Saturday, January 23, 2010

Netflixing Science

I've been needing something equivalent to my earlier doses of the good Discovery and History channel shows, so I've been perusing the Historical and Science subcategories of Documentaries. Decided it'd be appropriate to one-star all the supernatural, conspiratorial, and alien-friendly shows. The ratings are supposed to be relative to the user, so I would like to get any of the crazy crap out of future recommendations.

You'll probably be glad to know that Expelled already had less than 1 1/2 stars (1 star minimum) before I put my vote in.

Wish they had The Critical Eye. The first episode that I saw was what introduced me to homeopathy.

12 comments:

Tom Foss said...

I've got The Ascent of Man in my queue, and I hear they have The Atheism Tapes.

Bronze Dog said...

They have the tapes, and they're now in my instant viewing queue.

Added the Ascent of Man to my DVD queue.

Don said...

Incidentally, I hear that the Wii is finally getting streaming Netflix. Good news for me, because I refuse to pay $50 a year for a gold LIVE! account that I'd never otherwise use. Do they have a lot of stuff on instant viewing? I've never actually used it before.

Bronze Dog said...

Not quite as much as I'd like, personally, but that's something of an effect of their website's setup: Unless you want some of the mainest stream stuff, you probably need to know the title of what you're looking for.

One anime recommendation I really liked that succeeded on getting on their 'front page' so to speak: Gankutsuou: The Count of Monte Cristo.

Never read the original (which I'm sure never involved space travel, and a duel in 'full armor' didn't mean giant CGI mecha), but this one kept me sucked in, despite the unnecessary sci-fi additions.

Of course, it's hard to say no to giant mecha duels. I just wish they chose a style that didn't make the CGI so conspicuous against the series's standard Unmoving Plaid.

Tom Foss said...

I haven't used watch instantly on the XBox successfully yet; my connection tends to be kind of spotty--though I did get to have some online zombie-killing fun the other day.

I'm pretty sure Netflix also has Origins, Evolution, and some other good science stuff, now that I think about it.

Also, The Count of Monte Cristo was one of the best books I read in HS. It's Napoleonic French Batman. Highly recommended.

Bronze Dog said...

Napoleonic French Batman. Definitely sounds like a recipe for crazy awesome. Definitely have to pick up a copy, then.

Tom Foss said...

One word of caution: I read an abridged version, which is about half as long as the full book. That being said, it was so good that I went out and got an unabridged copy pretty well immediately; I've just never had the chance to go back to it.

Bronze Dog said...

I need to get back into the habit of reading novels. Seems like this one will make that easier when I pick up a copy.

Still have some Decemberween Discworld books I need to read, too. Decemberween 2008, that is.

Valhar2000 said...

The Count of Monte Cristo, like many other of Dumas' novels, is pretty long and meandering, but is remains quite interesting throughout, and it has some parts that qualify as crowning moments of awesome.

Don said...

I watched the first disc of Gankutsuo a few years back because, though I haven't read the novel, I really love the underrated Jim Caviezel film based on it. I couldn't get past the bizarre art design in Gankutsuo. The way the textures seemed to exist in a different physical space from the surfaces they were on was distracting, annoying, and made me borderline nauseous.

An anime worth watching if you haven't already: "Those Who Hunt Elves." It's hilarious, but you have to watch the subtitles on this one. A lot of the humor is lost in the dub

Tom Foss said...

My roommate watched "Those Who Hunt Elves," and we teased him endlessly for it based on the cover and plot synopsis.

The "Count of Monte Cristo" movie is terrible compared to the book. Like, more than most movie adaptations. I literally writhed in my seat when my English class went to see it.

Poor Guy Pearce was in that and "The Time Machine" that same year, both adaptations which had nearly nothing to do with the original works.

Don said...

Hey, "Those Who Hunt Elves" is funny as shit. And despite the premise, there isn't actually any hentai nudity or anything. There is a giant chicken that says "Namaste!" and serves curry, however.

And the reason you dislike the Guy Pearce "Count of Monte Cristo" is the precise reason I never saw the Guy Pearce "Time Machine." I have read that one, and that movie looked...Painful.