![]() ![]() Hit me up on Twitter with yours - I need some new recommendations.The list of best shows on Netflix just keeps growing. Well, that was pretty much my year on the sofa. It’s just … good a perfect balance of humor, drama, and pathos. ![]() Unlike some of the more … experimental shows on this list, GLOW is accessible, easy to watch, but boasts a great deal of depth. The characters are all perfectly fleshed-out, with much of the humor and plot twists coming from the neverending series of conflicts between the gorgeous ladies, and their chronically intoxicated mentor. ![]() Entertainment might be a brutal, misogynistic and exhausting line of work, but it provides a challenge unlike any other. The series isn’t really about wrestling (which is kind of a boring subject), but a team of outcasts coming together to create a compelling narrative, trying to retain an audience while retaining their sanity. When I try to convince my friends to watch a show about ladies in the eighties learning how to wrestle, they look at me with an expression that can best be described as “sympathetic.” But I swear, it’s really good. Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling, continued with its second season on Netflix this year, and it remains, in my opinion, the best live-action drama to be found on the streaming service. This season of Bojack Horseman is the best take on the #MeToo era that I’ve seen on television so far, which is really quite strange for an animation starring unhappy animals. This season takes a long, hard look at profession pervert Harvey Weinstein, not directly, but by exploring the toxic facade of fake apologies and scripted forgiveness that pervades the entertainment industry. This show has been one of my favorites on Netflix for years now, and if you haven’t seen it yet, why not?Īnother animation which pushes the art form in new directions, the show follows Bojack, the 90’s sitcom star turned depressive, as he desperately attempts to get his life in order, and fails, every single time.Īnyone who has ever struggled with a bad habit that they can’t quite shake, which is most people, can relate to Bojack and his genuine, if seemingly hopeless attempt to improve. Humanity’s terrible tendency to follow deeply unqualified leaders into chaos is illuminated here, and it makes for pretty sobering viewing. Even he knew how utterly ridiculous the whole charade was, it seems. There are several shocking scenes on display here, but my personal favorite was a clip in which the narrator is describing Rajneesh’s penchant for recreational substances, and the footage actually shows the guru giggling, high as a kite, while being worshipped by deluded cultists. Oddly, there are a lot of strange parallels to the Trump phenomenon with this story, as a bunch of drifting westerners seeking direction flock to the most questionable guru imaginable, and proceed to accomplish a frightening amount of territorial grabbing. All I could think about while watching the town descend into madness was “Why didn’t I already know about this?” This documentary series was another unexpected treasure of 2018 - how did such a bizarre event occur, on such a large scale, and seemingly never get acknowledged again? How often do cults blossom in small town America?Īnd with such an impressive amount of footage documenting the whole damn thing, to boot. The show has a lot of interesting, amusing points to make about society, and how weirdly prudish and awkward we can be regarding sex, no matter our age. The dreadful sense of shame that accompanies perversion even takes a form, and he’s one of the most powerful and persuasive characters on the show, unfortunately. The physical embodiment of puberty takes the form of a monster (what else?), always tempting the tweens into giving in to their animalistic urges (Constance the Hormone Monstress is just glorious). The pillow currently being using as a masturbatory aid can be a character, as can the ghost of a jazz singer that randomly inhabits the attic. I use the term menagerie, because the creators of Big Mouth very much understand the limits of animation, in that there are no limits whatsoever. While Big Mouth can be kind of repulsive in its depiction of angsty, prepubescent sexual exploration, it’s a surprisingly intelligent series that has a lot of good punchlines, with immensely relatable themes and a menagerie of insanely inventive characters. I really would never have expected a crude cartoon that explores the worst aspects of adolescence to be one of my favorite shows of 2018, but here we are. ![]()
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