Secret trick saves you a lot of lifetime

Netflix releases new content every day, but which ones are really worth it? If you don’t want to be rudely surprised in the course of a film or series, it’s better to use ratings as a guide. But that’s no longer available on Netflix, so what to do? This is where our useful secret trick comes in handy.

The streaming provider is not very keen on providing information, real ratings have now been abolished at Netflix. All there is is a so-called personal “Agreement index” that tells us whether we might like a movie or a series. Unfortunately it is completely useless.

Display Netflix content with IMDb rating: Chrome extension helps

What would really help are the ratings on the IMDb (movie database), Rotten Tomatoes or aggregators like Metacritic, which summarize different reviews. Unfortunately, Netflix only hides their useful information and does not display it. So before we start a film or a series, we would first have to separately insure the quality of the content on these websites. Pretty complex. In the end, it costs a lot of valuable lifetime. But we’re bringing it back now, at least when we’re watching Netflix in the Chrome browser and browsing the catalogue.

There are several for Chrome Extensions that “smuggle” missing ratings into the UI. “Trim” is mentioned here as an example. The add-on displays the ratings from IMDb and, if available, also from Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic directly in the browser for the respective content. This way you can see beforehand whether the content is worth watching at all.

What do the values ​​mean?

As a guide, here are a few hints on how to interpret the numbers. If the film or series has the following rating on IMDb, this means:

• Under 5 points: Away with it, pure waste of time.
• Between 5 and 5.9 points: Only if you have already done everything else.
• Between 6 and 6.9 points: you can watch it, solid entertainment.
• Between 7 and 7.9 points: Good material, worth it.
• From 8 points upwards: a must-see program.

The following applies to Rotten Tomatoes: less than 50 percent junk, above that it gets better. At Metacritic, the ratings are mostly balanced and rarely reach maximum values, so these can usually be somewhat lower compared to the IMDb, even with good to very good content. By the way, if you prefer to plan ahead, you might want to take a closer look at our tip on “JustWatch” on GIGA.