The Perfect Formula

I could list off recommendations, based on my favorite tv shows or movies, for hours. Thanks to online streaming services, there is an abundance of new and old, movies or series to watch. I tend to fall into the categories of comic books, thrillers, drama and documentaries; that's my niche.

As much as I would love to ramble off my favorites in hopes of sparking your interest, not everyone will be as excited by what I watch as I am. Don’t worry though, I have found the perfect formula to finding what to watch, regardless of anyone's genre of choice.

Let me switch gears for a moment.

I watch as much Netflix as the next gal, but my entertainment outlet of choice is reading. I’m a bookworm by nature and have the same interests in books, as I do TV. I am a huge fan of psycho thriller novels but, I am not a fan of most of the books that ‘make it big’. Lets use ‘Girl on the Train’ for an example. I am not a fan of the book (nor the movie), not because I don’t like the storyline or the genre, but because I did not like the writing style of the author.

Have you ever heard of ‘Gone Girl’, by Gillian Flynn? I loved the book and I loved the author's style, so I was not surprised when I read two of her other books and loved those as well. I follow my favorite authors more than I follow my favorite genres.

So have you guessed what my perfect formula for picking out your next show or movie is?

Let’s start with films. Think of a movie that you really enjoyed, for me I am going to use ‘Inception’. Inception came out in 2010, directed by Christopher Nolan and starred Leonardo DiCaprio. When reading I follow the author, for movies I follow the director. Directors shape a movie into what there perception of what the storyline should be, much like an author would while writing a plotline. If you find one movie you liked, I bet you will also like other movies by the same director. For example, Christopher Nolan is the director for all three of the ‘Dark Knight’ movies.

As I said before, I am a sucker for comic books and thrillers, so of course the Dark Knight series is a must for me. Speaking of comic books, one of my favorite movies is ‘Watchmen’ directed by Zack Snyder. After watching the movie five times, I decided it was time to look into his other work. I was a fan of Wonder Woman (2017), Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, and most of all Sucker Punch. I am a big fan of Snyder’s dramatic and dynamic camera work; a style he is known for.

Now say you run out of movies to watch from your favorite director, what do you do next? Well, I am glad you asked!

Pick your favorite actor from your favorite movie and follow them. Let's go back to Inception, shall we? Leonardo DiCaprio is probably best known for either his role in 'Titanic' or being cheated out of six Oscars.

Regardless, he is an unbelievably talented actor, even though he butchered a Boston accent in the movie ‘The Departed’(I'm not bitter). After falling in love with his work in Inception, I went on to love many of his other films including, 'Shutter Island', 'Catch Me If You Can', 'The Great Gatsby', and 'Blood Diamond'. When you follow actors, they tend to work with the same directors pretty often, which helps you find your next film to watch. For example, Leo worked with the director Martin Scorsese on 'Shutter Island', 'The Departed', and 'Wolf of Wall Street'. My flawless formula to find the next movie to watch it to follow the director.

How about for tv shows? Take your favorite movie, find the list of cast members, pick out your favorite actor or actress, and find out what tv shows they might have been in.

With movies you follow the director than the actor, tv shows you go from actor to network.

Again I am going to take you back to Inception as an example. Elliot Page starred in Inception, and later led me to one of the best tv shows on Netflix, ‘The Umbrella Academy.’ This Netflix original, follows a group of superheroes who form the most dysfunctional family ever.

Netflix has actually come a long way recently, and a lot of their original series have become huge hits. Specifically, those that are categories as horror or thrillers. At this point, they have knocked so many out of the park like, ‘You’, ‘The Haunting of Hill House’, and ‘Stranger Things’, that I am willing to watch anything they make next.

Warning for this next part! If you were born before the 1990’s, I am about to make you feel very old. I’m Sorry!

The first thing I saw Jennifer Anniston in was ‘Just Go With it’. I started to binge watch her movies and when Netflix started to stream ‘Friends’, I stumbled upon Jen yet again, forcing me to watch all ten seasons in the summer of 2016.

Friends is a NBC series and one of the most well known sitcoms in the United States. NBC has some of my favorite shows, with 'Blacklist' ranking second, just below Friends. Following my tried and true method, I first followed the actress, then the network, and successfully found my next binge worth TV show.

Once again you may not like the same genres as me but if you plug in your answers to this formula, I promise you will find your next favorite tv shows and movies!