Almost all of us have been ready to watch a movie (or TV show) but felt hamstrung by the sheer weight of options available to us. However, thankfully, help is available—and when used correctly, it can help you find new films to watch.
When There’s So Much to Watch That You Don’t Watch Anything
With so many good movies and television shows in existence, and so many streaming services to watch them on, it’s often difficult to find exactly what to watch. In fact, the majority of people will have faced that dilemma of having so much to choose from that they never narrow it down to just one option. And before you know it, the evening you had planned to spend sitting on the sofa watching movies and eating popcorn has ended.
The answer is to utilize one of the many websites that promise to help you narrow down the choices and find something actually worth watching. There are countless options, including household names such as IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes, but I have started using a site called Flick Metrix to find new movies to watch. While I still have to decide what film to watch at that moment, at least it means I have a finite number of good movies to choose from.
What Is Flick Metrix, and What Can You Do With It?
Flick Metrix is a website designed to help you narrow down your search for the perfect films (or TV shows) to watch. At its core is a list of movies and TV shows available on all the major streaming platforms, and a search function capable of zeroing in on which ones should suit you. The more you narrow your search, the more relevant suggestions for what to watch you’ll receive.
Beyond this basic function, you can create a watchlist, mark films that you’ve seen, mark films that you’ve seen and liked, create a list of favorites, recommend films, and see a list of suggestions for what you should watch based on the information you provide. This all adds up to Flick Metrix being an extremely useful site for anyone who watches films and TV shows regularly.
How to Use the Search Function to Find Movies to Watch
The most basic (and obvious) way to use Flick Metrix is to utilize the search function. When you open the site, the search function is front and center, and therefore cannot be missed. You can make use of it without an account. However, what you can do with the search results will be limited without signing up.
Whether you’re logged in or not, you can search for the title of a film or TV show you have in mind, or change various filters to find new content. Without applying any filters or changing the Sort By default, Flick Metrix will show you the highest-rated films available to stream. Which means classics such as The Godfather, Pulp Fiction, Apocalypse Now, and There Will Be Blood.
Keep Applying Filters Until You Find the Perfect Movie
The key to using Flick Metrix’s search function is to keep applying filters until you find just the right movie for you at that moment. A basic search can surface lots of great films you can (and should) watch at some point, but maybe not the exact one you’re seeking right then. Just as there are ways to use Google Search more effectively, Flick Metrix is more effective when you apply filters.
The filters available include limiting your finds to specific genres and streaming services, plus requiring a minimum number of critic ratings. There are also sliders to change the spectrum of release dates and average ratings. You can then change the Sort By order by average rating, date released, number of critic ratings, and more.
If you click More Options (as I did in the screenshot above), you can narrow your search even further. That lets you exclude certain genres, specify particular languages, and use sliders for ratings from specific sites, including IMDb, Metacritic, and Letterboxd. Last but not least, you can add search fields for the title, director, cast, and plot. So for example, you can search for all films starring Leonardo DiCaprio.
Sign In to Create a Watchlist and Get Recommendations
Flick Metrix offers a lot of other elements beyond its search function. However, to get the most out of them (and the site in general), you need to create an account and sign in to it. This is easy to do, as you can either use an email/password combination (be sure to avoid ridiculously bad passwords), or sign in with Google or Facebook.
Once you have created an account and signed in, more options become available. All of which will help you in your pursuit of finding movies and TV shows worth watching on streaming services. These options include marking the movies you have seen and/or liked, marking movies as favorites, and adding movies and TV shows to a watchlist.
These are the groups to know:
- Watchlist will be populated with the movies and TV shows you add to it, so you’ll always have something to watch.
- Seen is a list of movies you have previously seen, removing them from search results.
- Liked is a list of movies you have seen and marked as liked, allowing Flick Metrix to make similar suggestions.
- Favorites is a list of movies you have seen and marked as your favorites.
- Suggestions are movies and TV shows that Flick Metrix recommends based on the information you’ve provided.
Flick Metrix Is a Site Worth Investing Some Time In
All in all, I have been able to wring a lot of use out of Flick Metrix. It has aided my search for content to watch on some of the biggest streaming services, and let me create a watchlist that I can revisit whenever I’m in need of something good to watch.
However, to really get the most out of Flick Metrix, you need to put some time into it. I suggest creating an account and registering films you’ve seen, liked, and want to watch. That way, you’ll have no excuse the next time you’re stuck looking for something to stream. And if that isn’t enough, you could always ask ChatGPT to decide what movie you should watch next.
