List your "hidden gems" that may or may not be "hidden"

Videowatcher69

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Apr 16, 2021
It can be a movie/book/youtuber/podcast/comedian whatever. Share yo shit. Enlighten the rest of us, or make us go "seen it".

For me its a book series and a couple youtubers.

Book: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Name_of_the_Wind
Its like harry potter but for boys. Also shorter. Apparently there will be some tv show and or cartoon about this series.
Fun fact, the author straight up offered to write a fallout game in the hopes for a better story, funny.

Youtuber: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcScIr2iskFm-zRo8FZ7cRw
This guy. IDK. I watch video essay channels but this guy...I guess genuine is the word? He just seems to give a shit about whatever he talks about and correlates it to different things you wouldn't think of. Also his nostalgia bait aesthetic is easy on the eyes.

Youtuber: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyZzcp3npuE3seKhIGBVyBQ
I still can't believe I have watched this guy for like 2 years and he still isn't past 100k. He isn't amazing, but damn it all if he isn't deserving of more attention compared to other youtubers.
 
The Name of The Wind series is great, and I really like how all the great legends of the dude came from him trying to fix or run from something he fucked up terribly. The main criticism it gets is that the main comes across as a Mary Sue, which I understand yet disagree with and could talk for a while on that. Worth checking out, very well written and interesting.
For films, Upgrade is one of my favorite films in the past decade that doesn’t get talked about enough outside of the movie nigga circles. Just a great sci-fi, great concept, great execution, and real good cinematography and action shots.
 
Brazi (1985) by one of the Monty Python guys.
A thought provoking black comedy about a world under vague terror threats, run by a bloated bureaucratic and authoritarian government. Very relevant in todays political climate, possibly even more so than 1984. It basically predicted the mass surveilance state created post 9/11 in the West. It has an ending so whacky it was edited out for American audiences to protect their optimistic and unbritish minds. Probably my favourite political film. It's not perfect and gets a little slow in the middle so be warned (a film about a bureaucrat being slow?! Who would have guessed?). It's great because it works to humanise all parts of a regime. The system is created to rid all workers of responsibility. An evil system entirely run by good, well meaning people where no one is really in control. But there is are a shit load of other interpretations.
Here's a tag line fo you:
"Tired of hearing people drone on about everything being 1984? Watch this and you won't stop pestering people about Brazil!"
brazil.jpg

Also this is a pretty good cover.
I unironically have this on my workout playist.
 
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Death Wish II. My favorite DW and one of my favorite Charles Bronson movies. Rotten Tomatoes: 33% fresh. IMDB user rating: 6. Roger Ebert gave it a rare no stars review, putting it in the esteemed company of Mandingo and Human Centipede. A deeply underappreciated classic of trash cinema, and one of the most (unintentionally?) funny movies ever made. It shamelessly recycles the plot of the original, but cuts out all the bullshit character development no one cares about anyway and gets right to the good stuff, with Bronson straight-up stalking and murdering a bunch of dudes.

Choice scene:

And the cherry on top is the soundtrack, by Jimmy Page of all people.
 
Simon R Green's books, particularly the Nightside stuff and Secret Histories.

The Nightside is basically John Constantine on steroids and Secret Histories is a sort of magic based 007 series.

Both cheap , dirty fun. Fair warning tho , they're chock full of britbong pop culture refs.
 
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the dark stoa on youtube. that old vampyr thread on ATS - a schizoposting journey of epic proportions. john swartzwelder, workaholic writer from the good years of the Simpsons, has a funny book series. Perry bible fellowship webcomic, if that can be considered hidden
 
Carnivale was a short lived series in the mid 2000s that never got much love or attention. It’s a shame because the show is great, it really has a Twin Peaks set in the Dustbowl vibe to it, so if you like David Lynch this show would be right up your ally. It got canceled after two seasons and ended on a cliffhanger which sucks, but it’s still definitely worth checking out
 
Youtuber: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcScIr2iskFm-zRo8FZ7cRw
This guy. IDK. I watch video essay channels but this guy...I guess genuine is the word? He just seems to give a shit about whatever he talks about and correlates it to different things you wouldn't think of. Also his nostalgia bait aesthetic is easy on the eyes.
I like Breadsword's videos, too. He's got a way with words.

My hidden gem that I've made pretty much my life-goal to introduce to people is Ushio & Tora, a shounen series from 1990 about a boy, Ushio, who frees a dangerous yōkai he dubs Tora from his temple's basement after pulling out the Beast Spear, and he keeps the demon in check as they fight off rogue yōkai and go on a journey to learn the truth about his missing mother. Along the way, they come across (not by chance) numerous humans and yōkai they end up assisting in which many interactions are very bittersweet, and they come to discover the secret of the Beast Spear. It's really an amazing journey, and although it's popular in Japan (may have helped set some modern standards for yōkai stories), due to little accessibility in the West, it's a series that's been unjustly slept on. The 2015 anime helped bring attention to it, but it was overshadowed by other summer 2015 anime.
be66db3ae589b84b38354f16ace14fa9.png

Highly recommend both the anime and manga, the manga especially since the anime sadly had to skip a lot of beautiful stories to get to the conflict faster. It has a lot of heart, and one of my biggest wishes is for the manga to get localized out here. If you just wanna test the waters, there's the 1992 10-episode OVA series.
 
I read a lot for fun. I dunno if these are "hidden", but if you're looking for something to read and you don't want to wade through the teenage-tranny-infested wasteland that is GoodReads, I can do the curating for you. I'm a male with a grown-up job, and I am considered to be a pretty normal guy, if you're wondering if our tastes will match--there's no autistic MLP fanfic shit in here or anything.

Fantasy series if you're a reader: Malazan Book of the Fallen - very difficult read, but ultimately rewarding. Insanely large, epic low fantasy world.

Alternate: The Stormlight Archive - The self-proclaimed magnum opus of a guy who is probably the most famous fantasy writer that's still writing currently. Hard to explain; relatively easy read but long.

Fantasy series if you aren't a reader: Sabriel & Sequels - my favourite book when I was a kid. It's about a woman who inherits the responsibility of going into death's different layers (symbolized here as a series of rivers) armed with 7 bells that can command the dead.

Alternate: Mistborn - Takes place in a post-post-apocalyptic world. The equivalent of mages in this series can "burn" metal they ingest for powers, like pushing, pulling, enhancing emotion, Easy read; fun concept, interesting characters.

Sci-Fi: Hyperion - A bunch of strangers recall their encounters with an entity known as The Shrike in a variety of sci-fi settings. Almost like a short-story anthology. If it doesn't grab you by the end of the priest's story, it won't grab you. There are sequels, but they are...not great.
 
Carnivale was a short lived series in the mid 2000s that never got much love or attention. It’s a shame because the show is great, it really has a Twin Peaks set in the Dustbowl vibe to it, so if you like David Lynch this show would be right up your ally. It got canceled after two seasons and ended on a cliffhanger which sucks, but it’s still definitely worth checking out
I feel similar about jericho
 
William Gibson's "Bridge Trilogy" is perhaps his strongest trilogy (which, it should be said, does not contain his best book). It gets overlooked next to Neuromancer, but it's wonderful and worth anyone's time.

Sci-Fi: Hyperion - A bunch of strangers recall their encounters with an entity known as The Shrike in a variety of sci-fi settings. Almost like a short-story anthology. If it doesn't grab you by the end of the priest's story, it won't grab you. There are sequels, but they are...not great.

Hyperion is a masterpiece, but Simmons has a real problem with retconning shit he should leave alone. All the sequels are worth reading, but keep in mind he'll change a few, crucial things and you won't be imagining it.
 
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I feel similar about jericho
Jericho was awesome, only soap opera / drama television show I enjoyed.
Did you hear the stories of their dedicated fans protesting and sending pallets of peanuts to the execs to get the show to continue?
I think it got cancelled because it was too redpilled,
like it was strongly insinuating a false flag nuclear attack by their own government so that a martial law / new world order would come about.
 
I've been recently listening to the Magnus Archives. It's a short story horror anthology podcast, think SCP but instead of reports on creatures it's an archivist recording witness reports of strange events. Haven't finished with it yet, but what I really like about it is how it slowly builds towards something bigger, at first a few names reoccur and then the same things show up and it usually culminates in a banger at the end of each season.


Sci-Fi: Hyperion - A bunch of strangers recall their encounters with an entity known as The Shrike in a variety of sci-fi settings. Almost like a short-story anthology. If it doesn't grab you by the end of the priest's story, it won't grab you. There are sequels, but they are...not great.
Hyperion is great, I've only read the first two books, I heard the other two dip in quality. I liked how the second book was non-stop happenings after the first book's laid back story times and all the weird sci-fi concepts regarding the AIs and the portals that connect worlds was pretty interesting.
 
This basically became the foundation of my humor for the rest of my life when I watched for the first time as a kid
Also I cannot overstate how awesome the demoscene is
 
I don't how popular it was when it was originally running but i highly recommend the TV show "Rectify".

It's about a guy getting released from death row after 20 after being wrongfully convicted of rape and murder at 16. It's a slow character study of him and his family readjusting to life whilst basically being strangers to each other and dealing with his hometown where some people are still convinced that he is guilty.

Maybe not for everyone but i loved it.
 
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Jericho was awesome, only soap opera / drama television show I enjoyed.
Did you hear the stories of their dedicated fans protesting and sending pallets of peanuts to the execs to get the show to continue?
I think it got cancelled because it was too redpilled,
like it was strongly insinuating a false flag nuclear attack by their own government so that a martial law / new world order would come about.
Ya, given how close 9/11 was to the show airing.
 
Ya, given how close 9/11 was to the show airing.
Speaking of that, there's a neat conspiracy show, the Lone Gunmen.
In the pilot episode, which aired March 4, 2001, rogue members of the U.S. government remotely hijack an airliner departing Boston, planning to crash it into the World Trade Center, and let anti-American terrorist groups take credit, to gain support for a new profitable war following the Cold War. The heroes ultimately override the controls, foiling the plot. The episode aired six months prior to the September 11 attacks.[5]


Man Bites Dog (film) I really enjoy this movie and I don't think a lot of people have seen it.
Joseph Carter the Mink Man Trains Minks to catch pests for farmers, it's a really cool job, a cool animal, and an environmentally friendly solution to a problem.

Be Nice To Me Productions Very creative guys who put a lot of work into their sketch comedy and haven't got much recognition yet.
 
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