Neverwhere on Wii Netflix Streaming
I watched the mid-90s BBC miniseries version of Neverwhere tonight. It's six episodes written by Neil Gaiman, one of our great writers. The story is about the under-world of London Below, and what happens when Richard Mayhew is dragged into it as a result of an act of kindness.
I had read the book first, so I knew how it went, but it was still good. Sure, you have to look past the cramped scenery, the dingy lighting, and the constantly panning camera so characteristic of the BBC, but you also have to give credit to the fine British tradition of surreal, fantastic (in both senses) television.
I got to watch this gem on my Nintendo! We received a disc for Wii that allows us to stream Netflix to our television. Alex is watching the complete run of Blue's Clues. As I might have mentioned, I caught up on Lost this way. There's 30 Days, Mythbusters, Monty Python...
The only bummer, and it is a major bummer, is the major missing feature: search. Onlline, Netflix streaming has search that will get you to any title available. On the Wii, it doesn't exist. The best workaround is to put stuff in your queue when online, then use the Wii to watch it. I suppose you could use Wii Internet (and this probably will basically work), but it feels pretty clunky.
3 comments:
I'm lovin' the Wii Netflix. By the way, I watched the entire series of "The Prisoner", based on one of your earlier blog postings. I think Stacy is still mad at me for wasting valuable queue space...Definitely the weirdest show I've ever seen.
How in heaven's name did you get a sane order to the episodes one disc at a time from Netflix? When I watched it on Comcast On Demand, I skipped around the whole time.
I know it's weird, and two of the episodes were kind of repetitive (the election one and the community/ostracism one), but I took it as a pretty deep show. I love it for being bold, daring, and weird. And for saying some interesting things about resistance and that one little inch they can't take away (like in V for Vendetta).
Did you ever see this interview? I saw it on Youtube but it was subject to a DMCA takedown recently. McGoohan explained some of the background and how you might interpret the show on a more allegorical level.
http://www.the-prisoner-6.freeserve.co.uk/troyer.htm
And of course, you understand the Mr X/The Island episode of The Simpsons to a depth you never could have imagined!
Actually, I started it on Netflix, and then switched to streaming on AMC's website. But in either case, I can't describe anything about as "sane".
Along with better understanding of the Mr X episode, I can also better enjoy Mole Man getting killed by Rover (the bubble thingy) in the Movementarian episode.
Currently, I am watching the entire X-File series. Been getting the DVDs, but will start streaming it now that it's available. Aside from Mulder and Sculley's incredibly huge cell phones from the early '90s, I've found that the show has aged well. It's also amazing to look back and see how much smuttier TV shows have become since the early 90s. X-Files was a (gasp) FOX show, but is pretty darn tame. And I like that.
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