Finished Bill Nye’s Save the World on Netflix.  The episodes about diet, space exploration, sex, vaccinations and designer babies were pretty fascinating.  As I watched these episodes, I come to a realization that what Bill Nye is doing isn’t trying to “save the world” but is trying to make us think about the episode’s theme from a variety of viewpoints.

In each episode, there’s discussion about the non-traditional (for lack of a better word) way of thinking about the topic or exploration as to why the theme is benefiting people.  He doesn’t try to force the audience to blindly accept the mainstream popular opinion but tries to get the audience think critically about each topic.  This approach is admirable.

Chef’s Table on Netflix is very much like those in depth shows that’d you’d see on History Channel or National Geographic where they do a deep dive into a particular subject.  In this case, the focus of the show is the chef behind the restaurants and what drives them.  I’m on episode four which is about the LA chef Niki Nakayama of N/Naka.  This behind the scenes look makes me want to try  her restaurant now.  I’ve always known about it but rarely had the motivation to try.

This show definitely is on my watch list.  Knowing what drives these chef’s to cook and what inspires these chef’s is well… inspirational.

I never grew up watching Bill Nye.  But I have heard of him and his “Bill Nye the Science Guy” show.  He has a new show on Netflix called “Bill Nye Saves the World.”  The purpose of the show is very well intentioned.

I just finished the first episode about climate change.   His beginning explanation of climate change and water level rising is very simple to understand.  But it leaves out another factor of the water level rising (melting ice from warmer temperatures).  He’s purposely not mentioning anything controversial but showing a simple scientific experiment that demonstrates a particular scientific principles that drives his message across as simple as possible.  This sounds like an interesting approach to simplify the message he wants to convey.

There were two notable moments from the show that occurred during the panel discussion to a simple yet engaging question of “What can we as non-scientist do?”  The first answer was to VOTE.  The second was to “become aware” of their surroundings.  Such positive messages are very important to understanding and changing the future.

I look forward to seeing what else Bill Nye can do with his show.

I am super impressed at the intrigue political drama known as House of Cards (wiki).  I’ve heard it was good but didn’t know how good until yesterday.  So far there’s 4 seasons with a confirmed 5th season to come out sometime this year.

But that got me wondering… how does Netflix fund these shows?  I’ve been told TV/Movie shows are expensive.  Here’s an interesting infographic from a google search.  And another.  And another.  Subscription content is here to stay.

Does anyone watch The Daily Show? To me, it’s a quasi political and mainstream media satire show.  The comedian Jon Stewart used to host the show on Comedy Channel and retired not too long ago. Occasionally I still see his commentary from time to time on The Late Show with Colbert.

Anyways, Trevor Noah took over the duties at The Daily Show. Although I haven’t watched the show in great depth, I’ve watched a few YouTube clips and found the short clips to be a hilarious commentary of the day’s news.  Remember the Carrier “deal“?  Here’s the Daily Show’s commentary.   Commentary aside, Noah is great comedian as well.

Now with Netflix and having seen stand up comedian Ali Wong  perform her routine, Noah apparently also has a few shows that’s on Netflix.  I’ve seen all three (first, second, third) and they are funny!  The third one though is more documentary with funny moments.  Time to binge on other stand up shows on Netflix.

So I signed up for Netflix recently.  I’m finding that there’s just so many shows there that it’s impossible to start.  Does that sound familiar?  Ya… the paradox of choice.  I literally don’t know where to start.  There are these TV shows that people talk about like Breaking Bad, Orange is the New Black, House of Cards, and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.  All these were suggested by other people at some point in time.  I haven’t started watching them mainly because I’m currently engrossed in Downton Abbey (season 4 now).

But of what Netflix shows I’ve seen so far, there is a hilarious Asian American comedian Ali Wong who did a comedy show for Netflix.  If you’re Asian American, it’s worth watching.