My top viewing priority for the month of March came about, in part, because I was notified from the very beginning of the month (or maybe even back in February) of a particular franchise’s fate. The first three John Wick movies had been available on Netflix streaming for a few months running. While I had already watched the first two some time before, there have been two more installments released in the meantime. Obviously, it would make sense to catch the next in the series while I could, even if I don’t exactly consider any of these films to be high cinema.
This intention, though, did create for me another problem. The members of my household were not all on the same page as I was. One family member has only watched the original John Wick and is quite content to leave it that way. Another watched the first two films with me but has no burning desire to take in the third. The third member, though, had only seen the first John Wick installment but did want to watch, as properly titled, John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum. It was therefore necessary to queue up both Chapter 2 and Chapter 3 in a way that the two of us could complete the set before March came to a close.
Wick was my highest priority but it didn’t need to be my sole focus. Even after I allowed The Valhalla Murders to spill into early March and having taken on Vietnam, I had time to catch some of the other entertainment leaving streaming. As usual, it was not as much time as I thought I had… but I’ll save my griping about that for later.
Return of the Queen
One highlight in March’s fare was the return of the series Victoria to Amazon Prime’s streaming, even if only for another teaser month. Perhaps this is a pattern that will continue, allowing me to watch various series piecemeal over the course of what we used to consider a television “season.”
Alas, Victoria‘s renewed presence didn’t allow me to make it all that far with my renewed opportunity. I did manage to resolve the big story element left hanging in my last attempt – Victoria has again met Albert and the two have agreed to marry. There is a certain segment of the viewing population that loves the pageantry of these television Royal Weddings (real or enacted) but I’m not one of them. I once again left this season partially complete so as to take a look at some of the options which were about to become unavailable to me (or so it seemed at the time).
Victoria > Being Human
I elected to give Being Human a try. It rates pretty highly with IMDb reviewers and indeed higher than the other* expiring series (well, other than Victoria). Amazon had both the U.S. version and the original U.K. version free on Prime and both were set to expire at the end of the month. It appears, end of April, that the U.S. version is still streaming for free**.
If you are a regular reader of my blog, you could probably guess that I went for the U.K. version. It is the original, after all, plus it is the higher-rated of the two versions per IMDb.
I seem to recall the time when one or the other of these two versions of the show came to our shores. If my memory serves, that arrival was accompanied by solid reviews and recommendations. Nonetheless, I didn’t find myself tempted. I think I felt trepidation at the prospect of another Twilight clone. I’ve managed to avoid all of the permutations on this one (including the original) and I think for got reason.
Having watched two episodes, I don’t doubt the reviewers when they say that Being Human is a far better show than Twilight. Even still, this show remains a story about some angsty, young hipsters struggling with the burdens of love, success, fulfillment – while being a fairy-tale monster. Like TikTok and the music of Taylor Swift, there are some things that I’m just too old to appreciate. Sad and lonely werewolves seems to be one of them.
You’d think I’d be similarly disinclined to watch a period romance – and you’d probably be right. However, the combination of historical grounding and the focus on such pivotal figures clinched my return to Victoria for yet another episode, even if it was a one way ticket. It couldn’t be my final stop because, as the expirations began to pile up, I turned back towards Netflix.
Imposters > Victoria
Netflix’s top-rated, expiring series for March was a show I never heard of before now. It is called Imposters, a show that ran on the Bravo! network for two seasons in 2017 and 2018. It is billed as a “dark comedy,” albeit one (I would add) with romantic highlights. It is funny and it’s clever and the cast is easy on the eyes. Had I known about this show before its expiration, I would certainly have watched both seasons. As it stands, I barely made it into Season 2.
Since I’ve been straining myself to find deeper meaning within my casual enjoyment, I’ll try to do so again here. As I did last month, I’m seeing a bit of a nod to Nietzsche from this story. We follow a trio of victims of a confidence scheme who, in their quest to track down those who wronged them, themselves take to the con life. In doing so, they find they like it. They have become their monster (and not in the werewolf sense).
Having cut Imposters off mid-season, I should probably refrain from trying to put this into a greater context. Where I think the show is heading and where it actually wound itself up may be entirely different places. Why did I leave when I did? The main reason I did not finish Imposters is that I returned to Amazon for one last, late edition to its purge list…
Boss > Imposters
Boss is another series I never heard of before Amazon told me I couldn’t watch it any more. It stars Kelsey Grammer as the mayor of Chicago, an actor who I’ve never quite taken a shine to in his comedy roles. This part, however, suits him beautifully.
I’ll call this one a horror story for us old people. Far scarier than vampires or werewolves, this story is about a politician at the peak of his power who finds out he has an incurable, degenerative brain disease. He has built his life around his career and his position and sacrificed much to do it. No level political power, negotiation, or calling in of owed favors helps when time and mortality come for you.
As the first episode comes to a close, we get some close-in hippity-hoppity, reminding us that Boss isn’t meant to be family fare. Fortunately, I was alone in the room when I received the reminder. Fairly warned and forearmed, I was not surprised by the explicit sexual scenes that are included once, twice, maybe three times in each episode.
Although this was objectively the better series when compared to Imposters, I found the latter’s lighter touch to be more palatable to me. For that reason, I only made it through Episode 4 in the first season of Boss.
I’ll tell ya, pilgrim, I started the crap
I am making it sound like I only watched serial shows, but that wasn’t the case. We already talked about High Plains Drifter and there was more where that came from. By mid-March, when I decided to mix in some movies, the most appealing of them seemed to be old films that I’d watched many times before. High Plains Drifter was on Netflix and classics like Reservoir Dogs, Witness, American Beauty, Forrest Gump, and Highlander were due up on Amazon.
OK, that last one isn’t by any stretch a classic… but I might have watched it anyway except that…
That last third of March is when Amazon really began to populate their expiration list. Suddenly, I had to shift gears from rewatching old favorites to sampling some new stuff that was very highly rated. But first…
G.- L.- O.- R.- I.- A.
It was a frenzy of horrific gun handling, weird eighties synth score, and confusing action, but I watched it anyway. The Siege of Firebase Gloria is an Australian-made film about Americans in Vietnam. It dovetailed nicely into both my game interests at the time as well as that TV series of similar vintage.
The film as scripted was intended to be (at least in its own small way) a tribute to the South Vietnamese VC. Between Ermey’s narration and the VC commander’s commentary, we are told how the Tet Offensive decimated the southern guerrillas and ended their ability to act independently of Hanoi. It is suggested that, perhaps, this was the intent from the North all along. A final scene was to have the two, opposing commanders meet after the war was long over and remember each other – Ermey’s Haffner would greet his old enemy in Vietnamese. The scene was cut when the American distributors didn’t think that angle would fly over here.
I can’t say whether leaving the original vision intact might have helped the film. For better or for worse, I had to watch this one… because it was available.
Whatcha Gonna Do?
My final Amazon movie was one I almost skipped over.
I remember when Hot Fuzz was released to theaters and it was to pretty good reviews. Despite that, I wasn’t all that tempted. It just didn’t look like my flavor of comedy. Contrast this with Shaun of the Dead, which did look like it would appeal to me. As I explained earlier, though, I didn’t manage to watch that one either. Well… until I did.
Once I did, Hot Fuzz was added to my to-see list but, it too, was relegated to the “some other time” category. It was only the fact that Amazon staggers their expirations that left me with Hot Fuzz as the last, best one standing.
Yes, it was funny. Moreover, it wasn’t what I expected.
I assumed it would be an American-style send-up of the cop movie (maybe a Police Academy for the current generation). It wasn’t, exactly. It was something of a send-up of the serious American cop movies, with the references made explicit for those who missed the joke, but just not in the American style.
In contrast to comedies made in America, the “hero” of the movie is the straight man. Simon Pegg (who was Shaun in Shaun) plays Nicholas Angel, a skilled and competent police officer whose effectiveness makes the rest of the London force look bad. For that sin, he gets a “promotion” to a small village where he finds all manner of trouble. I think the butt of the joke, again, are the British fans of American entertainment rather than the entertainment itself. The distinction makes the movie all the more enjoyable.
So in the end, I learned that I avoided this one for all the wrong reasons. In fact, there really were no right reasons to avoid Hot Fuzz. It was a pretty solid comedy and thoroughly enjoyable, even if a little silly, to watch.
Anyway…
So I started out with it and so I’ll end my story with John Wick. I squeezed in the second half of John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum with barely an hour to go before its expiration. As a point of fact, I actually watched Hot Fuzz after I finished Wick 3 because the former expired a day later. To even acknowledge that fact really messes up the flow of my post but my compulsion for accuracy would not allow me to ignore it. Anyway…
After working towards the goal for a whole month, I have completed the Wick saga, insofar as it has been provided to me for free. Was it worth it? Well, sure… but that’s not saying much.
The first movie in this franchise was solid entertainment. I am going to assume that the first three parts were made available to me now to help promote the “premium content” of Chapter 4 and the buzz around the development of Chapter 5. While I’m not sure that any of this marketing push succeeded with me, there is something to be said for the sheer momentum of it all. I’ll probably keep watching these movies as they come out simply because I’ve put in for three movies so far.
The follow-ons do well what the movie does well*** but lack a certain grounding that the simple story of a man, his dog, and the memory of his lost love used to jumpstart the series. I’ll give Parabellum bonus points over Wick 2, though, for a couple of reasons. Plus one for the title**** and a few more for its sly references. Wick 3 stars Reeves and Laurence Fishburne, necessitating frequent references to The Matrix. Wick 3 seizes this opportunity.
Beyond that, John Wick shoots lots and lots of people, most of whom had it coming. That’s why we watch, isn’t it?
That Monthly List
Once again, it is time for that monthly list of movies that I didn’t get to watch before they were removed. You remember? The list that I said I would not keep putting up here.
While I had specifically resolved not to do it this month, Amazon ended up piling so many selections on with only a week or so to go, I once again felt like what I WASN’T able to watch was more significant that what I WAS able to watch. This was particularly true of the series-format selections.
I also wanted to add, and you can see it to some extent below, that Netflix seems to be returning to normal. For several months in a row it didn’t seem to me that they were losing shows at their usual pace. I would say I no longer have that favorable impression for March.
Netflix
The Mauritanian
Suicide Squad (2001)
Elysium
The Monuments Men
The Lords of Flatbush
Amazon
The Red Road
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead
Cashback
Ascension
Trees Lounge
Monster’s Ball
Above Suspicion
Under Fire
Woman in Gold
Cube
Monk
God Bless America
Mission: Impossible III
Death Rides a Horse
Mission: Impossible IV – Ghost Protocol (again)
Game Pairing: John Wick Hex
*At least, this was true at the time I decided to start watching the show. As more expirations were added, then rankings shuffled accordingly.
**I surely don’t understand exactly how Amazon’s streaming works. There sometimes seem to be multiple “copies” of a show available on the website. In this case, it looks like one version expired and another remains even though, as far as I can tell, they are the same thing. The latter may be the case for some seasons of the U.K. series as well. Any and all of these may be done-for come the end of April.
***Or should I say, Keanu Reeves does well what he does well. One of the pleasures of these films is watching Reeves execute things like combat reloads. I’m not saying I think the gunfighting is in any way “realistic,” but it has a certain hoplophile-pleasing hyper-realism that’s a large part of what keeps me coming back. Halle Berry, by contrast, acted out her battle using many of the sloppy, Hollywood gun tropes that I’d rather avoid. The sheer contrast of the two performances makes me wonder if it wasn’t intentional.
****It has multiple meanings. Latin for “prepare for war,” it’s supposed to be a commentary on what happens when someone, anyone, provokes John Wick. Lose a point for its decidedly unsubtle and incongruous subtitled statement about 2/3rds into the movie. It is also the name of the standard 9mm round that most of the pistols in the film would be chambered in.
*****The Giver was on both Netflix and Amazon and expired from both services at the same time. I’ve not witnessed that before.
******Community was removed from Netflix but I swore I would only watch it on Amazon. I’ll list it, but I wasn’t even tempted.