This site makes browsing Netflix simple again
Tired of spending more time trying to find something to watch on Netflix than actually watching stuff? Flixable aims to fix that.
We've all been there. You sit down for movie night, open Netflix and start looking for something to watch. And you keep looking. And keep looking. And you look until you reach the point of not wanting to watch anything anymore. This is the modern-day version of going to the movie rental store, walking around for an hour and walking out empty-handed.
While I would partially attribute this to having so much to choose from that it's just too hard to pick one movie or show, I'd also blame the Netflix interface. It's approximately the same across all platforms -- a rolling, ever-changing stream of categorized rows that only loosely apply to the watching habits of users.
There's no easy or quick way to browse what's coming to the service, or what's leaving. You can no longer see user ratings on a movie or show. Instead, you're fed an ambiguous match percentage that, in my experience, is not all that accurate.
Enter Flixable.
Reddit user CrazedEll created a web interface that fixes most of the interface gripes with Netflix.
When you first point your browser to flixable.co, you're met with a list of movies or shows on Netflix that, by default, are listed in reverse chronological order by date added. This list can be filtered by genre, IMDB rating and release date range. And it can be ordered by when it was added to Netflix, average rating, title or release year.
You can also search for a specific title or person using the search bar in the upper right of the site.
Clicking on any of the thumbnails or titles will take you to a landing page for that show or movie, with a synopsis and links to genre, director and cast. You can also click the Watch on Netflix button to jump straight over to the Netflix website and begin watching or add to your watchlist. It also includes four similar titles and other recently viewed (by other users, I presume) titles.
Not only can you sort shows by when they were added to Netflix, you can view everything leaving Netflix in the coming month.
You can use Flixable to browse Netflix from other regions, as well. At the time of this writing, only Finland is available (in Finnish), but the developer is currently working on adding Canada, with other regions to follow.
The entire site is clean, simple and easy to use. It will also make you realize just how cluttered the Netflix interface has become, and just how much important stuff gets buried beneath whatever content Netflix wants to push to the front of your feed. Best of all, it adapts perfectly to a mobile format for viewing from your phone.
Still, easily the best part of Flixable for me is the integrated IMDB ratings. If available, the rating is provided in the upper right corner of the thumbnail. This rating is notably more valuable to me than what percentage match a show or movie is for me.