Rando Recommendations: What Pop Culture Thing Do You Recommend (Not Geek Media)

[DammitVictor]

If you enjoy human misery, The Devil All the Time (Netflix) is a Southern Gothic piece starring Tom Holland and Robert Pattison and Sebastian Stan. Netflix calls it a "slow burn" and they ain't kidding-- forty six minutes between pushing play and seeing the star-- but the flame that burns slowest burns hottest. I want to find the dialect coach and have all of their babies.

This is the movie that made me want to do a "prestige TV" adaptation of the TMNT, based mostly on the Mirage and IDW comics, just so I could stunt-cast Tom Holland as Casey Jones.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

Did an update on the OP with the recommendations posted! Unfortunately, I don't have time to hunt everything down, so if someone didn't specifically say what platform it's available on, I haven't been listing where to find it. I guess that's what teh googelz is for.

 

[Morrus]

Line of Duty: brilliant UK police procedural that focuses on the detectives who investigate the police.

Unforgotten: British police procedural about cold-case detectives l

Unforgotten is excellent. Slow paced, low-key, character driven, no action, but a great police show with a really strong lead.

 

[MattW]

Any book by P G Wodehouse (the best comic writer in all of English literature). If you want a TV adaptation of his most famous work, see "Jeeves and Wooster", which is likely to be on Youtube and stars Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie (pre-House).

Forget any of the Fast and Furious movies. The best heist movie is "The League Of Gentlemen". Made in 1960, this is a black-and-white film that stars some of the biggest names in British cinema - and is a darkly subversive comedy

 

[HawaiiSteveO]

Some fun National Geographic stuff on Disney + - we've particularly enjoyed Gordon Ramsay Uncharted.
Mix of amazing locations (Peru's Sacred Valley was my favorite), cooking show, and, well... Chef Ramsay! I've always found him greatly amusing.
Always enjoyed shows like this... feel like I got to 'travel' a little bit and see the world - sigh. Rogue Trip is really good as well.
Tried The World According to Jeff Goldblum one but didn't really care for it.

 

[Lanefan]

I've a few to toss in the pond here:

TV: Murdoch Mysteries (period detective drama and very Canadian); Duchess of Duke St. (British period drama from the early 1970's).

Movies: Ever After (Drew Barrymore as Cinderella); the Brosnan-Craig-era James Bonds.

 

[Jaegermonstrous]

This one could be geek-culture-adjacent, but I'd highly recommend 'Samurai Gourmet' (I think it's still on Netflix). It's a slice-of-life Japanese show about a retired businessman eating good food. It rates pretty high on the food porn, but it's also just a really sweet show about learning to enjoy the simple things in life. It's apparently based on a manga, but I have yet to find any sign of the source material.

I also really love the Canadian series 'Slings and Arrows' (last I checked it was on Youtube and Amazon). I worked in professional theatre for ten years, and I can say with absolute confidence that this show replicates extremely accurately the very bizarre nature of theatre. It's also a very well-done dramedy about a theatre director who might not be all there, the ghost (or perhaps hallucination) of his dead mentor/nemesis, and the shenanigans surrounding three seasons of shows at a repertory theatre.

I really love whodunnits, but there are few I like better than the 'Brother Cadfael' series starring Derek Jacobi (Acorn and Amazon). The premise is a bit goofy - a medieval Benedictine monk who was also a crusader solves crimes during a period of civil war! - but I was surprised how much I liked it. The original books are pretty good too, and the movies interpret them more faithfully than I would have expected.

[Edited to remove GBBO - definitely not off the beaten path, that one.]

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I don’t know if Stoner/heavy metal/occultism humor is geeky or not, but Todd & The Book of Pure Evil was freaking hilarious.

 

[Ryujin]

I don’t know if Stoner/heavy metal/occultism humor is geeky or not, but Todd & The Book of Pure Evil was freaking hilarious.

If you haven't already seen it they made a cartoon movie, a few years ago, to round out the story. I finally watched it about a month back. It's on Prime, at least in Canada.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

If you haven't already seen it they made a cartoon movie, a few years ago, to round out the story. I finally watched it about a month back. It's on Prime, at least in Canada.

I had heard it was in the works, but not that it had been completed and released. Thanks!

 

[Jaegermonstrous]

The Half of It (Netflix)- coming-of-age story that's focused much more on the friendship between the two main characters than the typical romance arc.

Fisherman's Friends (Netflix)- based on the story of the real-life a capella group of the same name, it's the perfect movie to scratch more of the sea shanty itch if you didn't get enough of them a few months ago.

Unicorn Store (Netflix)- Samuel L Jackson and Brie Larson in a non-superhero movie! With unicorns that may or may not exist.

Chef (Netflix)- A burnt-out chef tries to restart his career by buying a food truck, and repair the relationship between himself and his young son.

Tallulah (Netflix)- Elliott Page and Allison Janney! What more could you want? Another sort of coming-of-age story about a young woman who kidnaps a baby and goes to her boyfriend's estranged mother for help.

Honorable mention to 'Dave Made A Maze' (Amazon). I'd call it geek media if more people knew about it. Dave, an artist who's never finished anything, makes a maze out of cardboard in his living room. His friends and girlfriend go in after in him, only to learn the maze is much more than any of them anticipated.

 

[Imaculata]

The Toys That Made Us is a lovely short and humerous documentary on Netflix, about various toy franchises from our childhood and how they got made.

 

[Graybeard]

I reccomend Top Gear. There have been American versions but, in my opinion, the British version is overall better. Some hosts are better than others. There's just something enjoyable about seeing (mostly) guys driving ridiculously expensive cars and some not so expensive ones and having to complete a bunch of challenges in the process. The original show with Jeremy, Richard, and James as hosts was the best version.

 

[Graybeard]

Another show I enjoyed on Amazon Prime was called Hanna.

 

[Jack Daniel]

Just finished watching Letterkenny (Hulu). Cannot recommend highly enough. Bloody hilarious, and very cleverly written.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I reccomend Top Gear. There have been American versions but, in my opinion, the British version is overall better. Some hosts are better than others. There's just something enjoyable about seeing (mostly) guys driving ridiculously expensive cars and some not so expensive ones and having to complete a bunch of challenges in the process. The original show with Jeremy, Richard, and James as hosts was the best version.

At its best, Top Gear UK is one of the funniest comedies on TV. The camper trip show had me in tears. (Hell, I’m giggling just thinking about it.)

Part of the thing is that the original UK show cast had excellent chemistry. The more recent episodes are getting better, but haven’t gotten there yet.

The US show’s vibe has never gotten close.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Just finished watching Letterkenny (Hulu). Cannot recommend highly enough. Bloody hilarious, and very cleverly written.

My cousin loves the hell out of that show.

 

[DrunkonDuty]

Derry Girls on Netflix. Comedy a group of 5 high schoolers and their families. Set in Derry during the Troubles. Netflix.

The Detectorists. I'll second (third actually) this one! Very funny but with a lot of heart. Netflix.

Booksmart. A movie about the 2 friends graduating high school. Schmalzy ending but still very good. Netflix.

 

[payn]

The A&E biography on wrestler Booker T was even more interesting than the Macho Man one. That guy has one hell of a life story.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Detectorists took me a bit to warm up to, but I watched the entire series to the end.