Glancing Askance: You might like

By MARC WOLLIN

Whenever we get together with friends, the conversation travels several well-worn paths. After lamenting the state of the world (and agreeing not to spend the entire evening dwelling on it), we touch on families and health issues, sports, vacation plans, gossip about mutual friends not in attendance and new restaurants. We also talk about cultural highlights, be they concerts or other performances, local events or art shows. And especially since the pandemic turned us all into home theater junkies, invariably one question comes up: “So what are you watching?”

In the past the majority of that viewing was on broadcast and then cable networks. But those numbers have been steadily dropping in favor of streaming services: in the four years leading up to May 2025, streaming usage grew by 71%, while cable viewing dropped by 39% and broadcast viewing fell by 21%. In fact, according to a March 2025 report from Deloitte, the average U.S. streaming video subscriber pays for four services at a cost of $69 per month, a figure up 13% from the previous year, while one in four reported spending more than $75 per month. 

Different folks have different tastes and preferences, and so not all are on the same wavelength. Some are sport aficionados, and subscribe to football or hockey packages, while others are classic movie buffs or horror fans. Still, there is generally a good deal of common ground, and most have one or two of the big guns, namely Amazon Prime, Netflix, Hulu or HBO Max. 

You would think that would offer ample opportunity to share perspectives and discuss opinions. But it’s complicated by the synchronization issue. In the past, we all watched the same thing at the same time. That meant that if you were current with your weekly viewing, nobody knew more than you did. Sure, you might miss an episode, and so plead with friends not to tell you who shot J.R. But other than that you all were working from the same set of plot points: who was sleeping with who, the latest clues as to the killer, or the laugh out loud line that Billy said to Sabrina. 

With streaming, however, we’re all on different schedules. You might have binge-watched the entirety of season two of “The Crown,” while your friends might still be getting their feet wet in season one.  That means there’s not just the potential of spoiling the big reveal, but bringing up plot points which make no sense in the earlier viewing universe. Discussing the character arc of Detective McMurphy becomes an impossibility, not to mention that you don’t want to give away that his daughter is now the lead prosecutor.

The breadth of options has also meant there’s a reasonable chance you’re watching something your friends haven’t, or at least not yet. As such, we’ve all turned into recommendation engines. We’ve always done this in other areas, telling friends if you like the pasta at Mama’s, you should try Papa’s. Now we’re doing it for online entertainment. Netflix has done this for years with their “Cinematch” viewing system, best exemplified by the “Because you watched ‘Stranger Things’ we think you’ll enjoy …” page. It was so successful that they even won a technical Emmy in 2013 for “Personalized recommendation engines for video discovery.”

Just as TikTok has an algorithm that is tweaked to keep you coming back for more, so too has Netflix continually tuned their engine to offer you viewing options that seem right up your alley.  They’ve tried various methods to identify the underlying elements of a movie or show, and offer you suggestions that have the same “DNA.” Those categories are sliced and diced ever finer, coded into buckets far beyond simply rom-coms and thrillers. 

How fine? There’s code 1192582, which equates to “binge-worthy British crime TV shows” and includes “Adolescence” and “Top Boy.” Or code 3272152, a category labeled “don’t watch hungry” which sports “The Great British Baking Show” and “Culinary Class Wars.” 

Code 81615585 equals “small town charm” and includes “North of North” and “Gilmore Girls,” while code 81238162 is for “supernatural soaps,” offering the stories of drama queens with a paranormal flair such as “Manifest” and “The Umbrella Academy.” 

Forty-two years ago nearly half the U.S. population decided to sit down at the same time and watch the final episode of “M*A*S*H” together. Today the top four scripted shows average about 6% viewership. We all had more in common when there were just three channels, but that ship has sailed. We can only hope they name a new James Bond soon so we have something we can all talk about together. 

Marc Wollin of Bedford watches very little on television. He prefers to read. His column appears weekly via email and online on Substack and Blogspot as well as Facebook, LinkedIn and X.