The Midland bubble begins to close as the last remaining students going on spring break saunter onto their planes heading for Punta Cana, Florida, Hawaii, and most likely anyplace warmer than here. Being stuck in Midland during spring break is not ideal for things to do in the springtime. Netflix is always an option, especially with Michigan weather, and it looks as though things are looking up for an average ‘binger’. According to anonymous sources in a CNBC interview, Fox shows are now only exclusively going to be available on Hulu, and Disney is planning on cutting ties with Netflix. However, since it already happened with multiple other networks, it’s likely that Netflix will make deals for specific Fox shows and Disney movies/shows to be available. This drastic change is leading to Netflix to create a lot more original movies and television shows in order to consolidate this loss. Here are some of our favorite Netflix original movies and television shows to be accessible to watch at home in Midland, on a plane, or on a beach somewhere warm over spring break.
Baus’s Pick: Black Mirror
Unique is one word that comes to my mind when watching the Netflix Original show Black Mirror. From being stuck in a video game, to being watched through one’s own eyes, to being hunted as punishment, the British television show is not only one of a kind, but suspenseful and darkly twisted.
The series left me with nightmares and had me squirming while I watched. Each episode to me, being independent of the last, is an intriguing look into the possibilities of the future. Even though the setting of each episode varies from all corners of the earth, the message of the show is all but the same: we are in for a nightmarish future.
Ratings: Binge Worthiness: 4/5, Humor: 1/5, Pee your pants scary: 3/5, Tearjerker: 2/5, Overall ranking: 4/5
Baus’s Pick: Between
Stuck inside a quarantine after a virus takes the lives of everyone in the town over the age of 22, the members left in Pretty Lake have to work together to answer questions and figure out how to live without any outside help.
Not only did Between leave me stunned, but it also left me with a gut-wrenching knot in my stomach while watching each part of the show. The science fiction drama is not just a typical infectious virus plot, but over time it thickens and shifts into surprising twists and turns. From characters turning on each other to unfortunate events, the suspense I experienced was legitimate within every episode.
Ratings: Binge Worthiness: 3/5, Humor: 1/5, Pee your pants scary: 2/5, Tearjerker: 4/5, Overall ranking: 3/5
Baus’s Pick: Santa Clarita Diet
In the TV show Santa Clarita Diet, a woman undergoes a traumatic change from a realtor, mother, and wife to a flesh-eating zombie. The storyline of the Netflix original is not what one might expect. This horror comedy features actors and actresses like Nathan Fillion from Castle and Drew Barrymore, which of course made it 10 times better.
Before watching this show, I never thought that horror and comedy mixed well together. However, at certain times I felt like some of the things that happened were a little too crazy and exaggerated. I loved the characters and seeing them change over the course of the show was very amusing. Even though this scary show isn’t all that scary, it might still give you nightmares based on the corny but funny events and the really messed up parts of the series.
Ratings: Binge Worthiness: 3/5, Humor: 4/5, Pee your pants scary: 2/5, Tearjerker: 1/5, Overall ranking: 3/5
Baus’s Pick: You Get Me
You Get Me is just one of the many twisted romance tales. When a new girl joins the school the main characters go to, things take a crazy turn when she turns out to be a complete psychopath.
Keeping me on edge the whole time, this movie turned out to really exceed my expectations. I’ll admit that some parts I feel were way over the top and shouldn’t have even happened, but for the most part, the movie was really good. If viewer’s don’t already have trust issues with this generation, this show will completely question it.
Ratings: Binge Worthiness: 4/5, Humor: 1/5, Pee your pants scary: 4/5, Tearjerker: 3/5, Overall ranking: 3/5
Baus’s Pick: What Happened to Monday
What Happened to Monday takes place in the future where it’s illegal to have more than one child. In the movie, septuplet women share the life of one character they each play in the real world on their one day of the week.
This movie was very interesting overall, but with a large number of main characters, it was sometimes confusing. As the story continued, things started to get twisted and a bit scary. There were so many messed up events in the movie that it almost made my head explode. And don’t even get me started about the ending. Overall, the movie was one of the strangest yet intriguing movies I have ever watched.
Ratings: Binge Worthiness: 4/5, Humor: 1/5, Pee your pants scary: 3/5, Tearjerker: 3/5, Overall ranking: 3/5
Nitschky’s Pick: When We First Met
When We First Met is a romantic comedy. It begins in a college campus town where a guy named Noah finds himself at the love of his life’s engagement party to a pretty dang attractive dude. He eventually ends up at a bar in a photobooth praying that he could just go back and meet her again for the first time. Well, turns out the photobooth is actually a time machine, and it sends him back to this specific night. It seems like a dream come true, however, every time he changes something in the timeline, he wakes up four years later to see where it made him end up. He then has to go back and find the photobooth to be able to go back again and change the night he met the love of his life, several times.
This movie is hilarious. I really liked the aspect of it that once he made a decision in the past, he would simply wake up four years later and everything had changed. Noah, the lead character is played by Adam DeVine and he is honestly hilarious.
Ratings: Binge Worthiness: 4/5, Humor: 4/5, Pee your pants scary: 1/5, Tearjerker: 2/5, Overall ranking: 4/5
Nitschky’s Pick: Bright
Bright is set in an alternative present day when there are supernatural creatures that have coexisted with humans since the beginning of time. Creatures like fairies, elves, and orcs all live with the humans. Will Smith acts as a police officer who is partners with an orc on duty. They both have really personal issues with each other but end up having to work together to protect a young elf who carries a certain relic that could destroy the world.
Any movie with Will Smith in it is obviously going to be very good. I really liked this movie, but there was definitely a lot of criticism about it. Overall, it has a very good plotline that is funny yet action filled. However, I do not like when a whole movie is in the span of around a couple days. I guess I need more development and I feel like it isn’t actually over.
Ratings: Binge Worthiness: 3/5, Humor: 3/5, Pee your pants scary: 3/5, Tearjerker: 2/5, Overall ranking: 3/5
Nitschky’s Pick: Travelers
Travelers is a more underappreciated Netflix original. It is set hundreds of years from now, where the current surviving humans attempt to save the 21st century by going back in time and taking over people’s consciousness to prevent mass destruction.
I finished two seasons of this show in a week and a half. It was sometimes very confusing, and at first, I really didn’t understand what was going on. Yet, this was the most interesting part of this show. When the current 21st-century ‘travelers’ change something that affects the future, it changes their own timeline. Yeah, it is kind of hard to wrap your brain around. With one episode set during the plane crash into the Twin Towers, the show will send chills down anyone’s spine.
Ratings: Binge Worthiness: 5/5, Humor: 3/5, Pee your pants scary: 3/5, Tearjerker: 2/5, Overall ranking: 5/5
Nitschky’s Pick: Stranger Things
Stranger Things, a very well known Netflix Original, is set in the small town of Hawkins when a young boy goes missing for very mysterious reasons. With dark government agencies to supernatural forces, Stranger Things pulls at the edges of your brain.
Stranger Things is one of the best shows on Netflix for any person. Not only does Stranger Things appeal to girls with a strong female lead, it also appeals to boys with the multitude of hilarious boy leads. Even older people feel connected to the 80s set original drama; my mom finished both seasons in two days and didn’t even realize it. The only thing bad about Stranger Things is that it takes a full year for them to produce a new season. With the past two seasons being released on Halloween, it takes about three days to continually binge through the season and now you have another 362 days to wait for the next eight episodes, which is pretty much just human torture.
Ratings: Binge Worthiness: 5/5, Humor: 4/5, Pee your pants scary: 4/5, Tearjerker: 3/5, Overall ranking: 5/5
Nitschky’s Pick: The OA
The OA is the best Netflix Original that almost no one I know has even heard of yet except me. After seven years, a blind abducted young girl comes back to her hometown with some pretty crazy stories, the main one being she has regained her sight. However, she will only share these stories with a select few of random people from around the town, which ends up resulting in connections between a unique set of people in an amazing mystery drama.
I really like shows that are mysterious dramas, but also incorporate humor. This show has a lot of small quirks that make it funny while keeping the mysterious nature. My favorite character who made me laugh was Betty Broderick-Allen, who actually plays Pam in the Office. This show is a very binge-worthy one that connects to anyone who chooses to watch it.
Ratings: Binge Worthiness: 4/5, Humor: 4/5, Pee your pants scary: 4/5, Tearjerker: 2/5, Overall ranking: 4/5
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