Though it’s incredibly difficult to get an accurate idea of the numbers, it seems, according to Q&A website Quora, that there are currently 9,000 films on US Netflix – about 2.7 years of content! However, as we all know, although finding something (anything) to watch is easy, finding – and then settling on – a decent flick to watch can take half as long as the running-time itself.
Well, what if you took away the decision-making altogether? If you haven’t heard of it already, Flix Roulette works just like the game we’re all familiar with thanks to online roulette and the like. The difference here is that, instead of gambling money, this site lets you leave your evening’s viewing down to chance.
You’re probably thinking to yourself that this might be all well and good, but what are the chances of you landing on a gem of a film, rather than a bit of a soggy lettuce? That all depends on how much randomness you want to allow.
There are a number of different variables, tick boxes and fields you can choose to adjust, check or fill in, in order to increase your control over the sort of movie result you’d like to see. Some of the best fun, though, comes from opening up all the options and just going with the flow.
Still, if you’re not quite ready to risk it all, here are the options you have to play with and some of the benefits of using them.
Star rating
Generally speaking, people tend to trust star rating systems, especially when it comes to Netflix. So many people use the service that so-called ‘social proof’ holds powerful reassurance.
Altering the scale so you’re only shown results for films rated three stars and above should ensure you end up watching something of a decent standard.
Equivalent casino gamble: Using this approach is probably akin to placing a column and a dozen bet. You’ve got a good chance of winning but there’s still plenty of room for disappointment.
Director / Actor Name
Directors don’t tend to make as many movies as actors, mainly due to the fact that the former tend to spend more time working on pre- and post-production responsibilities, as well as shooting the film itself. That’s the first thing you should take into consideration here.
If you’ve got a few directors in mind, then you might have quite a lengthy list of films to hit. Of course you can increase your odds of landing on a flick of real quality by painstakingly taking out a few names from your selection. And even more so if the ones left in are either new to the game or only ever worked on a handful of productions.
Why not mix it up by throwing in a few directors or actors you actually don’t like? Go on, live a little!
Equivalent casino gamble: Without including those less favored names in the list, you’re hedging your bets a little, really. Chances are you’re going to be happy with anything that comes in. It’s a bit like placing bets on all the numbers on the table apart from zero.
Genre
It’s surely fair to assume that we all have our own favorite movie genres. And when it comes to Flix Roulette, you can make life as easy or as hard for yourself as you feel.
If you’re into your sci-fi and comedy, putting those two together is only really going to throw back a certain type of film – we’re talking zany, whacky space adventures. Add in Oscar-winning titles in there and your possible field is probably down to one or two, if that – but hey, at least you know they’re going to be awesome, right?
Equivalent casino gamble: Whatever you choose, you know you’re narrowing it down quite a bit with this option – it’s similar to putting down a color or even/odd bet, you’re almost looking at a 50% chance of success.
Keyword
This is an interesting one, because it all comes down to what you can think of – if you have the imagination then any sort of result could be returned for you. For example, you could mix it up with some genre keywords like action, comedy or horror, and a few actor and director names – or even miscellaneous suggestions such as long or old.
It’s more than likely you’ll go for a keyword approach if you know what sort of mood you’re in and just need to give the site’s algorithm a taster of that to work with. Again, if you fancy throwing the proverbial spanner in the works, you could decide to chuck in a couple of words that you understand could come back to sting you. Though why you’d choose to do that, only you know.
Equivalent casino gamble: It feels like a straight up – where you place single bets on individual numbers. The more you place (just as the more keywords you enter), the better chance you have of winning.