What Overly-Qualified Sub-Genres are You Being Recommended by Netflix?

[lindsaybluth]

I dunno guys, I think I have you all beat…

Inspiring Fight-the-System Movies based on real life

…based on my interested in Stand and Deliver and Ralph Nader: An Unreasonable Man. The suggestions were terrible too; ah well.

[Only_Mostly_Dead]

Nothing spectacular right now:

Suspenseful Sci-Fi Channel TV Shows is showing up in my Discs tab, basically because I’m working my way through BSG

Workplace TV Comedies and Romantic Sci-Fi & Fantasy are on the watch instantly. Apparently, Clash of the Titans and Conan the Destroyer are romantic.

[Zsofia]

Now they’ve added Visually-striking Gritty Foreign Movies.

[fluiddruid]

@SeaDragonTattoo

OOh, I got a good one:

“Visually-Striking, Mind-Bending, Sci-Fi & Fantasy”

I love Netflix

Aww, I only have “Visually-striking, mind-bending movies”.

[Larry_Borgia]

@VinylTurnip

I think the Netflix Recommend-o-Bot has washed its stainless steel pincers of me.

Maybe I’m hypercritical. I don’t think so; I think I rate movies fairly. The vast majority get three stars if I liked it, two if it was mediocre. Something has to really impress me to get four stars, and only a few near-perfect classics of the genre earn a full five stars. One star is reserved for utter shit: abominations that have no reason for existing, that I found personally insulting, or that helped accelerate the decay of culture overall. (Or at least those that I’m pretty sure probably would, based on the trailer or movie poster.)

So why does Netflix think I’ll hate almost every new movie that appears? Users will give it four-and-a-half stars, but we estimate Vinyl Turnip will think it’s barely worth a deuce. Worse, their estimated ratings have gotten uncannily accurate… they think I’m gonna give a movie two stars, damned if I don’t watch it and agree, almost every time. Or am I being subtly manipulated? Would I have possibly rated it higher? Are they predicting my tastes or controlling my thoughts? Why is it recommending a 5-disc nature documentary because I liked The Wire?

ETA: oh, and they think I like “critically-acclaimed dark movies about marriage.” Not sure what that means.

Netflix seems to think anything less than four stars is a negative review. I watch a lot of SF TV shows, which I usually rate 3 stars. This is what they are for me, entertaining and watchable, but not awe inspiring or great. Yet Netflix doesn’t ever recommend TV shows to me, even though it’s the bulk of what I watch.

[Miss_Woodhouse]

Critically-acclaimed Sentimental Dramas
which for some reason includes Rocky. That’s a sports drama to me.

[Zsofia]

@Miss_Woodhouse

Critically-acclaimed Sentimental Dramas
which for some reason includes Rocky. That’s a sports drama to me.

It’s sentimental, though, surely you agree?

[Nars_Glinley]

I have Witty Romantic British Movies since my wife watched Bridget Jones’ Diary and Critically-acclaimed Suspenseful Sci-Fi & Fantasy since I watched Dr. Strangelove.

[Bill_Door]

I have Dark Foreign Thrillers and Witty Comedies from the 1940’s. Netflix really gets me. I went for the Nook as an ereader, and I wish Barnes and Noble understood me a tenth as well as Netflix does. I can’t tell you the number of angsty vampire and/or bodice-rippers I have to sort through to get to the books I want to buy. I mean, really, Too Wicked to Kiss? And let’s not forget the Buckhorn Brothers series.

I just wish B&N would use some of the same algorithms Netflix does to make suggestions.