I think everyone knows that when you open Netflix, what you are shown is curated to your interests and viewing history. So the home page affords you quick access to recent viewings, new releases, similar movies, and so on. There is a search function for specific titles, but no apparent way to search for all the rom-coms or all the soccer movies.
Netflix has in its deep files about 5,000 movies, and there is a way to access detailed lists of movies by category using a list of codes.
The codes reveal Netflix's complete organizational system. Instead of broad categories like "Action" or "Comedy," you get hyper-specific genres like "Martial Arts Movies" (code 8985) or "Classic Action & Adventure Films" (code 46576). Some categories contain hundreds of titles, while others might have just a handful of carefully curated selections.What surprised me most was discovering content that never appeared in my regular browsing. Shows and movies that existed in Netflix's library but were essentially invisible due to the algorithm's assumptions about my preferences. It's like finding a hidden room in your own house.
Here are examples of how the categories are subdivided (links in the image are not clickable):
A complete list of the Netflix codes is here.\
It is beyond frustrating how strongly streaming services steer you to watch what they want you to watch instead of letting you watch what you want to watch.
ReplyDeleteNone of the ones I have, has a simple catalogue that you can just search. Or categories that you can choose from.
More frustrating is that they absolutely refuse to show foreign content. For instance, the EU requires all streaming platforms to create local content - some of it quite good. Well, good luck finding that Bulgarian or Finnish content on DisRimeMaxFlix. Or Tubi.
BTW: It's a sign of the time that when I ask Google how many people in the US live with an immigrant, Gemini tells me how many people live with an *undocumented* immigrant. Not the same. Not the question.