Best current Netflix instant viewing?

Hello ATS -

Looking for some new entertainment options, so would like to ask everyone for their recommendations on best currently available Netflix instant viewing movies & shows. Their browsing system is lacking, somewhat.

Anyone got any favorites out there right now?

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus

It's not new, but I'm watching "Dan Aykroyd Unplugged on UFOs" right now.

I like the anime selection.
My boyfriend and i are currently watching farscape, its old but enjoyable.
Sparticus was also cool.

Prison Break! I started watching the first season last week, and I'm completely hooked. On season 3 now. I know, I know..... I need a life.

reply to post by Praetorius


The recommendation system can be a bit lacking, as it only shows you things Netflix thinks you will like based on the movies you have rated.. and if you are a pretty new subscriber it can really suck

I have rated over 7K movies in the years I have been with them, so the rec's for me are pretty spot on, but I sometimes get in the mood for something "new" to me - romcom is generally not my "thing" and therefore I rate them low in Netflix, hence, no romcom rec's on my lists I use instantwatcher.com... to browse for new stuff. It will show you everything that has been posted to streaming that is new (Tuesday is the day new stuff comes out on Netflix), and allows you to search by specific years of publication and such. It's pretty handy - you can even add movies to your que from the site, which is pretty cool.

Arrested Development is the best written and genuinely funny show I've ever seen, every line is practically a top notch joke, and the running jokes and plot interweave throughout all the seasons. If you haven't seen it, I demand that you watch it, all three seasons are instant. It is the epitome of a cult classic which was too awesome for Fox to handle, even better than Futurama, of which I'm a huge fan. Speaking of that, the new season of Futurama is instant and every episode is great, especially A Clockwork Origin which any Ancient Astronaut fan would love. As a fan of anime and cartoons, I would have to say that Avatar: The Last Airbender, all 3 seasons, is one of the best animated shows ever made and all of it is instant. Party Down is also quite good and if you've seen the first season, less than 10 episodes I'm pretty sure, it's second season is playing on Starz and since they have a special deal, you can watch it instantly. Banksy's Exit Through the Gift Shop is on there and The Union is about a certain plant which has been mad hated on for a long time. And of course...Death to Smoochy.

Monsters was a really good one if you like Lovecraftian type films!
Taste the Tentacle! Taste the Rainbow.

Into the Void is a really sweet movie. You watch the life and death of the main character through his eyes. If you want to watch a show, Spartacus is awesome as long as you don't mind lots of gore.

I'm interested to see what other people say because I definitely need something new to watch. I've been watching Farscape for waay too long

reply to post by Praetorius


Thanks VERY much to everyone who's responded so far, these are some good suggestions.

Arista: If that site is anywhere as handy as it looks, that is fantastic and I greatly appreciate it - everyone else might want to bookmark it as well!

reply to post by Praetorius


You must watch Freakonomics. Best documentary i've seen in forever.

reply to post by Praetorius


8milimeter with Nicolas cage I found it very interesting.

Basically Nicolas Cage is a private investigator and he gets called in by a rich old lady who's husband had just passed away. She wants disclosure in a film she found, apparently her husband enjoyed watching girls getting #ed then killed. It goes into the underground of the pornography and plants some real questions about humans and their sick and twisted sexual fantasy's and why we do them. Viewer digression is advised, this film is not for the weak heart.

fullmetal alchemist if youre into riveting storylines, supernatural skills, & well drawn anime.

&

ip man if you want some modest martial arts justice in your life

we watched "Ahhhhhh Zombie" the other night. Hilarious!

reply to post by Arista


how do you add to your que from that site?

freakonomics was so good!

I got hooked on my name is earl. I never watched it was on tv, but I am addicted now, and it's almost over

Im way too ADD, so not sure if this is instant, but we just watched both DVDs (6 episodes) off "Jekyll", a BBC miniseries from a couple years or so back. Really good, twisted clever dark weird with surprisingly good plot twists. Stars James Nesbitt, etc.
Good stuff!

Oh, wow, I was actually working on a huge post about this very thing, I'll share what I have so far:

Action/Thriller
Kick-Ass: Based on a comic book mini-series. A high school boy decides to become a vigilante super hero with mixed results. Great fight direction. Has one of the most emotional action scenes ever.
Taking of Pelham One Two Three: The original. Moves a little slow, but it's a satisfying film with a great ending. Walter Matthau is awesome as usual. The plot concerns a group of people who isolate a subway car and take hostages.
Reservoir Dogs: Tarantino's first. Great cast. Non-linear narrative about the aftermath of a robbery gone wrong.

Animated
The Secret of Kells: The most beautiful animated movie I've ever seen. A great story about a young monk who wants to help illuminate a bible, but his uncle is only concerned with building a wall to keep out the Vikings. It might sound dry, but there's a lot of whimsy and magic in the story.

Comedy
The Hudsucker Proxy: The Coen Brothers homage to the fast-talking screwball comedies of early Hollywood. Not for everybody, but I find it hilarious. Great performance from Paul Newman.
This Is Spinal Tap: Classic and hilarious mockumentary about England's loudest band: Spinal Tap. If you like rock music or comedy and haven't seen Spinal Tap, you need to fix that immediately.
The Big Lebowski: It seems like everyone's seen this hilarious Coen Brothers movie, but if you haven't you should see what everyone's talking about.
Wet Hot American Summer: Hilarious parody of Summer camp movies from the Stella guys. Funny from start to finish. You'll never see Law and Order: SVU's Christopher Meloni the same again.
Slapshot: There's not a lot of movies about hockey, but thankfully this one is not only good, but hilarious. One of Paul Newman's few forays into comedy and he nails it as a player on a struggling minor league hockey team who has to resort to incredibly violent playing to get people to attend their games.
Mystery Team: Nice little indie comedy from Derrick Comedy. One of their members if Donald Glover who people might know from the awesome show Community or as the rapper Childish Gambino. It's about a group of Hardy Boy-esque friends who never grew up and are now trying to solve a murder.

Documentary
The Kid Stays In The Picture: A documentary about famous movie producer Robert Evans who produced movies like: Chinatown, The Godfather, True Grit and The Conversation. The best thing about this is Evans' quirky verbal stylings.
Mr Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred A. Leuchter Jr: An Errol Morris doc that starts out as a look at a man who was tweaking execution devices to make execution more humane. Then, it takes a sudden and sickening turn into Leuchter's involvement in Holocaust denial. Fascinating and stomach churning.
Exit Through The Gift Shop: One of the best. It's about street art and Banksy like you might have heard, but there's this strange twist toward the end and sudden it's all about art in general. I've seen it multiple time and I still find it thought provoking.
This Film Is Not Yet Rated: Interesting look at the MPAA, the people who give movies their ratings. They turn out to be strangely shadowy, biased and almost anti-artistic.
When We Were Kings:About the famous Ali-Foreman fight. Sheds a lot of light on both sides, plus the African culture and politics surrounding the event. Incredibly fascinating even if you don't like boxing.

Detective/Noir
Double Idemnity: One of the best film noirs ever made. A perfect movie on almost every level.
Blue Velvet: One of David Lynch's best. Not for the faint of heart. Dennis Hopper's performance of Frank Booth is very memorable.
Brick: Best film noir in the last decade or so. It's a little gimmicky, it's set in a high school with all the characters talking like it's the '30s, but it all works. Everything is suitably dark and complex.

Drama
The Fighter: Great boxing movie, nominated for quite a few Academy Awards. Great fights, acting and direction.
Do The Right Thing: Classic Spike Lee movie. Great performances all around. Funny, dramatic, thought provoking.
The Last Temptation of Christ: Martin Scorcese directs what I think is the best Jesus movie. You might find it a little distracting that most of the actors have thick Brooklyn accents, but this is a great movie examining Jesus as a person and not just a martyr or instrument of the divine.
Marat/Sade: A movie that consists entirely of a play put on by the Marquis de Sade using inmates of an insane asylum. It's a re-telling of the assassination of Jean-Paul Marat. Not for everyone, but it's an unique concept and has a lot of interesting ideas about the nature of revolution.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest: Classic Jack Nicholson movie. One of the few films that is just as good as the book.
Network: It's amazing how this movie made in the '70s captured almost exactly what the news is like today.
Punch-Drunk Love: One of the greatest romantic comedies ever made, though it could be argued that this film is not very comedic or romantic. It's also Adam Sandler's best role. Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, this movie captures what it's like to be lonely and socially inept and then to have something good come into your life. It's painful and sad, but also beautiful and joyous.
Big Fan: Woefully unknown movie starring comedian Patton Oswalt. It's about a guy who is a huge fan of a football team. After he's beaten up by his favorite player, he doesn't know if he should press charges and hurt his team or let it go and have his family hate him. Netflix calls it a comedy, I think that's stretching it.
Trainspotting: From Danny Boyle, the director of 28 Days Later and Slumdog Millionaire, this is a great movie about Scottish heroin addicts. It's a much easier movie to handle than Requiem for a Dream, but the two are usually mentioned in the same breath. I prefer Trainspotting, personally.

Foreign
Dogtooth: Unique and BRUTAL. This is a Greek film about three teenagers who have been raised without ever being allowed out into the world. Their parents have twisted their knowledge and perceptions, even teaching them the wrong definitions for words. A crazy and memorable film.

Horror
The Thing: Not just a great sci-fi horror movie, but one of the greatest movies ever made. Suspenseful, insane effects and kills. John Carpenter's best.

Santa Sangre: The most accessible movie from surrealist film maker Alejandro Jodorowsky. With imagery that is at times beautiful, confusing, horrific and sad, we're shown the story of Fenix, a boy who grew up in a carnival and has a tragic life that eventually leads him to a dark path.

Other
Slacker: NOT TO BE CONFUSED WITH THE MOVIE SLACKERS. This is a polarizing movie, but it's undeniably interesting. There's no plot, the movie just moves from one person to another. You'll hear long monologues from colorful people about a variety of things such as conspiracy, reality, or a woman who's trying to sell Madonna's pap smear.
Repo Man: The one from 1984. Possibly my favorite movie of all time. In my mind, there's nothing else like it. Great performances, a crazy plot involving alien bodies in the trunk of a Chevy Malibu. If you like your movies a little out there, you'll love this one.
Bill Hicks: Live: Bill Hicks is possibly the greatest stand-up comedian ever. He's not only funny, but very intelligent and speaks a lot of truth about the government, drugs, war and society. This movie contains two pretty good performances.

Sci-Fi
Blade Runner: Director's Cut: A mixture of sci-fi, noir and philosophy. Classic.
The Man From Earth: A man is leaving his job, so his friends give him a going away party. As the party progresses he starts implying that he's 14,000 years old. A great discussion follows.

Television Shows
The Andy Griffith Show (Full Run)- One of the all-time classics. Funny and sweet.
X-Files (Full Run)- If you're on this site, you know what this show is.
Mystery Science Theater 3,000 (Selected Episodes)- One of the funniest and most clever shows ever made. Episodes from all through out the run. A man and his robot friends are forced to watch terrible movies and they make fun of them to stay sane.
The Office (UK) (Full Run)- The original. Dark, awkward and hilarious.
Sherlock (All Current Episodes)- The BBC's hour-and-a-half made for TV Sherlock Holmes movies. They're brilliant modernizations that don't so much adapt the stories as take elements and remix them into new stories. The third installment "The Great Game" is tremendous.
Top Shot (2 Seasons)- A fun marksmanship reality show. Features top marksman competing in a variety of interesting challenges using a wide range of weapons.
NewsRadio (Says 5 seasons, but only has 1-3): One of the best sitcoms of all time, though somewhat forgotten. Features a great ensemble cast that includes Dave Foley, Phil Hartman and Stephen Root.
Party Down (Full run): Hilarious show about caterers in Hollywood with a big cult following. The show, not the caterers. Lots of celebrity cameos, including Mr. Steve Guttenberg.
Parks and Recreation (Seasons 1-3): One of the best TV shows currently on TV. It's a rare show where most of the characters accept and care for each other, but is still hilarious. The first season is rough, but from there it's great.
Breaking Bad(Season 1-3): Another incredible TV show currently running. Easily one of the very top TV dramas.Walter White is a high school chemistry teacher who turns to cooking meth to support his family after he's gone. I can't stress how amazing this show is.
Twin Peaks(Full Run): David Lynch's groundbreaking TV series. Memorable characters, strange happenings. It's not perfect, the middle of the second season is actually kind of awful, but still a show worth watching.
Firefly: The quintessential "cancelled-too-soon" show. Great sci-fi series with Western elements. Great cast, lots of fun. The movie Serenity is also on Netflix and is also great.
Louie(Season 1): An often darkly comedic sitcom from the awesome comedian Louis CK. The laughs will be harsh for many and for some they might be non-existent, but there are some who will think this is absolutely brilliant.
Arrested Development: Brilliant, dense and one of the funniest shows ever. If you haven't watched Arrested Development you've probably had someone tell you to. Listen to them.

I have to admit that when Sons of Anarchy Seasons 1 and 2 were being streamed, we were glued to the the TV! LOL! Just bought all three seasons on dvd. Will have to wait a long time for season4 but ok. Still would rather wait than plug back into TV after having been without it for about 20 years.