3 Exceedingly Extraordinary Netflix Exclusives to Stream

My name is Vicky and I heart Netflix. I REALLY heart Netflix. (Although, confession: I'd heart it even more if Netflix got the rights to The Mindy Project because that show was both hilarious and my guilty pleasure. Although, Mindy's failing love life and her disastrous relationship with that d-bag doctor Danny put a damper on the show, and could've been cut from ohhh THREE SEASONS.) Ahem....annyyywaaaays, Netflix, love it. Just as I love these exclusives.

These are three, in my oh so humble opinion MUST SEE shows-- so hop on the couch, fire up your laptop, or plunk down somewhere cozy with your tablet, and get ready to be mind-blown! (Sorry cable. You're pretty spiffy too, I promise!) 

Alias Grace

Hulu snatched up Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale but Netflix called dibs on this novel which features a young Irish servant accused of murdering her gentleman employer. While in some respects this is historical fiction, it’s based on the true life story of Grace Marks. This 6 episode series gives us a glimpse into the life of a young woman who is continually put down by patriarchal and class forces. Blue-eyed, soft-spoken Grace (Sarah Gadon) with her delicate beauty hardly looks the part of a cold-blooded killer.

Alias Grace begins when Dr. Simon Jordan (Edward Holcroft) part of the nascent, psychology and psychiatry fields is summoned by a committee to decide if Grace ought to be pardoned for the deaths-- to discover if she’s truly the alleged killer the papers and magazines and rumors declare her to be. Imprisoned after a stint in an “insane” asylum Grace is “rented out” to the governor's mansion where her rumored status as a “murderess” makes her a kind of curiosity for the governor’s wife, daughter, and upper class callers to ogle at. Alias Grace splits itself between flashbacks and current day events in 19th century Canada-- as Grace answers Dr. Jordan’s many questions and recounts what her life was like ever since her first arrival as a young teen girl with her father and many siblings by ship.

As the story unfurls and the narrative is slowly stitched together we start to see the soul and heart inside of Grace and begin to question if she truly is an unreliable narrator-- manipulative and harsh, or truly innocent. The pacing of Alias Grace never drags, the characters are fully fleshed out, and the historically accurate costumes, housing and other settings make this visually a success. The cinematography is beautiful and deliberate, but not without a sense of darkness...and disturbing turns of event.

Atypical

If you dig The Good Doctor on ABC but aren’t craving graphic surgery scenes, heavy doses of drama or medical jargon, this is the show you are looking for! With it’s high school setting and quirky, geeky protagonist is like a fuzzier version of The Perks of Being a Wallflower -- there are no teen suicides or drug use here. Much like Shaun Murphy (Freddie Highmore) Sam Gardner (Keir Gilchrist)  also has autism. Unlike his neurotypical sister Casey (Brigette Lundy-Paine) and EMT father Doug (Michael Rapaport) Sam is a socially awkward boy trying to navigate dating and breaking away from his mother’s (Jennifer Jason Leigh) smothering hold on him.

Each of the episodes begins almost “diary” style with Sam matter-of-fact telling his therapist Julia (Amy Okuda) what goes through his head-- Antarctica and penguins specifically, but also with Julia’s encouragement to put himself out there more, girls! This new desire of his is tricky to work into place, like trying to jam the wrong sized piece into the jigsaw puzzle that makes up finely controlled and ordered life. But this isn’t all light and laughter-- there are such topics as infidelity and the lack of understanding between those who don’t have autism --again, that word neurotypicals-- and those who don’t.

This doesn’t poke fun at autism but instead is a very realistic view of it. Showing us what it truly means to not be able to understand sarcasm, or to have difficulty processing abstract things like feelings. For so long “autism” was just a word. Often one with negative connotation. Television like this offers up a perspective that is more positive and more complex, layered! It’s like one of those magic cookie bars-- not just shortbread, but also coconut, chopped nuts and chocolate chips, and piled together in a dish and baked until it gets all warm and gooey in the oven. One of the most standout moments is the relationship between Sam and his dad-- a man who still struggles with how exactly to relate to his son, and “coming out” to friends and colleagues that he has a son with autism.

Jessica Jones

If the CW superhero programs Arrow, The Flash and Supergirl are a little to treacly-- too comic book candy with convoluted plots and hokey dialogue the Marvel cinematic universe on Netflix is quite the opposite. Jessica Jones arrived in 2015-- and going on 2 years since it’s release it still one of the must-see superhero flicks. Unlike the haloed do-gooders or smoldering, damaged bad boys (and girls) , Jessica (Krysten Ritter) is in a league all her own. This private investigator has been through hell and back, living it rough in --wait for it-- the Hell’s Kitchen region of New York, and trying to live some semblance of a normal life. She’s not an anti-hero, but she’s not a hero-hero either. Jessica Jones shows us a shades-of-gray world, one that feels closest to what we live in and go through a day to day basis.  

Racism, sexism, the splits between wealthy and impoverished-- Jessica Jones is very self-aware.The trailers depicted this show as cynical and dark and edgy. It’s the two latter, not so much the former, and Jessica is a refreshing leading woman. She’s not sexualized or made to seem cute. Nor is she what some phenomenons call the FFT or “Fighting F*ck Toy” -- women who are presented to us scantily clad but incredibly strong and ill-tempered. Jessica isn’t necessarily lovable-- she does have a chip on her shoulder and a laundry list of traumas and insecurities she needs to work through-- but she’s a take-action kind of gal, and her bravery and resourcefulness makes her a constant thrill to watch on screen. The character interactions are mesmerizing and outstanding. Jessica’s complicated relationship with her former abuser/brain washer Kilgrave (David Tennant, oozing charm with just a wink of malice) at the forefront, as well as reconnecting with her best friend Trish Walker (Rachael Taylor) and constantly ducking and weaving around the manipulative clutches of lawyer Jeri Hogarth (Carrie Anne Moss). The plot is one of the most well crafted and thought-out in both the MCU and DCU, that combined with film noir aesthetics, and high caliber acting and a thrilling pace, makes Jessica Jones an irresistible hit.