Whether you’re ‘and chilling’ or not, a lot of factors must be considered when choosing your next Netflix binge, ratings being one of them. I had always assumed that those little stars reflected the average rating given by other Netflix users, but it turns out it’s a bit more complex than that.
Photo by DoctorButtsMD.
There are all sorts of ways to customise your Netflix-viewing experience, but the ratings are one thing that are already customised for you. According to BGR, the number of stars you see come from reviews given by like-minded viewers:
When you’re looking at movie’s splash page, for example, the corresponding rating you see isn’t a running average of how all Netflix users ranked the film. Rather, the ranking represents what users who have similar entertainment tastes as you thought of the movie. As a result, it’s entirely possible for the same movie to display two different ratings for two different accounts.
This is great news, as it means my choices are being influenced by people who enjoy absurdist humour and have seen The Last Waltz at least ten times, and those are the opinions I really care about.
Comments