposters
Borgen

[GreenLanternCorps]

All these posts, and not one mention of Babylon 5...

The first season is somewhat weak at first glance because it is episodic. Pay attention to the secondary scenes, they are important..

The story arc picks up at the end of Season One and continues from there.

Morden:
What do you want?

Londo Mollari:
To be left alone!

[Londo leaves the lift and quickly walks away.]

Morden:
Is that it? Is that really all, Ambassador?

[Londo sighs, then turns around.]

Londo:
All right. Fine! You really want to know what I want? You really want to know the truth? I want my people to reclaim their rightful place in the galaxy. I want to see the Centauri stretch forth their hand again, and command the stars! I-I want a rebirth of glory, a renaissance of power. I want to stop running through my life like a man late for an appointment, afraid to- to look back, or to look forward. I want us to be what we used to BE! I want…I want it all back, the way that it was! Does that answer your question?

[He turns and walks off.]

Morden:
[smiling] Yes. Yes, it does.

[Aaron]

Lately I've been enjoying British comedy. For something a little more classic, I recommend Fawlty Towers. For something a little more vulgar, I recommend The Inbetweeners.

I've also really enjoyed the BBC's Father Brown detective series. On this side of the pond, I recommend 2001-2002's A Nero Wolfe Mystery starring Maury Chaykin.

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

Maury Chaykin -- one of the Klane boys.

That clip reminds me of these comment sections.

Along a related line, don't try to predict the lead guitarist in this one. He must have been Arnold's (or Danny's, or Ivan's) neighbor, or something similar.

[weh]

Rick and Morty, sci-fi comedy. HBO Max, Adult Swim and other channels. Five seasons, probably more to come. Mostly unbelievably non-linear and impossibly difficult to describe. my favorite TV show ever. Per IMDB: "An animated series on adult-swim about the infinite adventures of Rick, a genius alcoholic and careless scientist, with his grandson Morty, a 14 year-old anxious boy who is not so smart. Together, they explore the infinite universes; causing mayhem and running into trouble.—Ruben Galaviz"

[haroldfed]

I'd like to recommend Shtisl, an Israeli series about the ultra-Orthodox in Israel. It is a world most of us are not part of and do not understand. It is very well written and well-acted. It might even create some tolerance for a very different world view.

[JSR2]

Stargate
The movie
The series
The spinoffs
The movies
And, soon, the new series made by Amazon now that they own MGM.

[Leo Marvin]

I take it from the OP we're to limit ourselves to, sleepers. I love many of the titles already listed, but they're hardly that. So...

Movies:
"What About Bob?" (not really obscure enough to be a bona fide sleeper, but in light of my pseudonym, obligatory.)
"Let it Ride."
"The Big Picture"

TV:
"Strangers with Candy"
"Action"
"The Grinder"
"Rake"
"The Tick" (the live action one with Patrick Warburton)
"Jack Whitehall: Travels with My Father." Probably not ha-ha funny enough to merit inclusion, but I'm watching it now and enjoying it, and unlike some of my other recommendations* it's easy to track down (Netflix). So what the hell. (*E.g., good luck finding "The Tick.")

TV animated:
"Frisky Dingo"
"Lucy, Daughter of the Devil"

Yup, all comedies. A reflection I suppose of what I need to cope with these dark times.