By Molly Sanchez
It’s time to participate in our nation’s favorite regional pastime, binge watching. But let’s not binge watch aimlessly, friends, let’s show some love for good old SF. That way when your roommate catches you vegged out for the fifth hour in a row, you can say, “I’M SHOWING MY CITY PRIDE, KELLY, WHAT HAVE YOU DONE FOR SAN FRANCISCO TODAY?”
Fucking Kelly!
The following are ten movies, TV shows, and specials set in SF that are streaming on Netflix right this second.
Basic Instinct
Watch to see the uncrossed legs that launched a thousand ships. Sharon Stone plays a sexy writer who may or may not have offed someone with an ice pick. Michael Douglas plays a detective who gets seduced by her while on the case. They romp around SF and the coast throwing around innuendos and looking fierce while doing it. This came out in 1992, so is it dated? Yes. Is it fun? Also yes!
Invasion of the Body Snatchers
This 1978 reboot of a ’50s movie is a sci-fi thriller that is not to be missed. A San Francisco health inspector notices that some people around the city are acting weird (like, weirder than usual). It turns out their bodies are being taken over by aliens while the sleep. Invasion of the Body Snatchers plays like an epidemic thriller and alien story mixed into one, and includes really cute, young Leonard Nimoy, who was clearly doing a meta performance of a Vulcan playing a man possessed by another alien.
Escape From Alcatraz
This movie has classic written all over it. Watch a super foxy Clint Eastwood play Frank Morriss, an infamous real life escapee of The Rock. If you’ve taken the Alcatraz tour you’ve even seen the crazy paper mache heads Morriss and his accomplices used to fool the guards. This movie is great for fans of Shawshank and Eastwood’s sexy growl and trademark smolder. If you don’t believe me, watch this curiously upbeat trailer.
Chelsea Peretti: One of the Greats
You may recognize Oakland native Peretti from Brooklyn Nine-Nine but if you haven’t seen her stand up special, you are truly missing out. Filmed last year at The Palace of Fine Arts, this is like no other comedy special I’ve ever seen. It takes avant garde turns by having the camera pan to the audience then showing sometimes the real audience and sometimes just showing dogs in seats, or babies, or no one. Her razor sharp set, about the hazards of modern dating, being a woman, and the perils of social media, is occasionally interspersed with audience interruptions that add to the plot.
Star Trek IV and Star Trek: Into Darkness
Did you know that our city is the future headquarters of Starfleet Academy? Well according to Gene Roddenberry, the creator of Star Trek, we’ll host this esteemed school in the year 2161. Star Trek IV:The Voyage Home features the original enterprise crew traveling back in time to 1989 SF. It includes great shots of Golden Gate Park, Muni buses, and the Golden Gate Bridge. The more recent reboot Star Trek movies also feature our city. Into Darkness is a retelling of The Wrath of Khan, this time with a whitewashed (yet still foxy) Benedict Cumberbatch. Watch these if you’re still having trouble dealing with Leonard Nimoy’s death. I know I am.
48 Hrs
If you were bummed by Eddie Murphy’s lackluster appearance on SNL 40, watch this movie and remind yourself of times when he was funny. This 1982 movie falls squarely into the “Eddie Murphy pairs with a white guy and flummoxes him” part of his career and in 48 Hrs, he and Nick Nolte play a cop and a parolee who have madcap adventures around the city to try and catch a killer.
Sliders
Ever wonder what San Francisco would be like if it was overrun by communists or overtaken by an ice age or entirely submerged in water? Now you don’t have to! This 1995 series features a teen genius who builds a machine in his basement that allows him to travel through alternate realities of San Francisco. Each episode brings him and his motley gang, featuring Indiana Jones’ Jonathan Rhys Davies, going to a different version of San Francisco and solve mysteries there. This show is extremely episodic so I’d recommend watching the pilot (easily one of the best pilots ever) and then pick and chose which episodes sound good to you.
Curse of the Zodiac
While the OG Zodiac movie with Jake Gyllenhal isn’t currently streaming, this film looks like a campy horror substitute. Judging by the reviews, Curse of the Zodiac is more funny than scary and worth a hate watch. One reviewer called this B-movie “ some kind of Navy Seal mental endurance test. If you can make it through this movie straight, you should contact the CIA; they could use you down in Guantanamo,” so it has that going for it
What are some of your favorite SF movies and shows? I’d like to give a special shout out to Mrs. Doubtfire, The Princess Diaries, and Junior which were all apparently too awesome to stream on Netflix.
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