At some point around 2006 I could sort all Netflix titles by user rating and even better, what Netflix expected I would rate a given title. This expected rating became incredibly accurate after I’d rated 50-100 titles according to the extant five star system. It was so good that I found myself watching many titles that I otherwise wouldn’t have considered, because the system was invariably right. I could also safely avoid titles I was very interested in when the system surmised I would be disappointed. And I could very easily inspect, sort, and edit my watch list.

Today I rarely use Netflix, and I wouldn’t pay for it. Periodically I open the app and add to my list those titles that are immediately visible which I know I want to watch, like comedy specials of comedians I’m familiar with, but I don’t inspect further, because if I haven’t already heard about a title from some external sources I trust, it’s not worth my time to check. That list just grows and grows, though titles are often removed as they become unavailable, but I never prune the list, because when I remove one title, I’m taken all the way back to the beginning of the list. Trying is just a wast of time.

It is baffling to me that anyone could interact with Netflix’s current UI and conclude that it was anything but a raging dumpster fire.