THE LATEST FROM NETFLIX

Here are the top ten Netflix series this week (RT stands for Rotten Tomatoes):

• 10. The Queen's Gambit  (RT:  97/95):  Read my review.  I later finished this mini-series, and can recommend it.
• 9. Surviving Death
• 8. Gabby's Dollhouse
• 7. Jenni Rivera: Mariposa de Barrio
• 6. Cocomelon
• 5. L.A.'s Finest
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  4. Cobra Kai (RT: 93/92)  Read my review.  I began watching this series in August, and will someday go back.  It is now into season 3.
• 3.   Lupin (RT: 93/80--note, this is not Lupin III, an animatic film):  I am currently watching this production.  Very stylish and well done.  An immigrant from Senegal to Paris is framed for theft of an expensive necklace by his employer, a wealthy powerbroker.  Father commits suicide in prison and orphaned son when he grows up spends 10 episodes getting revenge.  If you like to imagine you're in Paris, you'll love this production.  
• 2. Bridgerton (RT: 90/84):   I don't like nor understand these British upper-class historical type programs.  From Shondaland and Creator Chris Van Dusen, Bridgerton follows Daphne Bridgerton, the eldest daughter of the powerful Bridgerton family as she makes her debut onto Regency London's competitive marriage market. 
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  1. Night Stalker, the Hunt for a Serial Killer (RT: 67/74):   Somewhat mediocre RT scores. Beneath the sunlit glamour of 1985 LA lurks a relentlessly evil serial killer. In this true-crime story, two detectives won't rest until they catch him.
• The morning paper yesterday actually had as #1 for Netflix:   Outside the Wire (RT:36/33):  Too lowly rated for my interest.  In the near future, a drone pilot sent into a war zone finds himself paired up with a top-secret android officer on a mission to stop a nuclear attack. 

Just appeared:   100% The Magicians: Season 5 (2019):  Seasons 1 (74), 2 (91), 3 (100) and 4 (93) are also available:  A group of twentysomethings studying magic in New York discover a real-life fantasy world that poses a great threat to humanity in this drama adapted from Lev Grossman's book series.

In a week (January 22):   88% The White Tiger (2020)

These films and series were added to Netflix this month (those numbers to the left are ratings from Rotten Tomatoes reviewers):

 - - Dream Home Makeover: Season 2 (2020)

 - - Headspace Guide To Meditation: Season 1 (2020)

 - - Monarca: Season 2 (2021)

 56% 17 Again (2009)

 45% 30 Minutes or Less (2011)

 36% Blue Streak (1999)

 88% Bonnie and Clyde (1967)

 40% Can't Hardly Wait (1998)

 96% Catch Me If You Can (2002)

 86% Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs (2009)

 100% Cool Hand Luke (1967)

 - - The Creative Brain (2019)

 91% The Departed (2006)

 94% Enter the Dragon (1973)

 29% Gimme Shelter (2014)

 95% Good Hair (2009)

 96% GoodFellas (1990)

 15% Gothika (2003)

 83% Into the Wild (2007)

 77% Julie & Julia (2009)

 97% Mud (2013)

 75% Mystic Pizza (1988)

 88% The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! (1988)

 81% Eddie Murphy Raw (1987)

 49% Sex and the City (2008)

 16% Sex and the City 2 (2010)

 69% Sherlock Holmes (2009)

 11% Striptease (1996)

 88% Superbad (2007)

 90% What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993)

Did you know that today is a national holiday?  This is Martin Luther King Day.  You are encouraged, however, not to take the day off.  Instead, this federal holiday is designated as a national day of service so that you can volunteer to improve your community in some way.  However, in 2018 only 54% of employers with unionized workers were paid to do this, 39% for nonunion workplaces.  Can't find any data for how many actually did help the community.  I bet it was really low.

I saw on page two of the Star-Advertiser this morning three more bits of information:

• One Night in Miami is streaming on Prime.  Rotten Tomatoes gave it a 98/84 rating:

On one incredible night in 1964, four icons of sports, music, and activism gathered to celebrate one of the biggest upsets in boxing history. When underdog Cassius Clay, soon to be called Muhammad Ali, (Eli Goree), defeats heavy weight champion Sonny Liston at the Miami Convention Hall, Clay memorialized the event with three of his friends: Malcolm X (Kingsley Ben-Adir), Sam Cooke (Leslie Odom Jr.) and Jim Brown (Aldis Hodge).

If you're a Prime member, and almost everyone is, the viewing is free.

• 
  Phil Spector passed away at the age of 81.  I just wrote about him in my 10 October 2020 posting.  The one particularly noteworthy tidbit is that he was one of the three singers in my favorite song #80:  To Know Him is to Love Him, by the Teddy Bears.  Did you know he was a Teddy Bear and wrote the song?  I also added:

Of course, there is that recent turmoil in Phil Spector's life, who in 2009 was convicted of second degree murder.  Here are Helen Mirren as his lawyer and Al Pacino as PF in the 2013 movie entitled Phil Spector (RT: 50/32), suggesting that, perhaps, there were extenuating circumstances.  

He is now 81 years old and will be eligible for parole in 2025.

• 
  Finally, Betty White is still alive...and well.  She just celebrated her 99th birthday.  Her birthday meal?  Hot Dog and French Fries.  She began acting in 1949 and was married to show host Allen Luden from 1963 until his death in 1981.

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