Every time the credits roll on a Netflix title, I give it a quick rating. It takes just a couple of seconds, but this habit has made it way easier to find more shows and movies I like, while cutting down on the time I waste scrolling endlessly past slop I’ll never watch.
Netflix
When it comes to original shows and movies, no service comes close to Netflix. New original content is released weekly, so you’ll never run out of shows to watch.
It’s All About Training the Algorithm
Every streaming platform uses algorithms to recommend new content to you these days. They have to; their libraries are massive and most people wouldn’t stand a chance uncovering new gems if they had to sift through everything manually.
But algorithms don’t work by magic, they need to be trained. They can guess what you might like based on your watch history, but they get so much more effective if you use ratings to give them a nudge in the right direction.
For example, let’s say you just spent three hours watching an epic movie on Netflix, and you hated every second of it. The Netflix algorithm has no idea how you felt. In fact, it probably assumes you loved it because you sat through the whole thing, so it’ll suggest more movies just like it.
The opposite can happen, too. Let’s say you stuck a new Netflix TV show on and instantly got sucked in, but then something in the real world came up and you had to stop watching. Netflix might assume you weren’t enjoying it—especially if you get too sidetracked to go back and finish watching—so it will avoid suggesting similar shows, even though you might like them too.
This is all terrible, and a good way to wind up feeling like Netflix has nothing worth watching. But it’s so easy to fix by quickly giving a thumbs up or thumbs down after you watch something (or going through your watch history giving Netflix a crash course on your likes and dislikes).
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3 Reasons You Should Rate Every Streaming Show You Watch
Who has two thumbs and a great streaming experience? This guy!
How to Rate Everything on Netflix
Netflix keeps its ratings system very simple by giving you just three options: thumbs down, thumbs up, or two thumbs up (Siskel and Ebert style). When you finish a movie or the latest episode of a TV show, Netflix will prompt you to choose one of these options to rate what you just watched.
In a browser, you may need to hover your mouse over the thumbs up option to see all three options. On a smart TV, mobile, or tablet, you should see all three options once the credits roll.
Since Netflix prompts you to add a rating when you finish something, choosing one of the three options takes almost no time at all. However, if your account settings allow Netflix to autoplay a trailer or new episode, you may need to jump out of that before you can add a rating.
If you really want to supercharge your Netflix algorithm, I’d also suggest rating content you’ve watched in the past as you’re casually browsing the platform. In a browser, you can do this right from the home screen by hovering over the thumb icon. For other platforms, you can do it from the details page of whatever content you’re looking at.
With just three options to choose from, it’s generally easy to decide what to rate content with. Save the double thumbs up for anything you absolutely love, and everything else that you didn’t dislike can get a single thumbs up. If something didn’t leave much of an impression and you can’t decide how to rate it, just skip that one.
Want to Track Your Ratings? Use Letterboxd
If you’ve been rating shows on Netflix for a while, you might want to look back on all your ratings to find the best shows. It’s possible to export your watch history and ratings data from Netflix, but sifting through the data isn’t very easy. Instead, I’d use Netflix’s ratings purely for training the algorithm and use a different app if you want to track ratings for yourself.
My favorite app for this is Letterboxd. This is primarily for movies, although there are some big TV shows on there as well. And you aren’t limited to Netflix’s content, you can rate whatever you watched. It lets you choose a rating out of five stars (including half stars if you prefer) and you can give hearts to your absolute favorites. You can also leave your own reviews and read other reviews from the active film-loving community using Letterboxd, and much more as well.
