We didn't add the exclamation point -- NETFLIX did.
Maybe they could add an explanation for it?
The special is exactly the direction they should be going.
It's something that people will stream this month and years from now.
Barbra Streisand's a one of a kind talent, a true original.
However, the special is low key. She's in an auditorium singing some songs and talking to her audience -- with some footage of her ordering food and asking about ice cream.
She covers some of her biggest hits.
"Enough Is Enough (No More Tears)," "You Don't Bring Me Flowers," "The Way We Were," etc.
As well as signature songs like "Don't Rain On My Parade."
She shows a lot of class when doing an introduction for her cover of Carole King's "Being At War With Each Other" (first recorded for her 1973 studio album THE WAY WE WERE), the sort of class we wish she'd find a way to convey online.
But she conveys it in the special.
She's relaxed and apparently happy to be performing. She has a chair on stage and sometimes sits during the special.
Again, it's really laid back -- which is why we question the exclamation mark at the end of the title.
It's part of a treasure trove that NETFLIX is slowly amassing.
Take PEE WEE'S BIG HOLIDAY.
That film is actually an equal to the Tim Burton classic PEE WEE'S BIG ADVENTURE.
You can -- and we have -- watch this film over and over -- a sign of a true classic.
We're not sure what to make of OUR SOULS AT NIGHT.
That made-for-NETFLIX project stars Jane Fonda and Robert Redford.
We had to wonder why?
It's not poorly acted. Robert Redford turns in the same performance that made him a star -- if not an Academy Award winning actor -- while Jane digs deep and creates a fully dimensional person.
In a way, it's like many films Jane produced for IPC (Jane did not produce this film), Jane covers an issue that many will be groping with -- you're elderly, you're alone.
It's a drama.
And it has a less than happy ending.
So who's going to watch?
Were it a theatrical release, Jane might have earned an Academy Award nomination and it could have a life based on her acclaimed performance.
But that's not going to happen.
Our point here?
There are genres with shelf lives.
The same piece with Fonda and Redford done as a melodrama could be cause for repeat streamings.
But a character study piece with a downer ending isn't really going to grab anyone.
Comedies are the way to go and NETFLIX is lucky to have Christopher Guest's MASCOTS which is as funny as Guest's earlier works A MIGHTY WIND, BEST IN SHOW, WAITING FOR GUFFMAN and FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION.
MASCOTS actually should have led to more Guest films. That's something that would be of real value.
Right now, NETFLIX has a deal with Disney but not only does Disney also allow HULU to carry some of its films, Disney is about to offer its own streaming service.
It's very likely that the deal with Disney could go the way of the earlier deal with STARZ.
Early on in its streaming days, NETFLIX members could stream STARZ live or any of the films STARZ was broadcasting that month could be streamed on demand.
NETFLIX subscribers know that things never returned to normal after that. The film classics were more or less gone and have remained gone. In an effort to appease the subscribers, the company made a big to do about their deal with Disney and how other things were in store.
Other things never surfaced.
It's content pool is honestly very disappointing.
Which is all the more reason for NETFLIX to build up its own catalogue.
THE BABY SITTER and LITTLE EVIL -- like MASCOTS -- are good long term properties. Both of those two films play well on repeat viewings.
In terms of other comedy projects?
OH, HELLO ON BROADWAY, JOHN MULANEY THE COMEBACK KID, JACK WHITEHALL AT LARGE, AZIZ ANSARI LIVE AT MADISON GARDEN, AZIZ ANSARI BURIED ALIVE, SARAH SILVERMAN: A SPECK OF DUST, ALI WONG: BABY COBRA and SOFIA NINO DE RIVERA EXPOSED are great comedy specials that can have long lives.
One thing you may notice though, in that list and certainly at the NETFLIX website, women really don't get comedy specials -- not like men. Jerry Seinfeld just debuted a so-so comedy and the thing there is where's Roseann Barr?
Why is it that NETFLIX missed out on a special from her or bringing her back in a sitcom?
They were all over themselves to get Seinfeld and David Letterman as well.
But they really don't appreciate the female comedians.
For example, they have Lily Tomlin under contract for a sitcom and a children's show but have not attempted to get her to do a comedy special.
Her previous comedy specials -- LILY, THE LILY TOMLIN SPECIAL, LILY TOMLIN IN APPEARING NIGHTLY, LILY: SOLD OUT, LILY TOMLIN FOR PRESIDENT? -- stopped in 1982.
Those specials resulted in multiple nominations and 3 Emmy wins.
Lily and her longterm partner (and wife) Jane Wagner are done with the TV special medium? That seems doubtful.
They may or may not be interested in a stand up special but something like A VERY MURRAY CHRISTMAS (directed by Sofia Coppola and starring Bill Murray) seems the sort of thing that Lily and Jane could easily do.
Or Whitney Cummings -- why are her stand up specials for COMEDY CENTRAL and HBO but never NETFLIX?
At least NETFLIX has Lily for GRACE AND FRANKIE. The sitcom is not only popular it's also resulted in three Emmy nominations for Lily.
It's with series that NETFLIX has had its most success. Along with Lily and Jane Fonda in GRACE AND FRANKIE, the streaming service also has HOUSE OF CARDS (which may not age well at all thanks to Kevin Spacey's various scandals), ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK, SENSE8, STRANGER THINGS, FULLER HOUSE, THE OA, OZARK, HATERS BACK OFF, SANTA CLARITA DIET, DISJOINTED, BIG MOUTH and Spike Lee's SHE'S GOTTA HAVE IT have all found audiences and will continue to find some (though, again, the service's crown jewel HOUSE OF CARDS is now iffy for future viewers).
One of NETFLIX's least known series is also one of its most successful -- both in terms of numbers and creativity: JULIE'S GREENROOM.
This pre-K, educational show hosted by Julie Andrews is the sort of program that should be done for adults: A variety show.
We've long advocated that for the streaming service and we continue to do so.
At some point, NETFLIX may agree.
In the meantime, they need to focus on their original programming.
Melodrama, romance, romantic comedy (NAKED is a step in the right direction), comedy, music and suspense are the genres they can build their own catalogue around.
BARBRA THE MUSIC...THE MEMORIES...THE MAGIC! creates confusion with regard to the punctuation, otherwise it delivers exactly what NETFLIX needs to amass streaming content with longterm appeal.
