Deep Dive: Netflix.

"House Of Ninjas" and "A Nearly Normal Family."

It’s been six months since the last Deep Dive — that one on BritBox — and to me that signals a little too much interest on my end in doing the Two Episode Test series. I mean, you finish one episode and normally, you want to slip into the second (which most streaming services make all too easy by giving the end credits less than five seconds before rolling into said second episode), so it’s understandable.

But I missed the simplicity of this little fishing expedition — watch one episode of one show on Netflix, almost always something international, and then watch something completely different.

As I mentioned in the last edition, the problem with BritBox is that A) While you can still find barely heard of gems, most people who subscribe are full on British television fans and PBS veterans so they’re uncommonly aware of what’s offered and B) BritBox is a much less popular streaming service in terms of subscribers.

That makes Netflix, with its heavy international selection and un-promoted dumping of titles, pretty perfect for this series. (But I’ll keep doing BritBox and others nevertheless).

The beauty is in the simplicity, or at least it is for me. It’s a “deep dive” not on one series but on Netflix’s seemingly endless vault of random shows from around the world.

Depending on what you watch most on Netflix, you’ve got a completely different landing page of suggestions than your neighbor. The algorithm is your enemy. You might not ever even see the title of some of the series I’ll cover. Others might be right in your wheelhouse.

So, let’s get started with the Japanese series “House of Ninjas” and the Swedish limited series, “A Nearly Normal Family.”