It’s gory, with mindless cartoon violence, but it is also full of surprises, great drama, and the pleasures of the unexpected. My wife and I binged the entire first season in 5 days. It’s that good. I am speaking of the Korean thriller/drama/horror series, Squid Game, on Netflix. (You have the option of dubbed or subtitled. We went with dubbed.) — KK

The Diamond is a gem of a short 16-minute documentary. Utterly brilliant. People come to shift though the dirt in crater looking for rough diamonds, but what are they really hunting for? Bigger things. — KK

When I am wondering what’s new and good to watch on the streaming services, I go to the Variety magazine’s “what to watch” page, which is updated weekly. They cover new and recommended shows on the major streaming platforms. I can usually find one new one that interests me. — KK

Jeremy Clarkson is a larger-than-life British TV celebrity. He writes bombastic newspaper columns, hosts game shows, and for decades has been the star of automobile stunt shows such as Top Gear and Grand Auto. Recently he retired to his 1,000-acre farm in England, which he is trying to farm himself. Naturally, he’s made a reality-tv show about it. Clarkson’s Farm streams on Amazon, and despite being a scripted reality-tv show, I have been bingeing the 8-part first season because it offers a deep and detailed examination of what modern farming is all about. Hint: there are a lot of machines and gear involved. Clarkson’s Farm is entertaining because it is all about showing off how ignorant Clarkson is, how he keeps screwing up, losing money, getting in his own way, having to learn from locals much more experienced, and how complex modern farming life is. The show is good. — KK

Short videos are an emerging art form. With the advent of phone cameras and free editing software they are within reach of almost any maker. One of my favorite seats to see the best art video shorts is to go to the Vimeo Staff Picks. They go through an ocean of new creations and curate the best video shorts. — KK

My Boing Boing friend David Pescovitz wrote about this incredible video of Smac McCreanor’s interpretive dances running side-by-side with videos of hydraulic presses squishing things like books, mugs, fruit, cookies, and kitchen tools. Brilliant. — MF

To find a list of all the Netflix titles in a specific genre, zero in on a movie genre using the codes listed here. Add the code to this URL: https://www.netflix.com/browse/genre/CODE. For example https://www.netflix.com/browse/genre/10398 shows you Netflix’s Japanese movies, and https://www.netflix.com/browse/genre/7687 shows you film noir titles. — MF

I just finished enjoying 21 hours of a Korean drama on Netflix called Start-Up. It’s a heart-tugging, tear-jerking, melodramatic soap opera about ransomware attacks and self-driving car code! Super well-done, with world-class craft. And it has an absolutely terrific K-Pop soundtrack. It’s sweet, sappy, but not too predictable, and a great view into today’s Korea. — KK

Science documentaries are hard to make right. They are either too boring, or too superficial. This new science documentary is just perfect: The Edge of All We Know is the astounding story of trying to take a picture of a black hole, which is inherently unseeable. The doc takes the most abstract subject possible and makes it thrilling by following groups competing to create the best image and then negotiating to merge all their results together into one picture. Along the way you get a pretty good idea of what we think black holes are. It streams on Netflix. — KK

Food is a revealing lens. I really enjoyed discovering what influences African-American food had on the US in the excellent 4-part Netflix series High on the Hog. Subtitled “How African American Cuisine Transformed America,” it tracks foods from West Africa on their way to the early White House, and into the middle of America. It’s a big, sophisticated story I was ignorant of and another nuanced way to see the power and extent of African-American culture in a form everyone can connect with: food. Perfect watching for Juneteenth! — KK

Pundits are calling China’s new diplomacy “wolf warrior” mode. This is in reference to a pair of patriotic films that were the highest grossing Chinese films of all time. If you want to get a sense of China’s new sense of pride and view of itself, watch Wolf Warrior 2. This is a super slick action film (subtitled), with Rambo, James Bond, and the Avengers all rolled into one, and the Americans are the evil bad guys. — KK

Another Round is a Danish film about four childhood friends who find themselves dissatisfied and uninspired in the middle of their lives. In an attempt to stir something up and unleash their true potential they decide to test out Norwegian psychiatrist Finn Skårderud’s hypothesis that we’re all born with blood alcohol level that is too low, and that to maintain a .05% BAC would make each of them a more relaxed, creative, and open-minded human being. This movie is thought-provoking and fun to watch and despite the disaster that ensues, incredibly uplifting. Also, if like me, you have a healthy obsession with Mads Mikkelsen from Hannibal, you might know that he is a trained gymnast and professional dancer, and in that case, you will not be disappointed. It’s streaming on Hulu now. — CD

One text has outsized influence on the US, and indirectly, on the world: The US Constitution. It is a nuanced article that benefits from scrutiny. I greatly enjoyed the Amazon special based on a Broadway show that documents Heidi Schreck’s deep and innovative exploration of this key document. What the Constitution Means to Me is entertaining, funny, sobering, dramatic, educational, clarifying, and enlightening. What more could you ask for from an hour and 44 minutes? — KK

If you’re in the mood for a documentary but aren’t sure what to watch, bookmark this list of Esquire’s best documentaries for 2021. Some of the documentaries, like Peter Jackson’s Beatles documentary won’t come out until later this year (but be sure to check out the sneak peek). — MF

Just type “what to watch” in the Google search bar and you’ll be presented with what appears to be an algorithmically curated offering of popular shows. Somehow, the list it generates is better suited to my interests than Just Watch or other streaming recommendation services. You can filter by TV show or movie and by genre and, most importantly to me, subgenre (like “Horror dramas”). — MF

A counterfactual is a useful “what if” history. What if America lost WWII? That counterfactual was explored by the Philip K. Dick novel The Man in the High Castle, which also became a 4 season sci-fi drama streaming on Amazon Prime. I really enjoyed all 4 seasons. Another great counterfactual, now streaming on Apple +, is For All Mankind. What if the Russians had beat the Americans to be first on the moon? For All Mankind explores an even more innovative and intense alternative NASA/Apollo program because there was ongoing competition; the space race never ended. In the first 10 episodes I got a big dose of NASA engineering geek vibe, plus a very interesting alternative path with women astronauts. Highly recommended. (Season 2 begins February 19.) — KK

I am a fan of Wes Anderson’s movies because of their visual style. In 2018 Anderson released Isle of Dogs, an epic stop-motion masterpiece. Because literally each frame has been designed and crafted in miniature, I think it’s his most visually stylistic movie yet. Every frame is perfect. But there is another reason to stream it now: the very peculiar story concerns a deadly urban pandemic derived from an animal, the spread of conspiracy theories, the denial of science, and a contested election. Feels like it was just made. — KK

JustWatch has a cool way to discover new movies to watch. Just type up a synopsis for your ideal movie and you’ll be given a list of films with similar plots. Tip: Press “enter” after you’ve finished typing and the recommendations will refresh. I made the mistake of pressing the “Ghostwrite a story for me” button which overrides whatever you’ve written with a random plot and related movies. — CD

Recomendo reader Mark Jackson shared this wonderful Slow TV Map and said:

“If you haven’t heard of Slow TV before, it is a genre of long-form television originating from the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation’s broadcast of an uninterrupted 7-hour train journey in 2009. Slow TV Map maps these types of videos on a map so you can discover virtual journeys in an interactive way. Most people use Slow TV as a screensaver, but it can also be used as a form of active meditation. I hope you enjoy!”

Such a great way to virtually visit parts of the world you’ve always wanted explore. Here is a 1-hour long, Slow TV video of an 105-year old ship sailing the Denmark Coastline set to acoustic guitar. — CD

There is a lot going on in Pixar’s new movie Soul. It’s definitely worth watching (Disney+), and is best watched more than once to appreciate its many insights. The categories Soul covers — imagining the afterlife in detail, including beings of light, celestial birthing rings, tunnels to the beyond, astral travel, and short circuiting the system — are also the topics of a very long graphic novel I co-produced and published in book form, called The Silver Cord. Fans of Soul, the movie, will probably be fans of The Silver Cord, the book. — KK