Friday Favorites: Watch These on Netflix Before They’re Gone

I actually had a different list planned for today but then realized after I recommended it last Friday that Monkey Twins had been on Netflix for long enough it might go away soon. So, that prompted me to get this list up.

These are the best things I watched on Netflix over the last year and change. So, I hope for all our sakes I’m giving you this list way too late in the pandemic for you to get all the way through it….

• Midnight Diner (and Midnight Diner: Tokyo Stories). Gentle, funny, touching short stories about life in Tokyo’s late-night working class. Plus fantastic izakaya (pub) food. I literally never finish watching an episode and don’t feel better about the world.
• Japanese Style Originator (Wafu Sohonke). Sadly, they took this off Netflix back in April, but I had to put it on this list because it got me through the pandemic. I always came away from watching feeling uplifted and amazed. From ingenious radish harvester machines to sumo-style tournaments for traditional desserts, every episode had something either jaw-dropping or heartwarming or both. The quiz-show format felt hokey at first, but it grew on me, and the interactions of the cast of panelists (RIP the great Chii Takeo) were genuinely charming. I haven’t been able to find episodes subtitled in English elsewhere, but for folks who speak Japanese, I’m sure you can find sources to watch back episodes online.
• Soul Eater. I think I watched this twice all the way through; it’s great to view around Halloween since that’s its vibe. Visually it’s stunning, and the story as it develops is deceptively smart about trauma and recovery. Occasionally it veered too far into exaggerated chibi humor for my tastes, but never for long enough to turn me off.
• Signal. I’ll do another list just of Korean dramas, but this was the best one I watched last year: it’s a police procedural with a supernatural angle, which is pretty standard Kdrama fare, but the acting of the three leads is what sets this one apart.
• It’s Okay To Not Be Okay. OK, one more Kdrama…. The gothic vibe on this show was just so original and amazing. It’s far more uneven than Signal in its plotting and writing, but the children’s books embedded in the story are worth the price of admission on their own. Not to mention Ko Munyoung’s fashion….
• Promised Neverland. Recommended to me by a student, and fully worth watching even if anime is not generally your thing. It’s dark, so be ready for that, but I wouldn’t call it depressing.
• Aggretsuko: It’s like they made this show just for me—based on the eponymous Sanrio character, Aggretsuko is up to 3 seasons now (plus a Christmas special) of 15-minute animated episodes that follow the life aspirations of a red panda who works in an accounting firm and is a pushover wallflower by day but takes out her aggressions with heavy-metal karaoke sessions at night. Her boss is a literal pig, she gets involved in a love triangle with a blue horse and a jackal, and she has two of the best wing-women ever—Gori the gorilla and Washimi the secretary bird.
• Seven Souls in the Skull Castle (Season Flower). This is really special: it’s modern kabuki done in a 360° theater, and it’s a play by Living National Treasure Nakashima Kazuki that’s done in a different style every seven years—kind of like a much shorter, much more fun version of Wagner’s Ring cycle. It tells a story from the tumultuous period following Oda Nobunaga’s death in the 16th century—with a cursed castle thrown in. Totally worth the four-hour investment. And if you like it, you can try the other “seasons” (versions) also uploaded on Netflix: Bird, Wind, Moon, and Goku.
• Lupin. An update and commentary on the classic French gentleman-thief character with the fantastic Omar Sy in the title role, legit suspense, and some eye-opening reflections on race, immigration, and prosperity in present-day France.
• Iron Fists and Kung-Fu Kicks. Required viewing for any fan of kung-fu movies. It uses interviews and rare footage to explain the history and legacy of kung-fu movies in the U.S.