My Top Four Shows on Netflix – January 2016

The internet TV/Movie streaming service Netflix just opened up their service in the Philippines, and even if over 93% of their titles are still not available locally, there are enough quality shows out there that is well worth watching. I have watched, or at least started watching some of the other shows, but so far these are the only ones that I have found to be interesting enough to continue watching. Here are my Top Four shows as of January 2016, in no particular order:

Daredevil Season One (Drama-Action)
Jeph Loeb rarely misses, and this is another one of his great accomplishments, this time as a producer. The show followed closely the award-winning work of Brian Michael Bendis on the Comic Book series, so if you have read that then most aspects of the TV series will be familiar to you, like the villain Kingpin, Daredevil’s initial costume, his initial nickname as the “Devil of Hell’s Kitchen”, etc. They did put in additional aspects to make the show more interesting, like a love interest for the Kingpin, the multinational Crime Syndicate, etc. The storytelling and characterizations are superb, and each episode has a lot of Martial Arts action in it. Season One runs for thirteen 45-minute episodes, with a new Season Two expected by March 2016.

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt Season One (Comedy – Series)
Produced by Tina Fey, the show follows the “Off-the-Wall” style of humor found on her successful series 30 Rock, but with only Jane Krakowski as the only holdover from that series. The superb Elle Kemper is superb in the title role, she had always been one of my favorite characters in The Office while relative newcomer Titus Burgress is quite a revelation as Kemper’s gay roommate. Kemper, Krakowski and Burgress combine for what I think is the funniest Comedy Series right now anywhere, whether it be on TV, Cable or Streaming. Season One runs for thirteen 25-minute episodes, with a Season Two coming in April 2016.

Ascension (Thriller-Scifi)
The show follows a “Generational Ship” travelling in Space as it goes thru its 100-year journey to a nearby star, with some interesting twists in the plot. Most of the cast is relatively unknown, with probably only Tricia Helfer as being somewhat recognizable by most fans. The show unfortunately only had one season which ran for six 45-minute episodes, but it is definitely worth watching for its twists.

Notorious – Russell Peters (Comedy – Stand Up)
This is a recording of Russell Peters’ show in Australia recently. Peters is a Canadian Stand Up Comic whose material mainly covers making fun of racial or national stereotypes all over the world. Some might find his material a bit offensive, but as long as you don’t take him and his jokes too seriously then they come across as really, really funny. This is not a series, just one show that is about one hour and fifteen minutes long.