If you’ve already watched the Best 25 Best Shows on Netflix, powered through the Next 25 Best TV Shows on Netflix, and got caught up on this week’s best new movies on Netflix, we now have even more Netflix options for you. Here’s all the recently released seasons of television on Netflix, plus upcoming expirations and Netflix TV news.
Pick of the Week, Hemlock Grove, Season 2 — There’s only one new release in TV this weekend, and it’s the second season of Netflix’s own original series, Hemlock Grove, which is the demented, overlooked step-child in the Netflix stable. The first season of the werewolf/horror/mystery thriller did not receive favorable reviews at all, but enough viewers clearly turned out to warrant a second season. It’s still too early to find much in the way of reviews for this season (there were no advanced screeners, and it only went up this morning), but a UK critic, Ross Jones, saw the first episode, and wasn’t impressed:
The first episode of the inexplicable second season was, if anything, even duller. Our heroes, rich vampire Roman (Bill Skarsgård) and poor werewolf Peter (Landon Liboiron), were moping around and avoiding each other because Peter left town after his true love’s death. She was Roman’s cousin, impregnated by him in vampire form; the baby is now locked in a soundproofed room in Roman’s modernist house. The house is a welcome addition to the cast.
Meanwhile, a Reddit user who must have liked the first season enough to quickly watch the first three episodes of the second season, quickly posted his thoughts:
I’m super disappointed. For a lot of reasons. Most of the characters all feel hollow and shallow this time around. There’s no depth or emotion, and the writing is just god awful. There’s no real tension. The plot feels lackluster and they’re giving me no reason to care about anything that happens.
So, not exactly a ringing endorsement for season two.
Netflix News of Note — In the latest PR battle between Netflix and ISPs, Verizon is now attempting to shift blame on buffering problems with its customers to Netflix by essentially arguing that Netflix didn’t make arrangements with Verizon to accommodate the huge surge of traffic that Netflix sends. That’s an interesting tactic, which tries to run an end-around past net neutrality issues. The argument is essentially, “Yeah. There’s a lot of buffering during peak times for Verizon costumers, but that’s not Verizon’s fault! It’s Netflix’s fault for sending too much traffic through Verizon’s Internet pipeline!”
Of course, Verizon could upgrade the pipeline to accommodate Netflix’s traffic, but they are arguing that Netflix should have to pay for such an upgrade. It’ll be interesting to see how it plays out.
Expiring Soon — Nothing of note in the TV world, although if you’ve been putting off Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai, you’d better get on it NOW. It expires on Monday the 14th.
