A few nights ago I watched the Neil Young concert film Heart of Gold. Later on my home page there’s a new “Because You Watched…” list based on the film. And it was all these other concert films. Tom Petty, Pink Floyd, Roy Orbison, and a bunch of others.
And while scrolling across the list, one non-concert film pops up – Hondo starring John Wayne. WTF?! The only possible connection I could think of was that Neil wore a vaguely western outfit during his concert. Also, the word “Classic” appeared under each film’s Genre listing – Neil’s is “Classic Rock” and Wayne’s is “Classic Western”.
And as an aside, Netflix seems to think I will love all their Bollywood films, as all my recommendation lists seem to be half-populated with Indian films for the past couple weeks. I’ve watched a few Korean films during that time, but I can’t think of an Indian one that I tried. So I’m mystified by these too.
I love their ridiculously specific categories, like “Slapstick foreign gay/lesbian comedies.” I made that one up for illustrative purposes, but we did have recommendations the other day in two separate categories:
Canadian Horror Movies
and
Gory Canadian Horror Movies
Don’t get me started on its confusion over us watching every stupid zombie movie ever, while the kids watch Spongebob and Pocoyo all day.
Because I watched Breaking Bad, apparently, it thinks I want Dark everything. Never mind that mainly what my family consumes is Doctor Who and How I Met Your Mother. No, we’re the Dark Family.
Among my current category lists:
Cerebral British TV Shows
Witty Comedies Featuring a Strong Female Lead
Gritty Military Dramas
Critically-acclaimed Crime Documentaries
Sentimental 20th Century Period Pieces based on Books
Romantic Independent Coming-of-age Movies
Inspiring Foreign Biographical Movies
Goofy Showbiz TV Shows
Serial-Killer Thrillers
Emotional Sci-Fi & Fantasy
Feel-good Social & Cultural Documentaries
It’s my understanding that a lot of the recommendations are based on the fact that other people who liked Heart of Gold also liked Hondo. So it’s not that these two films have anything to do with each other, but rather that “you seem to have the same taste as this other member, so we’ll recommend what they liked too.”
The one that totally cracked me up was when they recommended that since I had watched Bleak House and Slings and Arrows, I would probably also like Sponge Bob Squarepants: Who Bob What Pants. What?
They also seem to be consistently under the impression that I would like Tyler Perry movies, even though I have never watched or rated anything remotely LIKE a Tyler Perry movie.
I’ve found the actual movie suggestions to be fairly worthless on Netflix, but the projected ratings to be surprisingly accurate.
I get:
Dark Romantic Dramas Featuring a Strong Female Lead
Cerebral British Crime TV Dramas
Supernatural Horror Movies from the 1960s
Gritty Treasure Hunt Movies
Exciting Vampire Horror Movies
So pleased that they apparently have several subcategories of “Gritty” and “Cerebral”. Or maybe the latter is “Cerebral British …”