Here’s the thing: I can’t, in good faith, say that Filipinos are ready for film and television streaming. Not completely, anyway. The reason? You guessed it–slow internet.

While the arrival of Netflix to the Philippines is welcome news, there’s still no way of knowing when the sharks will take bait, or if they will at all. The textbook economist, however, will argue that more premium and known service providers like Netflix should somehow, to some degree, push Filipino I.S.P.’s to provide a collectively better service, and he has the right idea.

So. While we brave through our punishing internet speed (or lack thereof), here are some recommendations for folks who already stream on Netflix no problem.

Beasts Of No Nation

Netflix’s first foray into feature filmmaking, Cary Joji Fukunaga’s Beasts Of No Nation is one of the few unexpected highlights of last year. Our own D.J. Villeza writes in his review: “Fukunaga’s anamorphic lens offers stunning visuals of a land that belongs to no one – the lush greenery underscoring the violence. It is through this understatement, this controlled effort of the director to superimpose the horrors of the war in a beautiful abattoir makes this war film less hard to watch, but more insidious in its nuances.”

It Happened One Night

Frank Capra’s 1934 film It Happened One Night paved the way for films like  Annie Hall, When Harry Met Sally, and That Thing Called Tadhana. It is, after all, the ultimate romantic comedy. The film is about a richman’s daughter named Ellie whose wealthy father tells her to un-marry her new husband. She goes off to New York where she cuts a deal with a newspaper writer who will help her reunite with her husband as long as he gets an exclusive on her story. But, in true rom-com fashion, the newspaper finds himself falling in love.

If you enjoy old classics, or just great movies old and new, it’s smart to also check out MUBI, a Netflix-like service, but with curated and scheduled content. Your access is limited to thirty films at a time, but they’re mostly very good films. Perfect for those who want to expand their viewing and tastes.

Making a Murderer

Everyone’s going nuts about Laura Ricciardi and Moira Demos’ “Making a Murderer”, a documentary series which looks at the story of Steven Avery, an American exonerated only after 18 years in prison. Almost Dickensian in wonder and scope, the series attests to the notion that reality is indeed more f*cked up than fiction. Immediately addicting and immersive, this is the documentary equivalent to Adele’s new album 25.

The One I Love

The premise of Charlie MacDowell’s drama The One I Love is innocuously simple: a couple attempts to fix their marriage in a remote country retreat wherein different events will make themselves doubt their marriage more. On-the-rocks marriage—pretty straightforward, right? Some will even say it’s the cliche of human life, but let’s not get that far. The only thing you need to know about this film is that both Mark Duplass and Elisabeth Moss are terrific, especially the latter.

Sense8

Those still unfamiliar with The Wachowskis’ science fiction series “Sense8” perhaps only know it for its now infamous orgy scene. Unfolding to Fatboy Slim’s “Demons”, the scene perfectly surmises the series—racy, crazy, and impassioned. It also explains the idea of ‘sensates’ central to the series. Many things connect and disconnect these people, one of which strictly stems from The Wachowski’s relentlessly mad minds: if these sensates share personalities and can interact with each other, why not film a scene where they engage in a group coitus? The result, in true Wachowski fashion, is wondrous.

The Nightmare

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Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt

There’s no going around it with Tina Fey’s “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt”—it’s an entrancing comedy that, while framed with humor akin to her “30 Rock”, manages to touch on various sensitive issues on a very light yet nuanced note. The series pivots around a fanatic who for fifteen years has been locked up by her cult leader. Two or so episodes in, “Kimmy Schmidt” branches out on issues aplenty all revolving around both the faults and fortitude of being a woman. Oh, and it has one of the best opening themes since Dan Harmon’s “Community” and Greg Daniel’s “Parks and Recreation”.

From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series

The original From Dusk Till Dawn (also available for streaming on Netflix!) is directed by Robert Rodriguez, and starred George Clooney and Quentin Tarantino. About two decades later, Rodriguez comes with an updating of his story where hotshot baddies, vampires, and believers in crises rendezvous. The series is sprawling with violence and almost acerbic dialogue which are both trademark Rodriguez.

Jessica Jones

Marvel tells the story of both their best heroine and villain so far. The (anti-)heroine in question is Jessica Jones, a private eye who had been under the control of a powerful mindfreak named Kilgrave. A couple things of note here: Jessica sees the mind control as rape, something that, for her, has been punishingly difficult to process. Kilgrave, on the other hand, is naive as a boy, whose darkest intentions only awaken halfway through the series when he realizes he has zero chance on a woman who had once been under his compulsion.

Narcos

Chris Brancato, Carlo Bernard, and Doug Miro’s period gangster series “Narcos” is a return to Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas. The hook is that it’s actually an account on the life and death of drug kingpin Pablo Escobar , who supplied more than three quarters of the cocaine smuggled in the U.S. The series pingpongs between two P.O.V.s—those of Escobar’s and D.E.A. Agent Steve Murphy’s—from the modest “hippies in flip-flops” weed days to the all-out, blood-drenched war that took the lives of at least four thousand lives in Mexico and the U.S.

More titles to watch…

Michael Showalter and David Wain’s “Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp” and Aziz Ansari and Alan Yang’s “Master Of None” are worthwhile comedies to stream. The former is a raunchier, more self-consciously deranged version of the original 2001 film it prefaces, while the latter is a comedy about millennial New Yorkers in the throes of adulthood. Drew Goddard’s “Daredevil” is here just because you probably already have seen it. If you haven’t, drop everything you’re doing and get caught up. The second season goes live just weeks from now.

Plenty of good films to stream too. Some recommendations: Anthony Minghella’s The Talented Mr. Ripley; Patrick Brice’s Creep; and Anthoine Fuqua’s Training Day just to get y’all worked up on sociopaths. Alfonso Cuaron’s Gravity, Paul Thomas Anderson’s There Will Be Blood and a whole lineup of Stanley Kubrick films are there too, in case you haven’t seen them already.

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Curious to know what are your thoughts on this list. Drop them in the comments, and make sure to check out Netflix Philippines—a free 30-day trial is currently offered to new users. Go there and tell Netflix we sent you.