The Surprising Secrets Behind How Netflix Recommends Shows You Watch

For one thing, 41 percent of Netflix users watch without paying for it — they're using a friend's or family member's account. That means Netflix is collecting data on several viewers in a group, not each individual — which pleases nobody.

Writer and podcaster Stacia L. Brown was particularly displeased back in 2018 that her Netflix recommendations kept showing her Black faces, like Leonard Ouzts and Blaire Brooks for the film Like Father. “This film stars Kristen Bell/Kelsey Grammer,” she says, “and these actors had maaaaybe 10 cumulative minutes of screen time, 20 lines between them, tops.” In fact, Netflix's algorithm should have no idea of Brown's race, gender, ethnicity or age — or yours, or anybody's. But it sometimes behaves as if it does — “a marketing trick,” Brown tweeted.

Feel seen? Or stereotyped?

3. Some say Netflix recommendations (and perhaps even programming) are becoming increasingly like internet clickbait.

In August, Slate's tech expert Dan Kois skewered Netflix's recommendation images and headlines as “clickbait: luring someone into clicking, and then delivering something other than what the headline made them want.” He mocks his personalized Netflix page for featuring half-clad beauties in sexy poses that he says misrepresent the shows: a bikinied woman for Who Killed Sara?; shirtless hunks for What Lies Below and Lucifer; a woman with an orgasmic-afterglow expression for Sex/Life; a woman wearing nothing but underwear and $20 bills for Heist — a show Kois calls even more generic and clickbaity than a previous Netflix show, Money Heist.

On the other hand, what some call clickbait others call “hits.” Slate (and many others) razzed Netflix's latest show, actually called Clickbait: “It's announcing itself as potentially dishonest and exploitative and daring you to click anyway.” And what was Netflix's most-watched show the week it debuted? You guessed it. As pundit Haley Soen wrote, the “new ‘silly’ Netflix thriller Clickbait is a bit awful, but everyone is obsessed with it.” Critics called it “disastrous,” but Rotten Tomatoes audiences rated it at a sky-high 89 percent.

Feel seen? Or baited?

4. Those rows of shows by genre that Netflix offers you are increasingly specific.

On your personal Netflix page, the algorithm's best guess at what you'll like go in the row at the top, with the most strongly recommended titles at the left — unless you chose Arabic or Hebrew as your language, in which case they go right to left.

It used to be that those genre categories felt pretty generic: comedies, dramas, indies. But have you taken a closer look at your categories lately? They are absolutely baroque-like, AI-generated phrases to make you feel understood or respected. But do they? Here are some of my favorites:

• Foreign Satanic Stories From the 1980s
• Post-Apocalyptic Comedies About Friendship
• Cult Evil Kid Horror Movies
• Deep Sea Father-and-Son Period Pieces Based on Real Life Set in the Middle East for Kids
• Assassination Bounty-Hunter Secret Society Dramas Based on Books Set in Europe About Fame for Ages 8 to 10

Feel seen? Or overseen?

How to take control of what Netflix serves you

While Netflix tries to lure you with photos, assumptions and even clickbait, you can fight back! Here's what can help move the algorithm at Netflix to perhaps actually better understand you and offer you shows and movies that you may actually enjoy.

Tell Netflix your real preferences

Don't like what you see? Advise Netflix of your preferences. When you sign up, rate some movies and shows you like — it will change your algorithm results. Go to your Netflix home page, search for a title you like — I like Grace and Frankie — hover over its image, and click “+” to add it to your My List page of favorites, and click the thumbs up or thumbs down icons to feed the algorithm your wishes.

Hunt for genre lists you actually like

One way is to try these sites, http://ogres-crypt.com/public/NetFlix-Streaming-Genres2.html or https://www.whats-on-netflix.com/library/categories/ which list various genres and their Netflix codes. Feel like shopping for Tearjerkers? Simply locate its code from the list of genres (6384), log on to Netflix, and look at the url (universal resource locator, which means website address) at the top. It looks like this: https://www.netflix.com/browse/.

To add a new genre list, add “genre/” plus the Netflix code for the genre that catches your fancy. I almost went for Campy Zombie Movies (1515), but after scrolling through the 45 genres that start with the word “cerebral,” I went with Cerebral Biographical Movies and typed in its code (4518), so that the url read https://www.netflix.com/browse/genre/4518. Presto, up popped Helen Mirren in The Queen (last day to watch on Netflix: Sept. 30), plus a nice list of other titles to scratch that intellectual itch.

And then I had second thoughts. Wouldn't I rather watch Hidden Gem Fight-the-System Movies (Goon, Gasland) or Classic Feel-Good Opposites-Attract Movies (Never on Sunday, White Christmas) or Cool Moustaches (Breaking Bad, Sons of Anarchy, True Grit, Poirot, Super Mario Brothers Super Show)?

But Netflix only helps those who help themselves to its riches — and can bring themselves to make a choice. So take control!

Tim Appelo covers entertainment and is the film and TV critic for AARP. Previously, he was the entertainment editor at Amazon, video critic at Entertainment Weekly, and a critic and writer for The Hollywood Reporter, People, MTV, The Village Voice and LA Weekly.