Sorry this won't be a particularly (or even slightly) productive or insightful post, just felt like venting. Just finished watching all 9 episodes of "Inventing Anna" on Netflix - what a load of garbage, and this is coming from someone who enjoyed Shonda Rhimes' earlier work e.g. "How to Get Away With Murder".
It's a shame as the real-life subject matter is actually quite interesting, with the Anna Sorokin girl being a more recent version of Clark Rockefeller. Instead the series gets the glossy Rhimes treatment, whereby it's suddenly a story of "female empowerment" (by conning lots of people?) and a story of class/sexism/racism/anti-capitalism struggle? All of the characters were so unlikable.
Plus Trump gets mentioned every episode - is he living rent-free in Shonda Rhimes' head or what? Whatever you feel about Trump (I didn't particularly like the guy myself) I just didn't see the relevance. One character even says "we can't turn Anna over to the police in Trump's America"... I mean wtf. Racial issues are also arbitrarily shoehorned in (via the obnoxious Neff character and also the unnecessary backstory of Anna's attorney).
Tbh if this is the type of content Netflix is spending loads of money on, no wonder they're losing subscribers. I also felt the same way about "Don't Look Up" - as someone who enjoyed McKay's earlier work (Big Short and Vice) I absolutely loathed it. Of course climate change and Covid are real, but it's not as simple as calling anyone who even wants a nuanced discussion about it as an idiot. Literally I felt as if I was getting hit over the head with a hammer in every scene (in fact Leo di Caprio actually does shout at the viewers in one scene!) - the opposite of subtle/intelligent satire.
So yeah anyway not sure what I'm contributing here, except to say am I the only one who feels like this? Or is Netflix just going downhill/producing ridiculously woke trash these days? (I say this as someone who considers themselves quite centrist politically btw).
I think a lot of us would agree that Netflix is on a downward trend with their "go for broke by going for woke" change in strategy. I want the Netflix of just a couple of years ago with Narcos and The Ozarks instead of things like this or Cuties (that's a show I could've just done without ever knowing existed if it weren't apparently injected with so much political skew that it made people talk about it, and thus I had to hear about it, and definitely didn't hear anything even remotely positive).
Ignoring the political bent as I'm quite progressive myself, I just didn't enjoy the show. I think this story could've been a very clever, campy satire but took itself too seriously with the focus on the journalist POV. I think I would've preferred Ryan Murphy take on this story. I loved both seasons of The Politician, which is quite critical of the left leaning politics in a really funny way IMO.
Yeah agreed - Ryan Murphy would have done a far better job I think. Although given I liked How to Get Away with Murder I was hoping Shonda Rhimes would give it a similar slick exciting treatment.
But yes even with the political stuff aside, as you say it was just a bit dull/unenjoyable. The journalist was frankly really unsympathetic/uninteresting, and her + the cabal of character actors from Scandal (the fellow journalists) didn’t really add anything to the story (or at their roles should have been trimmed significantly). Anna (and her victims) should have been the only focus imho.
if it's hot trash why'd you watch more than half of one episode?
Have you ever watched Gigli?
and maybe I'm too cutthroat. if a book doesn't grab me in 50 pages, BYE
if a movie doesn't grab me in 30 minutes, BYE
if an episode doesn't grab me halfway into the first one, BYE
life's too short to consume crap
Imagine being a grown man watching this nonsense. Couldn't be me.
it's about high society and finance society in NYC, fraud, and human nature. I don't think a kid would like watching that. it's for adults. especially interesting if you're in finance.
So this is how you spend your free time
I enjoyed “Dont Look Up” but watching it is like Chapelle coming in you know Netflix is going to let Mckay be as “woke” in your face as he wants.
Ozarks new season was good. Love is Blind is a major winner too.
Now this “Inventing Anna” was just horrendous couldnt watch more than 1 episode. The reviews also people went after shonda for basically now focusing story on Anna character and not even a good actress as the other chick is so annoying.
I enjoyed Scandal long ago but seems most of her netflix work so far is mailing it in. Though think bridgeton or whatever got high reviews from the ladies.
I didn't interpret "Don't Look Up" as being a one-sided critique of antivaxxers / climate change deniers, but also a critique at the science community who through both COVID and climate change have done a pretty terrible job of communicating their discoveries to the public and have gone through some self-inflicted loss of credibility.
I don't think the scientists are supposed to come across as super charitable in the first half of the film, especially with Leo's character essentially selling out / celebritizing his occupation (like some scientists have done in the real world).
Netflix has been trash since Season 3 of House of Cards. Exceptions include The Crown, Bojack Horseman, Mindhunter, and the first two seasons of Chef's Table and Ozark.
Besides a handful of real winners that Netflix has produced (Ozark, Mindhunter, The Irishman, etc), seems like they’ve shifted towards low risk stuff that will guarantee buzz/eyeballs. Was honestly surprised they stood by Chappelle
The alcoholic woman and Kacy are the only likeable characters, and this shit was like 5 episodes too long.
I watched the whole thing with the lady and thought it was a fun show. Nothing special and nothing to write home about. Just low-hanging fruit gimmie the next episode entertainment. I wasn't surprised though, reading the reviews when people complained about how there was no spotlight on how Anna was mentally ill. I've grown used to people throwing out complaints for everything but this was especially surprising given the show revolved around a true story (except the parts that weren't true as they pointed out lol). Is it every producers obligation to now point out pervasive social issues in all their content? Like does not mentioning mental health make one complicit in the effort to raise awareness for it? Think it's totally asinine but maybe I'm arcane in my thinking...
At OP, I get what you're saying, at the end of the day we we're going to watch a movie/show, we want it to be good, and not hammy/over the top/or have some side agenda. Others thoughts I have on netflix/shows:
- I have not watch the Anna show. I find it funny/interesting how whenever its women who con people, its empowerment, but when men do it (Tinder Swindler), its a sad story. Reminds me of that money that J Low did about how he drugged wall street guys because it was a "recession" or something.
- Hollywood is funny, sometimes I think its actors/people involved have too much time or just do a lot of drugs and focus on one thing, usually something political. "Don't Look Up", is funny because its about global warming, by a company that houses massive data centers that release heat into the air, with actors who have yachts that are horrible fuel wise, and end up going to over the top/super extravagant award shows.
- Ozarks to me, I liked the first couple of seasons, the last season (not entirely through the first part yet), the way the actors are takes me out of it. Not saying that every actor needs to be a white guy, but its almost too diverse. Also, again that not everyone needs to be a man/white, if you take out Jason Bateman's character, every guy on that show is ether gay or extremely weak minded/dumb.
- lastly, with every company launching their own streaming, its became a war on talent/ideas, which are not infinite. So now, we're going to get a lot of shows that aren't good, don't have a point, are a reharsh, or just too long in general.
They went down hill when they took MadMen out...
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