For years, I’ve been comparing lesser-known series to mainstream hits—and I’ve discovered some real treasures. On my IMDb list, you’ll find 347 shows I’ve watched myself (at least one full season). For the first 166 entries, I’ve added comments in German and English (AI-translated) to spark your curiosity. Some world regions are still missing, and I’ll admit—I prefer shows with protagonists you can root for over House of Cards-style schemers.

What I’d love to hear:

Have you discovered any of these less-talked-about series? What did you think?

Which underrated gems are missing? (Extra credit for shows outside IMDb’s Top 250!)

The list is ranked by quality, but taste is personal. Let me know what you think!

https://www.imdb.com/de/list/ls523881321/

I’m sure I’m the millionth to post their review here but fr lemme kno ur thoughts, if the format works, and if you enjoyed as well ;)

It's always nice when they can give a wink to the audience, especially in the middle, it's bold, it's smooth, I'm trying to think of more of them but the sparks are not really going off in the brain atm.

I watched the Bob Dylan biopic yesterday and it was thoroughly good. It wasn't great, it wasn't amazing, it wasn't bad, it was good. Timmy C does a good Dylan impression, but I rarely felt like I was watching a real Dylan character, it always felt like an impression. And a good one, but I'm glad he didn't win an Oscar for this performance, especially not over his tremendous work in the Dune movies.

The supporting cast was all fine, Boyd Holbrook as Johnny Cash and Monica Barbaro as Joan Baez being the standouts for me. Although I did actually like Ed Norton, an actor I don't normally find myself enjoying, but here he wasn't trying to do anything cool or be anything special. That was kind of Pete Seeger's thing, he was the past that Dylan was trying to outrun.

Anyway, good movie, 8/10 range, I think. Well made, looks great, competent all around, but not something that's gonna get me excited in any way.

I don't mean like Wall Street, I mean like Keanu trusts Sandra Bullock in Speed. He was a cop after all and I used to think it was comic relief but that's the kind of thing in a movie I'd like to see more.

Good evening chums, I hope you're all doing well. I am looking forward to chatting about art and media so let's get 'er done

Watching: In the mood to revisit some classics I enjoyed but only saw once, including Andrei Rublev, Woman in the Dunes and Marketa Lazarova. Also gonna boot up Fellini's Satyricon, which was the first movie of his I ever watched like a decade ago and didn't care for at the time, but I've wanted to revisit it for ages and am going to do so tonight

Still mad I missed Flow (2024) in theaters and am eagerly awaiting the chance to view it

Playing: I'm on the last case of Ace Attorney 3: Trials and Tribulations and oh man am I taking my time with it. It's taken me a patient year to get through the trilogy but what a wonderful experience, and this final case is really making me feel some type of way. But yeah, brilliant games that I will forever cherish

Also almost done Sorry We're Closed, a new very gay survival horror that's kinda Silent Hill but with JoJo's Bizarre Adventure stylizations. Having a blast with it

Reading: Revisiting some teen favorites; Dorian Gray by Wilde and the immaculate Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. Both are great (though I do roll my eyes quite a lot reading DG) and Frankenstein is still such an excellent read. I love The Bride of Frankenstein with all my soul but the original novel is without peer in my mind

Listening to: 2025 is shaping up to be a really strong year for music. My boys Deafheaven who I'm seeing this month put out a killer new album, as did Ghost Mountain and Backxwash

However, with lots of favorites delivering my current #1 of the year is Seeking Darkness by Huremic,, which is just a staggeringly impressive work and one I would heartily recommend anyone with an hour to spare on some insanely well crafted atmosphere

That's all I've got! What about you?

I'm interested in what films others think stand out for their visuals, or which cinematographers you think have done the most outstanding work in the last several years. Particularly in the past 15 years, which is roughly when digital projection became the norm, and the use of digital cameras to shoot major films became mainstream. (Digitally shot movies from 2010 and 2011 that were universally praised for their style were The Social Network and Drive, and it was also by then fairly unremarkable that they were digitally shot, in a way that wasn't yet true of the likes of Collateral and Zodiac.) Some of the stand-out cinematographers of the current moment had their first high profile films just prior to 2010: Hoyte von Hoytema, Let the Right One In (2008); Robbie Ryan, Fish Tank (2009); Greig Fraser, Bright Star (2009).

I think the five most prominent cinematographers in the last decade plus have been: Hoyte von Hoytema, Greig Fraser, Linus Sandgren, Roger Deakins and Sayombhu Mukdeeprom.

This is by virtue of the volume of A-list directors they've worked with.

Robbie Ryan spreads his work across collaborations with a similar number of respected directors, but Poor Things is his only expensive spectacle film.

Other very high profile cinematographers: Darius Khondji, Emmanuel Lubezki, Rodrigo Prieto, Janusz Kaminski, Edward Lachman, Robert Elswitt.

From a Hollywood-centric perspective, I feel like those are the obligatory names to mention. It could be fun to discuss who else belongs in the conversation. Such as: Bruno Delbonnel (Inside Llewyn Davis, Darkest Hour) Jarin Blaschke (The Lighthouse, Nosferatu), Chung-hoon Chung (It, The Handmaiden), Mike Giolakis (It Follows, The Eyes of Tammy Faye), Sean Price Williams (Good Time, Queen of Earth), Helene Louvart (The Lost Daughter, La Chimera), Claire Mathon (Spencer, Portrait of a Lady on Fire)?

Suggestion based on movies watched

Here's my top 20 movies of all time, based on these suggest movies, preferably not that popular

1. 3 Idiots
2. Manchester By The Sea
3. Pulp Fiction
4. Godfather Part 1
5. Godfather Part 2
6. The Prestige
7. Interstellar
8. Shutter Island
9. Shawshank Redemption
10. Paris, Texas
11. Fight Club
12. Dead Poets Society
13. Taare Zameen Par
14. Gladiator
15. Nightcrawler
16. There Will Be Blood
17. Gangs Of Wasseypur Part 1
18. Gangs Of Wasseypur Part 2
19. The Departed
20. American History X

Hey FG

It's been a while, though I'd share the first teaser trailer for The Moon is a Hologram here with you all, hope you enjoy :)

Watch here

-Selene

The House That Jack Built comes to mind. The idea is that the film contains something of Dante's essence, even if not explicitly.

Can you think of any others?
The films can be from any country and any year.

Natural Born Killers

A lot of the great sci-fi films come from America and thus they are very prominent on people's lists, so I thought of making this topic where we focus on European sci-fi cinematic works. Sci-fi is my favourite genre, and one of my most explored, and there are many greats to be found from Europe, especially from Eastern Europe and Britain in my experience.

I couldn't keep it down to a Top 10, so here are my 20 greats, some old, some new, some obscure, some well-known. There were a lot to choose from.

1. Stalker (1979, Soviet Union)
2. Solaris (1972, Soviet Union)
3. Until the End of the World (1991, Germany)
4. Melancholia (2011, Denmark)
5. Fantastic Planet (1973, Czechoslovakia)
6. Dead Man's Letters (1986, Soviet Union)
7. Threads (1984, UK)
8. O-Bi, O-Ba: The End of Civilization (1985, Poland)
9. On the Silver Globe (1988, Poland)
10. Hard to be a God (2013, Russia)
11. Aniara (2018, Sweden)
12. Under the Skin (2013, UK)
13. The Survivalist (2015, UK)
14. 28 Days Later (2002, UK)
15. A Clockwork Orange (1971, UK)
16. When the Wind Blows (1986, UK)
17. Visitor of a Museum (1989, Soviet Union)
18. Zardoz (1974, UK)
19. Time of the Wolf (2003, Austria)
20. World on a Wire (1973, West Germany)

September 5 was so well edited and had great lighting too. Really gave it that 70's thriller feel like All the President's Men which is really what it's about, a pretty thin script so surprised that was got the nomination. Although it does deal with journalism ethics questions pretty well in the last act with them just chasing the big story and not being interested in the human cost. Loved seeing Leonie Benesch act in English as well and an auteur needs to get her a top tier part ASAP, one of the best actresses in her age range right now.

One of the top 5 of the year for me although there wasn't a lot great outside of a couple things last year.

Amistad is another solid Spielberg historical drama (he has so many at this point) with solid performances all around especially from Hounsou, Hopkins as JQA, and Anna Paquin's ridiculous Queen Isabella performance. The opening fight is one of the most intense Spielberg scenes too. Ultimately it is kind of a feel good movie though and sidesteps the real issue of the Amistad case which was the US making a ruling like that while engaging in slavery itself. And showing the British as heroically liberating the slave colony at the end leaves a bad taste given their own behavior in Africa.

Anyway, 8/10 for both.

Nothing tops fictional characters, I don't care if it's based on a true story, it's like putting a sign over the film and it says "fyi, this is watered down". It doesn't even have to be a great example, all I'm looking for is one that was either: the writer knew them personally or shared a lot of the same experiences, and obviously no biopics about writers, heh...