Netflix Instant Play Picks of the Moment: Parents (1989)

Thursday, January 5, 2012

Parents (1989)

I've decided to revive this site--and the strongest motivation is the return of this dark comedy. Parents satirizes an easy target--1950s-style suburbia--but does so with an old-school "sick humor" attitude that is reminiscent of not only the '50s but the kind of humor that decade inspired--pure E.C. comics/Mad magazine "humor in a jugular vein." I'm not entirely happy with the climax, but 90% of this movie is as creepy, funny, lurid, and at times downright nightmarish as one could wish--if one harbors such dark wishes.

Again, it's good to be back--although maybe I've should've chosen a less unsavory movie to kick off the new year. Oh, well: Enjoy Randy Quaid at his skinny-tie (and waistline!) best, along with Mary Beth Hurt as perky as Barbara Billingsley with a cleaver (heh-heh-heh)--and Sandy Dennis, who doesn't even have to try to fit right into this kind of material.

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T.V. Party

•Eerie, Indiana: A short-lived, early-'90s older kid show about a town situated somewhere between The Twilight Zone and The Addams Family.

•The IT Crowd (series 1): A British series that feels a little like Scrubs—if that show were set in the basement of a corporate headquarters, where an I.T. staff answers the phone with an automatic "Have you tried turning it off and on?" while dealing with Monty-Pythonesque catastrophes. And oh yeah: It's funnier than Scrubs, with the added comedy bonus of British accents.

•Thriller: Not as well-known as its contemporary, The Twilight Zone, this 1960-62 series began as "thrillers" and moved into territory more closely associated with the horror comics of the '50s than the cooly observed socio-psychological parables that Rod Serling favored. Still, as with Zone, top-notch writers pitched in: Robert (Psycho) Bloch, Cornell Woolrich, August Derleth, Charles Beaumont. And of course there's the usual early-'60s lineup of hey-look-who-it-is actors, including Mary Tyler Moore, Victor Buono, Warren Oates, John Carradine, and the ubiquitous William Shatner. Great music, too--plus, you get the King, Boris Karloff, as the host. (I'd suggest you mix these up with episodes of The Andy Griffith Show for a taste of both sides of the pre-counterculture '60s.)

•Spectacle: Elvis Costello With ... : If The Beatles were still together when John was killed, they could have asked Elvis Costello to join them. Just listen to any number of the songs on Imperial Bedroom—such as "Beyond Belief," as full of slippery rhythms and winking lyrics as any Abbey Road tune. Elvis knows—and loves—music, and his Sundance Channel series gives him a chance to straight-up interview, goof around with—and best of all—perform with some stellar guests, including Smokey Robinson, Rufus Wainwright, Elton John, Lou Reed, and Bill Clinton(?). Season two, not yet on Instant Play, includes Nick Lowe, Lyle Lovett, and Bruce Springsteen. But regardless of the guest, the real fun is watching—and listening to—the puckish Elvis enjoying himself immensely, happy to share the stage with the kind of musicians he loves—which is just about every kind. His enthusiasm is infectious in what may be TV's best music-talk show since—well, maybe the kind of things MTV and VH-1 used to do when they were about music, a decade or so ago.

About This Site

I've been a Netflix subscriber since 1999, and since then the opportunities for instant streaming have multiplied dramatically. But to narrow the playing field, I'm going to stick with titles that are Netflix-ready—although most of these certainly can be found elsewhere. The picks are recommendations, not "reviews"; my hope is that the titles are new to you—or ones that you've seen before and I can persuade you to revisit. In any case, I hope that, for the moment, these picks make you as happy as I am when something new or an old friend pops up on the Watch Instantly lineup.

Note: Netflix Instant Play Picks of the Moment is not affiliated with or endorsed by Netflix, which you should get right now, right HERE.

(And a special thanks to Roger Ebert, rest his soul, who Tweeted this site and added mightily to my Followers. You should also go get Ebert, right now, right HERE.)