Dear friends,
This is a first yearly recap for those of you who didn’t have the time to keep up with our suggestions earlier in the year, but have the time now, and for free subscribers who are now getting all our suggestions. This one is for Netflix.
It’s three movies and two shows, as suggested on either the Friday or Wednesday e-mails.
3 shows and 2 movies, all streaming on Netflix everywhere except System Crasher.
Best of 2020: Giri / Haji
On Netflix everywhere. 🍅 rating: 100%.
This is an excellent BBC/Netflix show about a Yakuza gang drama that takes place between Tokyo and London. About half of the dialogue is in Japanese and the other half is in English.
Yakuza families are no longer at peace when a boss’s nephew is assassinated in London. Trying to bring the culprit in without interference from the British police, a Tokyo detective is sent to the UK to try to find him.
Best of 2020: The Pharmacist
On Netflix everywhere. 🍅 rating: 89%.
It’s difficult to describe this miniseries as just one thing: it has elements of true crime, but it’s more than just a “Netflix true-crime show.” It’s also about a remarkably empathetic and likable family man who joins the fight against the opioid epidemic.
Dan Schneider, a small-town pharmacist, lost his teenage son to drug-related violence in New Orleans’ notorious Lower 9th Ward neighborhood. With corruption rampant in the city’s police department, he takes matters into his own hands and starts investigating his son’s murder.
Best of 2020: Cheer
On Netflix everywhere. 🍅 rating: 96%.
This is a groundbreaking docuseries about the world of competitive cheerleading. To anyone unfamiliar with that world, there is a lot to be shocked by here: both in the incredible things that the performers can do and in the multitude of risks they take.
The series follows the best team in the nation as they chase a new championship title. Many of the performers come from difficult backgrounds and had to deal with a variety of issues to get to where they are. In the beginning of the show, they also have to compete against each other to secure one of very few spots to compete in the championship.
Best of 2020: System Crasher
On Netflix U.S., Canada, Germany, and Argentina. 🍅 rating: 92%.
This is one of the craziest, most high energy movies you’ll ever watch. It’s about a 9-year-old who is considered a case the healthcare system calls a “system crasher”: someone who has exhausted every option child protective services has and still failed to get better.
This girl, called Benni, wants to get out of the system and go back to live with her mom, but her mother is scared of her. She is introduced to a new shelter with a social worker who tries a different approach in one last attempt to reform her.
Best of 2020: Uppity: The Willy T. Ribbs Story
On Netflix everywhere. 🍅 rating: no rating yet.
“They called me uppity. Uppity n*****. And I loved it”. That’s how this excellent documentary, about the first professional black racing driver Willy T. Ribbs, starts. It summarizes the strong personality of a champion who excelled in tracks that were filled with confederate flags.
The documentary explains the details of the difficulties that Ribbs went through in the 70s and 80s, but also the people who supported him and recognized his talent. It’s by no way a sad movie, on the contrary, even when Ribbs is talking about people spitting wherever he walks or about the death threats escalating, his determination is unharmed.
That’s it for today, I hope one of these is for you.
You’ll hear from me tomorrow with the full Friday newsletter: two new top picks of the week.
A small note: I’m not discussing the isolation on purpose, just because I feel like everyone else is (not because I’m not experiencing it or anxious myself). You might be tired of reading about how sinister the current time is, so I’m trying to make these letters have as little of that as possible. But if anyone wants to talk through their feelings or if you want updates from me, I read and respond to every reply or email.
With my best wishes to all of you,
Bilal
Three shows and two movies*, sorry.