Netflix Canada Discussion

[Table 5]

Originally Posted by Cecil Terwilliger

Suits is confusing me. Almost done S2. Mike and Harvey are clearly the good guys but Jessica is a piece of garbage and I don’t think they intended to make her the villain. I was happy when Daniel won the vote but I think he’s supposed to be the villain. Maybe I’m biased because I like Wags so much or maybe its bad writing. I can’t really tell. I definitely don’t think they’re supposed to be deep conflicted grey area characters.

It's an enjoyable show, but the reality is that pretty much everyone functions in a morally ambiguous area on that show.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by Table 5

It's an enjoyable show, but the reality is that pretty much everyone functions in a morally ambiguous area on that show.

Yeah, and you also really have to get used to saying/thinking: "Thats just not how the Law works."

[Machiavelli]

The clothes are incredible, half the reason why I watch

[calf]

The key to Suits is to drink everytime someone says goddamn. Finish your drink when someone yells at someone else.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by calf

The key to Suits is to drink everytime someone says goddamn. Finish your drink when someone yells at someone else.

How have you even watched or remembered any of Suits? You'd be absolutely blasted drunk within the first 15 minutes of every episode.

Thats like saying "drink every time they have to 'save the firm.'"

You'd never make it.

Or: "drink every time Louis does something stupid."

Or: "drink every time Harvey stares off into space over his Basketballs."

Its just....its bad and gets worse.

[red sky]

Originally Posted by calf

The key to Suits is to drink everytime someone says goddamn. Finish your drink when someone yells at someone else.

That's why the first F bomb caught me so off guard! I was like, "what happened to goddamn?"

[Yamer]

I'm only on the second episode of Ken Burns' Vietnam War but this has to be the best one he and Novick have done.

[ben voyonsdonc]

Originally Posted by Yamer

I'm only on the second episode of Ken Burns' Vietnam War but this has to be the best one he and Novick have done.

I’ve watched the vast majority and it is simply outstanding.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by Yamer

I'm only on the second episode of Ken Burns' Vietnam War but this has to be the best one he and Novick have done.

I'm re-watching it now that its on Netflix and while Ken Burns normally knocks his documentaries out of the park I found their Vietnam War documentary to be on another level of outstanding.

[Wormius]

I was really surprised how many of these conversations between the US presidents and various entities were recorded while they were discussing what a mess Vietnam was. Was that White House norm to record all conversations?

Nixon really should have been charged with treason in scuttling those talks between North and South Vietnam.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by Wormius

I was really surprised how many of these conversations between the US presidents and various entities were recorded while they were discussing what a mess Vietnam was. Was that White House norm to record all conversations?

Nixon really should have been charged with treason in scuttling those talks between North and South Vietnam.

I think the thing that really hits home was how much emphasis the Presidents put into staying in Vietnam despite knowing that it was an unwinnable fiasco just so 'they dont look bad.'

Its like they had no concept of history or hindsight, because in future they'd likely have been given a lot of credit for abandoning the War in Vietnam early once they knew it was unwinnable as opposed to being vilified as idiots who threw American lives at a problem that they created and that wasnt really a problem.

They ended up screwing the people they were trying to help and killing a bunch of their own citizens and just people who happened to be in the way because they just lived there.

Especially since we now know that if you want Communism to fail all you have to do is give it time.

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by Wormius

I was really surprised how many of these conversations between the US presidents and various entities were recorded while they were discussing what a mess Vietnam was. Was that White House norm to record all conversations?

Nixon really should have been charged with treason in scuttling those talks between North and South Vietnam.

Pretty much all white house conversations are recorded, most world leaders record all conversations.

[Matata]

Tampering my review for Glow season 2 now that I've finished, last few episodes were pretty bad and was more about family drama than a crazy wrestling show. Seems like they ran out of ideas and now I worry about the 3rd season.

[CliffFletcher]

Originally Posted by Wormius

I was really surprised how many of these conversations between the US presidents and various entities were recorded while they were discussing what a mess Vietnam was. Was that White House norm to record all conversations?

I think Kennedy started recording all his calls, and the rest followed suit. It was seen as a way for the president to protect himself from people who said one thing to the president in private and then denied it later when a policy went south (ie. the Bay of Pigs).

Of course Nixon showed that recording your conversations is a two-edged sword, and the practice was abandoned.

Originally Posted by Wormius

Nixon really should have been charged with treason in scuttling those talks between North and South Vietnam.

Yep. That's gotta rank as the worst thing a sitting U.S. president has ever done. Which shows that no matter what people think, there's no way Trump will ever be indicted, even once he's out of office. If the American establishment wouldn't disgrace the institution by bringing Nixon to justice over treason that resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths, it's not to going to do anything to Trump either.

Originally Posted by Locke

I think the thing that really hits home was how much emphasis the Presidents put into staying in Vietnam despite knowing that it was an unwinnable fiasco just so 'they dont look bad.'

It wasn't really a personal ego thing. They were concerned with not making the U.S. look weak. They genuinely believed if the U.S. didn't back it's allies in South Vietnam, then other allies in Thailand, the Phillipines, Indonesia, etc. would all regard American protection as toothless and roll over to the communists. And they had recent memory of fighting communists to a standstill in Korea and reaching a permanent settlement.

And I don't think we can pin it on the presidents and their political calculations. The best and brightest across several administrations - diplomats, cabinet members, generals, the architects of America's postwar system - backed American policy in Vietnam almost to a man. I honestly doubt replacing those presidents with alternatives would have made any difference. Vietnam was a systemic failure born of hubris and cold war anxiety in the American political and military establishment.

[CliffFletcher]

Originally Posted by Locke

I'm re-watching it now that its on Netflix and while Ken Burns normally knocks his documentaries out of the park I found their Vietnam War documentary to be on another level of outstanding.

Of the ones I've seen, I'd rate it above Jazz, Prohibition, and The War, and below the Civil War.

Compared to his other series, Burns had a bonanza of footage to work with for Vietnam, so it certainly looks fantastic. The military campaigns are well explained. And the interviews with Vietnamese of all sides is welcome. I'd rate it about equal to Vietnam: A Television History.

For me, it loses marks for inflating the influence of the anti-war movement and the counter-culture. Yes, 62 per cent of Americans disapproved of Johnson's conduct of war, but half of them disapproved because they didn't think he was fighting the war vigorously enough. They wanted more firepower, more bombing, invasions of Laos and Cambodia. You don't get a sense of that from this documentary. Even the music choices reflect the Hollywood counter-culture depiction of the war. Most soldiers were hicks, or kids listening to Motown, not hippies who were into Jefferson Airplane and Hendrix.

[Wormius]

This wasn't on Netflix, but I was curious more about the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in DC and watched "A Strong Clear Vision" on Youtube about Maya Lin, the designer. It was an interesting study on how something could be potentially ruined if you give the general public too much input. Also a bit funny on the times, but Ross Perot called the architect an "egg roll" because was was Asian. I also wonder how many opposed to the design changed their opinions over time.

[CaptainCrunch]

I would agree that the Vietnam War documentary is truly amazing. But I really love the Civil War documentary.

[Yamer]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

I would agree that the Vietnam War documentary is truly amazing. But I really love the Civil War documentary.

That was my benchmark. I really enjoyed how they told the stories of the Civil War, interspersing personal letters from soldiers, brothers, generals, and leaders. It put me in the head space to understand it from a perspective I couldn't previously appreciate.

The Vietnam War doc is accomplishing the same thing, in a different way. It gives you that comprehensive understanding of the total environment from all sides. And like the Civil War doc it is incredibly in-depth.

Despite having an overwhelming advantage of visual resources like video, primary source interviews, and vivid pictures they still found a way to provide a rich, underlying story.

Soundtrack ain't so bad, too.

[d_phaneuf]

How long does suits take to get into

Most shows usually take a few episodes and im hooked , suits i am on 3 and its not unenjoyable but nothing to really grab me yet, right now gonna give it season 1 and hope something hooks me in between now and then

[DiracSpike]

I've been borderline addicted to this Vietnam series, it's really amazing and I knew virtually nothing about that war before watching the series.

It raises to me an interesting question of what makes a war worth fighting. Vietnam has the reputation of a pointless war fought for the wrong reasons, and you can certainly make a compelling argument in favor of that view. However I've been wondering recently what the difference was between Vietnam and Korea, besides the end result. It seems that both wars were fought to stop Communist expansion, and the results in Korea are pretty staggering. One side of the country is a gulag, the other a modern first world liberal country with a great quality of life. Anyone who fought in Korea can look at that as their legacy, going on 7 decades now of such a contrast between nations when the entire pensinsula could have been a communist hell hole instead of just half. I guess they're slightly different in that the Chinese were directly involved in Korea, and there were more colonialist overtones with the Vietnam conflict, but both wars seem to be pretty close mirror images of each other.