The Watercooler for Netflix

New To Streaming

 Star Trek

Capt. James T. Kirk (William Shatner) and the crew of the starship USS Enterprise keep intergalactic danger at bay and delves deep into the exploration of space. Leonard Nimoy co-stars as Spock.

 Sports Night

Aaron Sorkin’s critically acclaimed series follows the offbeat cast and crew of a sports news show as they deal with professional and personal challenges in their pressure-cooker work environment.

 The Worst Week of My Life

Murphy’s Law is an ongoing theme in this quirky BBC comedy series that finds seemingly cursed couple Howard and Mel in the midst of premarital chaos — and, later on, in the throes of labor pains.

 Ip Man 2

Centering on Ip Man’s migration to Hong Kong in 1949 as he attempts to propagate his discipline of Wing Chun martial arts.

 Cinema Paradiso

A filmmaker recalls his childhood, when he fell in love with the movies at his village’s theater and formed a deep friendship with the theater’s projectionist.

Expiring Soon

 The Rocky Horror Picture Show

A newly engaged couple have a breakdown in an isolated area and must pay a call to the bizarre residence of Dr. Frank-N-Furter.

 Super Size Me

While examining the influence of the fast food industry, Morgan Spurlock personally explores the consequences on his health of a diet of solely McDonald’s food for one month.

 Lady Chatterley 

Joely Richardson is Lady Chatterley, who — at the urging of her paralyzed, impotent spouse (James Wilby) — finds a lover in the form of her husband’s handsome gamekeeper.

 X-Men 

Two mutants come to a private academy for their kind whose resident superhero team must oppose a terrorist organization with similar powers.

 Doc Martin

Crippled by a sudden fear of blood, flashy surgeon Dr. Martin Ellingham (Martin Clunes) abandons his bustling London practice and sets up shop as a country doctor in this British sitcom. 

… you might like:

 Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country

Kirk must face his prejudices when his sworn enemies the Klingons lurch perilously close to economic and environmental ruin. [Unfortunately classic Trek movies are expiring March 1st!]

 2001: A Space Odyssey

Mankind finds a mysterious artifact buried on the moon and, with intelligent computer HAL, sets off on a quest. Stanley Kubrick’s quiet masterpiece probes the mysteries of space and human destiny.

 Doctor Who: The Ribos Operation

The Doctor is given a new companion and sent on a mission to find the fragments of the Key to Time in this Douglas Adams (Hitchhiker’s Guide) penned season. [ED: A good intro to DWho.]

I didn’t realize it until I watched Star Trek: The Motion Picture, but I’ve fallen into the parody trap. I’m more familiar with Futurama’s riffing on Star Trek than I am with the original content.

In watching Star Trek: The Motion Picture, it was hard to get past the velour uniforms, chinsy special efects, clunky sexual innuendo, and Kirk’s massive ego on display (4 costume changes into different velour jumpsuits? Really Kirk?).

But once I did get past that, all I found was a boring movie. As someone only passingly familiar with Star Trek: The Original Series (DS9 is my Trek of choice) the movie was not only boring but also confusing!

Part of the problem is it’s not 1979 and I’m not a Star Trek: The Original Series trekkie. The movie opens with Spock on Vulcan for some reason (and acting even more distant than usual), Kirk is a former-captain-turned-admiral-now-wants-to-be-captain-again, the guy from 7th Heaven is the new captain-demoted-to-science-officer who has the hots for some celibate alien bald chick who’s soon taken over by a robot in heat. How’s that for a cast of characters easy to understand and empathize with?

I didn’t think I’d say this, but it made me pine for Star Trek circa 2009 which at least introduces you to the characters in a rather normal-yet-interesting way. Actually it was watching the Red Letter Media review of Star Trek (2009) that made me want to watch Star Trek: The Motion Picture in the first place. I like my sci-fi slow and boring too (more Babylon 5 speed), but TMP is the slowest boringist movie ever. I say this as someone who fell asleep repeatedly while watching it and woke up, rewound and found I’d missed nothing.

But I know it’s tough going from a TV show to a movie. Let me use an example I haven’t used thus far: Futurama!

As the yin and yang of sci-fi, it makes sense that the two movies would have opposite problems. Futurama’s first movie is 4 TV episodes worth of plot crammed into one movie, Star Trek tries to stretch out the plot of one TV episode into a 2 hour movie. Either way, they’re unwatchable as regular movies for regular people.

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The original film from the original Enterprise crew.  

Star Trek: The Motion Picture

1979 - PG - 136 minutes

This first Star Trek film reunites the U.S.S. Enterprise’s original crew from the 1960s television show. Capt. James T. Kirk (William Shatner) — now an admiral — and his former crew must save humanity from a giant alien ship steadily approaching Earth. There’s conflict on the ship as well as in the universe, as displaced Cmdr. Decker (Stephen Collins), the Enterprise’s new captain, becomes Kirk’s assistant. Leonard Nimoy and DeForest Kelley co-star.

What’d you think? Share your thoughts in the comments below or write a review, post a favorite quote, or submit a related video. 

The original film from the original Enterprise crew.  

Star Trek: The Motion Picture

1979 - PG - 136 minutes

This first Star Trek film reunites the U.S.S. Enterprise’s original crew from the 1960s television show. Capt. James T. Kirk (William Shatner) — now an admiral — and his former crew must save humanity from a giant alien ship steadily approaching Earth. There’s conflict on the ship as well as in the universe, as displaced Cmdr. Decker (Stephen Collins), the Enterprise’s new captain, becomes Kirk’s assistant. Leonard Nimoy and DeForest Kelley co-star.

Watch it this week, share your thoughts about it for next week.