Why hasn’t anyone told me about this before?
I’ve been struggling for years with Netflix Streaming’s massive movie choices. Supposedly, they have more than 13,000 titles available but they keep recommending the same ones. C’mon Netflix, are my tastes that narrow?
Note: My account is shared with kids so it’s a weird mix of Care Bears, the Walking Dead, and Phineas and Ferb.
I’ve checked out third party sites like instantwatcher.com, which is nice if you want to see what’s new and popular, but those already show up on Netflix. How do you find what isn’t mainstream, but still good?
Let me repeat: 13,000 titles. This number is not published by Netflix and could be disputed. AP said 60,000 titles and instantwatcher.com counted 13,000. I’m going with the latter for sanity sake. This means the top 200 movies/TV shows are only 1.5% of the entire catalog.
I swear I’ve never browsed more than 1,000 titles. Where’s the rest?
Just the other day I stumble into Rotten Tomatoes’ wondrous Netflix feature. Apply named “Find Movies to Instantly Watch on Netflix” it’s been hiding under the DVD tab, under “More”, under Netflix: rottentomatoes.com/dvd/netflix
It allows you to narrow your search in so many cool ways:
First, you can adjust the “Tomatometer,” let’s say between a fresh rating of 65% to 75%. (We don’t want it to be loved by everyone.) Then you can select the time frame. Let’s say the 1990 – 1999. Then let’s choose “R” rating because we know PG-13 is for junior high kids. BAM! A list of 42 weird movie choices. What’s this? 1990’s King of New York starring Christopher Walken with a 71% Fresh rating about a gritty underground crime world. Never heard of it – I’m in!
Not finding what you want, but feel you’re getting warm, just up the Tomatometer to 76-78%. What no way! There’s a 1998 noir film directed by Christopher Nolan called Following with a 78% fresh rating. Add it to the queue baby! (The queue can be updated right inside Rotten Tomatoes.)
You can pick genres, directors, and actors too. (Only issue with me is there’s no option to un-select the foreign genre. Not that into Asian dramas – sorry.)
Suddenly, Netflix feels fresh again and it’s amount of quality content seems staggering. I’m no longer looking through Netflix’s limited recommendation filters anymore. I’ve been adding to my queue non-stop. Now I just need time to watch some of this bizzare 1990’s cinema.
Thanks Rotten Tomatoes for changing my life!
