Review: "Ozark" Comes to an End with Season Four

By Christopher James

Will Marty and Wendy Byrd's actions finally catch up with them in?I didn’t think Ozark would be my latest binge. The Netflix crime drama was well lauded by the Emmys, winning 3 awards from 32 nominations over its past 4 seasons. In many ways, it seemed like the saturation point for “prestige TV,” an ultra-serious thriller with movie stars brooding in barely lit rooms. From the episodes I watched for Emmy coverage, it seemed like my suspicions were confirmed. However, when doing a fresh binge, the show’s personality and verve shone through the murky cinematography. The pilot sums up the central conflict the best, Ozark is about the clash of two worlds: the upper class city finance family and the brash locals they undermine at their own risk.

It all comes to an end with the final seven episodes of season four, which just dropped on Netflix. As the poster claims, the end revolves around one question: can the Byrds officially go clean?

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"Heartstopper" and a world without Olivia Colman

by Cláudio Alves

Adapted from Alice Oseman's webcomic and graphic novel, Heartstopper is Netflix's latest hit. The story of two teen boys falling in love, this queer teen romance is an overdose of sweetness packed into eight swift episodes. There's not much conflict beyond the usual fare for this type of narrative, though a good dose of angst keeps the sentimental dessert from tipping into schmaltz. All in all, I can't call myself a fan even though I recognize how such a production would have rocked my world as a gay teen growing up. It's cute, endearing, and terminally chaste, the kind of diversion that feels bound to delight its target audience.

That's not why I felt compelled to binge it, however. So, following that train of thought, let's talk about Olivia Colman and the Oscar-y conjectures Heartstopper accidentally puts forward…

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Doc Corner: 'The Andy Warhol Diaries' on Netflix

By Glenn Dunks

There have been a lot of films, series and books about Andy Warhol and the company he kept. Documentaries alone, I could definitely list off a dozen titles by heart from prestige to the trash. And there's no reason for that to stop now. After all, Warhol’s factory of superstars and the art they produced will no doubt continue to inspire other creatives for as long as there is art. The Andy Warhol Diaries on Netflix will certainly not be the last. Although it may just go down as at least one of the more definitive of the bunch—as well as the slickest...

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Netflix triumphs all over the place at the 49th Annie Awards

by Nathaniel R

The 49th annual Annie Awards honoring animation in features, shorts, and television were held last night. While Raya and the Last Dragon led the nominations it went home empty-handed. The night's Best Animated Feature winner was Netflix and Sony's The Mitchells vs The Machines which took home 8 Annies in total. The Annie winner doesn't always line up with Oscar but it might. Disney's Encanto, which many pundits including us are predicting for the Oscar win, only won three prizes: Music, Character Animation, and Storyboarding. On the television side of the prizes, Netflix's Arcane was totally dominant winning an amazing nine trophies, a clean sweep of its nominations. Full list of winners is after the jump...

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Oscar Volley: Sobbing and Fuming at the "Best Animated Feature" nominees

Team Experience will be covering the various Oscar categories in the lead up to Oscar night. Here's Tim Brayton, Cláudio Alves, and Nathaniel R...

TIM BRAYTON: Hello Nathaniel and Cláudio! I'm thrilled to have the chance to discuss this year's slate of nominees for Best Animated Feature at the Oscars with you - animation is, I think it's fair to say, the most important form of filmmaking to me, and it's always fun to share it. Whether these exact five films represent animation at its peak, well, we'll just have to get into that as we go.

A quick recap for all of us and those of you reading, here are the five nominees: Encanto, a CGI feature produced by Walt Disney Animation; Raya and the Last Dragon, a CGI feature produced by Walt Disney Animation; Luca, a CGI feature produced by Pixar Animation Studios and distributed by their corporate owners, the Walt Disney Company; The Mitchells vs the Machines, a CGI feature produced by Sony Animation, who sold it off to Netflix. And then literally on the other side of the world, Flee, a Danish documentary about politics and identity, largely consisting of interviews that were animated in a cartoony 2D style by Sun Creature Studio. So my point, obviously, is that this isn't exactly the most stylistically or industrially diverse set of nominees this category has ever produced...

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