We Recommend: The Best Of Netflix TV, Part I

A few weeks back, ahead of the Netflix dump of Arrested Development‘s fourth season, we published an easy-to-follow guide to pay for access to the America-only streaming service. Geoblockers like Media Hint go against the intention of distributors like Netflix, but they turn a blind-eye because you’re paying them to stream, and adding eyeballs to their content.

Until Australia catches up and offers a competitive distribution service, streaming through Netflix is the easiest and most ethical way to go outside of buying the DVD — especially for shows like season four of AD which aren’t available anywhere else. This way, you can pay to watch something you might have otherwise have torrented.

With this in mind — and with a whole new library of TV shows at our fingertips — we asked our contributors for their pick of the Netflix batch. Here is part one; we’ll publish part two tomorrow.

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Friday Night Lights

Recommended by: Elmo Keep (‘Combating The Cost Of The Free Economy‘)

If you’ve never seen Friday Night Lights or, as it should be called, Football Overcomes Adversity, then you’ve never known the pleasures of being inspired to leave behind your self-involved life of watching and writing about television in order to become a high school teacher (gosh no, I didn’t do that; a far more morally robust friend of mine did.) In any case, FNL: once you look past the overly God-y bits (which thankfully they dropped in the second season), the fact it’s about a football code you likely know nothing about, and that in the second season a major cast member does something extreme and completely out of character which is never referred to again, then it’s ‘Clear Eyes, Full Hearts, Can’t Lose!’ for you.

Why do people always say that? WTF does ‘Texas Forever!’ mean? Should I watch Nashville just because Tammy Taylor plays the lead? (YES.) All these questions (not the last one, I just told you) and more will be answered, plus you will meet the most perfect ever life models for a relationship in Coach and Tammy Taylor. Don’t worry about that stuff about Mitt Romney. Or the guy who wrote the book. Just gaze upon Tim Riggins and thank God for football.

What to know: People in America are VERY passionate about high school football. Who knew?!

Favourite episode: This show ends on a note that could not be more heartfelt or perfectly written, with a note-exact send-off for all the major characters (who are real people! Aren’t they??). So, all of it, but the last episode especially. (Personal anecdote: I once spent many months watching The West Wing on DVD, only to get to the last episode and not realise it was the last episode as every other disc in the series contained four episodes per disc. BUT NOT THIS LAST ONE. It only had three! So I just assumed the fourth episode would cycle through on that disc. *Title screen*. DON’T LET THIS HAPPEN TO YOU. You will not recover emotionally for several days/weeks, maybe.)
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Battlestar Galactica

Recommended by: Alan Parry (‘Yes You Can Pay To Watch Arrested Development Season Four. Here’s How.‘)

So that mind-blowing orgasm Lost promised you ended up being an over-the-pants dry brushing? On Battlestar Galactica, sex is abundant, pretty awesome and eventually satisfying. Which makes sense, because after being fucked by the Cylons (in the non-good/Lost kind of way), humanity is down to 49,998 souls, pumping though space, trying to avoid said Cylons and hopefully find a new home.

This is definitely a show you need to watch from the beginning; it starts with two movie-length episodes to set you up. (You don’t need to know anything about the original BSG series. It’s actually better if you don’t.)

What to know: This Portlandia sketch. Be warned!

Favourite episode: ‘Crossroads (Part 2)’, aka the finale of season three. Solid cliff hanger, solid reveal, solid soundtrack! Possibly my favourite fracking season finale of anything, ever.

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Archer

Recommended by: Hugh Robertson (‘Eddie McGuire, Apes, And Other High-Functioning Primates‘)

Imagine James Bond. But instead of being part of a secret government agency, he works for his mother. Now imagine that instead of being the lone wolf, the rogue, pushing back against the might of the British government and kept in check by sober bureaucrats, he was surrounded by sex-addict billionaire heiresses, hyper-aggressive emotional over-eaters, possible Nazi scientists and his own ex-girlfriend (who may even be a better spy than him…). It’s hilariously inappropriate — not in the Family Guy, bizzarro cut-aways school of inappropriate humour, but because there’s a building full of forceful, highly-strung personalities that spend as much time insulting each other as they do fighting the KGB.

If you need to make a snap decision about whether Archer is worth your time, start with the final two episodes of season three, where Archer and the gang head to the International Space Station, which has been taken over by mutineers.

What to know: The voice cast is amazing. H. Jon Benjamin (also from Bob’s Burgers), Judy Greer and Jessica Walters (Kitty Sanchez and Lucille Bluth from Arrested Development) and Chris Parnell (Dr. Spaceman from 30 Rock) are all in the main cast, and guest stars have included Bryan Cranston (in the space episodes), Jon Hamm, Burt Reynolds, Patrick Waburton, George Takei, Jack McBrayer, Timothy Olyphant, Anthony Bourdain and Kristen Schaal.

Favourite episode: ‘The Limited’. Archer and co. attempt to transport a Canadian eco-terrorist back to Canada by train, but get sidetracked by a pet ocelot named Baboo. And Archer realises a life-long dream of fighting on top of a moving train, then immediately regrets it.

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Spaced

Recommended by: Caitlin Welsh (‘Game Of Thrones Week 9: U Mad, Bro?‘)

Edgar Wright. Simon Pegg. Nick Frost. If those three names send you into paroxysms of fan-squee delight, you’re probably already all over Spaced, the budget, single-camera comedy series that started it all in 1999. Total strangers Tim (Pegg) and Daisy (Jessica Stevenson, then Hynes) pretend to be a couple in order to get a flat in North London. Tim is an aspiring comic book illustrator who actually just works in a comics store with a man called Bilbo (an underused Bill Bailey); Daisy is an aspiring journalist and total dork. Both are unlucky in love. They spend their time sitting around the flat playing video games, smoking weed, making endless cups of tea and trying to avoid their landlady finding out they’re not actually together; there is also paintball, a murder mystery, performance art, anger, pain, aggression, and a metric fuckload of pop culture jokes. I can’t imagine why I love it so much. Directed by Wright, it’s a clear document of his idiosyncratic, dynamic style, and as written by the two stars (sadly, Stevenson’s contribution has been massively sidelined in the wake of the Wright/Pegg/Frost juggernaut), it’s sharp, meta and way ahead of its time. It’s also been hugely influential — the 2008 DVD re-release featured commentary from Wright, Pegg, Stevenson, Quentin Tarantino, Kevin Smith, Bill Hader, Matt Stone, and Patton Oswalt.

What to know: It’s from 1999 and looks budget as hell, because, well, it is. The beats are occasionally a little odd. It’s very English.

Favourite episode: Either the paintball episode, ‘Battles’ — which guest stars Peter Serafinowicz, and had a noticeable influence on Community‘s ‘Modern Warfare’ — or ‘Art’, which guest stars David Walliams as an artist named Vulva, and sees Daisy pitching to a ladymag called Flaps.

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Louie

Recommended by: Alasdair Duncan (‘Hunting For Easter Eggs In Arrested Development Season Four‘)

I was three years behind everyone else when it came to Louie. The show mixes Louis C.K.’s stand up with his attempts to find love – or a human connection of any kind – as a paunchy, newly-single 40-something dad. I’m only one season in, but I’m already in love with Louie and its unconventional approach to storytelling. His interactions never take a predictable turn, and the show constantly pulls the rug out from under you. You literally have no idea where the hell the story will end up, making a show that isn’t only funny, but actually exciting.

If you don’t know Louis C.K. that well, there are hours and hours of his stand-up available on YouTube. Watch a little – or a lot – of that, and then dive in.

What to know: A little goes a very long way with this show. Louie features no shortage of pain and humiliation. For the sake of your emotional health and well-being, it’s better to pace yourself, and watch one every couple of nights.

Favourite episode: So far, it’s ‘God’ (season one, episode 11). Louie delves into the source of his Catholic guilt via a series of childhood flashbacks. It’s not the funniest episode of the show, but it’s so beautifully written that it unfolds like a play, and so tense that at one point my viewing partner and I were literally on the edge of our seats.

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Freaks & Geeks

Recommended by: Nathan Jolly (‘Eight Songs Written By Unexpected People‘, with Caitlin Welsh)

Freaks and Geeks spawned a tight-knit team of actors, producers and writers, who changed the way the Hollywood system works on many fundamental levels. This, however, is the least impressive thing about the show, which mixed minutia with majesty in that murky teenage way where it all matters equally. Anchored by a nice, loving family — at a time when dysfunctional TV families were all the rage — the show dealt with many evergreen coming-of-age issues that hadn’t found their way to television in quite this manner yet: being horrified and terrified of sex after watching pornography; finding out your charming dad uses those charms outside the marital unit; getting the girl, then realising you didn’t want (read: know) her anyway; realising the crushing gulf between your career ambitions and your talent. The heart of the show was the intelligent Lindsay Weir (played by the wonderful Linda Cardellini), whose recent crisis of faith manifests in a rebellious streak that is rooted in questioning fundamentals rather than in blanket misbehaviour.

Many fans bemoan the fact Freaks and Geeks had the rug pulled from underneath it after only eighteen episodes were shot (with only twelve originally aired), but this has become one of the series’ strengths. The adherence to washed-out colours, minimal camera work and unflattering angles, plus the unceremonious ending, makes Freaks and Geeks seems less a product of a major network and more a newly-discovered time capsule. It’s a brief snapshot of a fleeting moment.

What to know:  It’s Michigan, 1980. The show does the rest.

Favourite episode: ‘Dead Dogs and Gym Teachers’ features Martin Starr’s best acting of his career, Nick’s (Jason Segel) horrifying love ode to Lindsay, and Daniel (James Franco) so excited about seeing The Who he is pre-drinking on a deck chair outside a parked van in the suburbs. Beautiful and sad.

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Peep Show

Recommended by: Rob Moran (‘Wow, That Simpsons Theme Park Happened Pretty Quickly‘)

Peep Show is a British sitcom that began airing in 2003. Firstly, it will make you reignite a long dormant love affair with the 1998 Harvey Danger hit, ‘Flagpole Sitta’, and secondly, it will make you laugh.

Starring comedy duo David Mitchell and Robert Webb (you’ve probs seen them on QI a lot), the show follows the brotherly love-hate relationship between two unlikely friends and flatmates: Mark, a cynical and snarky bathroom supplies salesman, and Jez, a deviant layabout/bullshit self help guru. It also features some colourful bit players, including the duo’s shaky love interests — charismatic Dobby; seductive Big Suze; Mark’s, ahem, sister — alongside one of the best side characters on TV: Jez’s “bandmate”, former crack addict and nutcase Cockney philosopher, Super Hans.

Although you may miss some ongoing references by dropping in at the current point (it’s a continuing series, and now approaching its ninth season), Peep Show is a rare example of a program that’s gotten better with each episode. The last season, which wrapped up on ABC2 earlier this year, was perhaps its best, displaying a ballsy confidence to push the show to hilariously uncomfortable (and irreversible) extremes, and it ended on a ridiculous bombshell that leaves you wondering where the duo’s ever-shaky friendship will go next.

What to know: The show is framed almost entirely in either character’s internal point of view, where we’re privy to all their neurotic, perverted, and hilariously judgemental asides. It’s like Shakespeare, but with more interior monologues about crack and masturbation.

Favourite episode: Season 8, Episode 3: ‘The Love Bunker’

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Terriers

Recommended by: Matt Roden (‘Mad Men 6.10: It Was The Best Of Times, It Was The Blurst Of Times. Mainly The Blurst.‘)

Terriers ran for one season in 2010, and occassionally gets thrown around in that wish-list of come back possibilities that internet people trot out (the resuscitated Veronica Mars, Party Down, etc). But this is no plea for more of a good thing. This is a good thing that you can just enjoy over a weekend and be on your way. Stop whining for more cookies, internet people!

Set in Ocean Beach, San Diego, Terriers is a shaggy, bleary-eyed, salt-crusted noir; a down-and-out beach bum detective show that sits happily in the milieu of Elmore Leonard and Carl Hiaasen. Starring Donal Logue as an alcoholic ex-cop turned burnt-out PI, it dips a toe in the water of procedural while keeping an eye on the big kahoona serial story that slowly shadows the shore. Each week, Hank Dolworth (Logue) and his ex-criminal partner Britt (Michael Raymond-James) scrabble for cases and pocket change to keep afloat, with Hank’s over-inflated sense of justice biting them in the ass as often as it assists in the righting of wrongs. The guys flex rapport, Hank moons over his ex, they skirt the edges of the law and make time with the sandy underbelly and rich dicks of their sea-side home town. But what else? Maybe it’s also about finally realising, but way too late, just how badly you were living up to your promise. About how helping others might be about helping yourself, and how maybe that’s not too bad either. About friendship, and rolling with punches. About all the stuff that Paul Newman movies and Bruce Springsteen songs are about, but with some tasty scenery to boot.

What to know: It’s not about dogs, it’s about getting a bite and not letting go. And it’s made by Shawn Ryan (The Shield) and Ted Griffin (Ocean’s 11). Once you get a feel for the tongue-in-cheek rough-and-tumble and winking shenanigans of Terriers, you’ll understand why those two guys working together are like fish tacos and Coronas.

Favourite episode: Episode four, ‘Fustercluck’, ramps up the season-long background mystery, has plenty of twists and turns, and lets the boys banter their way through a bunch of tight squeezes. And the finale provides all the closure you could want from a cancelled show.