Pandemic Catch-Up 2: Netflix Originals

In the past couple years, I've heard a pretty large helping of scorn directed towards Netflix Originals, and this has frequently perplexed me. Don't get me wrong, there's a respectable amount of low-quality content the Netflix has produced since they began creating Originals, yet in my opinion, Netflix Originals has some of the most compelling and unique television out today. While I spent three weeks in my home state of California, I managed to get my way through three shows which (bar one) were absolutely incredible and most likely have gone unnoticed by American audiences.

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Kingdom (Seasons 1&2)

The physical performances on display throughout Kingdom are really quite incredible, with the zombies and 'The Hunter' showing some amazing feats of acrobatics and athleticism. These guys can run like nobody's business!

A South Korean production, Kingdom managed to do something I haven't seen in a long time: it made zombies actually scary. These aren't slow or dull-witted creatures, instead being more like a literal tide of human bodies (all done practical by the way), twitchily sprinting and coming alive in unsettling contortions. On top of that source of threat, the setting adds another layer of threat, with the virtually unseen (at least in the US) setting of Medieval Korea removing the standard force multipliers that humans typically possess in these stories. Adding yet another layer of danger in the story is the political maneuvering throughout the (so far) two seasons, with a rogue prince trying to bring a conniving queen and her domineering father to justice. The cast is all really good, with each of the heroes having quite a range of emotions in their involvement and motivations, and what's even better is how comparatively small the truly essential cast is to other shows, and their actors each give their own. To put it in perspective, I only just started to match names in the final episodes of season two, but knowing their names is unnecessary, as their characterization is so distinct that they can be boiled down to titles, such as 'The Prince', 'The Physician', 'The Magistrate'(my personal favorite), and so on. Great pacing helps make the twelve episodes fly by, and the cinematography in this show is far better than it has any right to be. It is just magnificent, though a strong stomach is required (especially in season one).

As a final side note, Kingdom is based upon a graphic novel, Kingdom of the Gods.

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DARK (Season 3)

Perhaps the strangest thing about the mirrored world is not seeing Jonas in the signature yellow raincoat. Also bangs on everyone.

I was initially recommended this German show by Netflix's algorithms and coming out of Stranger Things season two, I was intrigued since it looked somewhat similar, and I'm really eating those words in this high-stakes final season of probably the most complicated tv show I have ever seen. Further developing the events of the first two seasons, season three further complicates things by adding an entire other dimension and introducing an entirely new protagonist/antagonist in the form of Martha from the second dimension. The first half of the season did stumble here and there, and to me it felt too complicated, which is probably a consequence of the multiple versions of different plot threads being present. However, the last half of the season ends extremely strong, wrapping every thread and leaving no questions unanswered, the very model of a final season. If you want a very cerebral, intricate, and well-written story, DARK is the among the best of the best in my opinion. Funnily enough, the show's final scene is practically identical to the epilogue of Game of Thrones season eight, except for the fact that the former satisfied while the latter frustrated.

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Black Spot (Season 1)

The mystery is quite compelling, but you have to sit through quite a bit of uninteresting and frustrating stuff to get any glimpses of that mystery unfortunately.

Fresh off of watching all three seasons of DARK with my mother, I decided to give Black Spot another swing after petering out with it due to the demands of school caused me to stop watching it last year. We managed to get to the end of season one before my flight back to Chicago, and I have to admit, it was a very frustrating show to watch. To summarize, Black Spot is a French procedural drama/thriller with druidic elements that takes place in the town of Villefranche. The procedural parts of the show are decently entertaining, and when the show goes for humor, it's most often quite hilarious. The mystery, while never given enough time (it really only shows up in flashbacks, vague statements, and the finale), is quite compelling, and druidic/pagan mythology as the source of strange occurrences isn't something you see everyday, discounting Norse mythology. However, so many things that the show does are frustrating because so often it's on the cusp of greatness, but it rarely takes that last quarter-step, instead doing standing leaps backward nine times out of ten. Ambiguity in mysteries is a good thing, but the story suffers when everyone is such a mysterious bastard that nearly every action comes out of nowhere. It's no doubt not the worst French show on Netflix, but I wouldn't recommend it highly. Not terrible, but memorably disappointing.

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As for which one is the best and most likely to be widely enjoyed, I would pick DARK in a heartbeat. Kingdom is certainly very compelling, but the grimy and intense violence/gore throughout the current two seasons is going to be a really hard sell for most people, overshadowing the other appealing qualities the show has.

I'll try to get the next one done faster, and speaking of the next one, I'll be doing some 40K, Halo, and an oldie. I'll also get the gallery of minis organized because quite frankly I've been dragging my feet on that.