This Netflix Hack Will Stop The Never-Ending Movie Search For Good

This list of secret genre codes is the Netflix hack you’ve been waiting for

How many times have you gone on Netflix, only to scroll through your suggested movies for 45 minutes before totally giving up, going back to cable, and watching Real Housewives reruns… again? Netflix is awesome if you know exactly what you want to watch, but let’s face it… the browsing function sucks.

Enter this amazing list of secret genre codes. What the hell is this and where has it been all our lives? There’s a web page simply called What’s On Netflix and it has a comprehensive list of Netflix genres. A click on the search code shows you exactly how many movies exist in that category. This is the Netflix hack you’ve been waiting for.

It. Is. Amazing.

The folks at Netflix have tried to help us all by creating a complicated algorithm analyzing our viewing history. Only, if you’re a parent, your kids might hog the TV and you’re left with a suggestion screen that is full of a bunch of crap you don’t want to watch. How many times have you wished there was just a browse by category option that was comprehensive, not just made up of 30 things Netflix thinks you want to see?

In order to get your comprehensive list of titles in a particular genre, all you have to do is go to What’s on Netflix and look for whatever category you’re interested in. They provide a number you insert into this url to get a list to pop up:

http://www.netflix.com/browse/genre/INSERTNUMBER

Then you simply need to go to Netflix and search for the movie that for once you know will be there since you saw it in a directory!

For example, if you want to search for RomComs, you look at the directory, see that the RomCom code is 5475, and enter that into the end of your url. The comprehensive list of romantic comedies will then pop up.

There is a really cool cheat site that directly links to the lists, too. Netflixcodes.me has a clickable list of categories and a fun “Surprise Me” tool at the top.

I guess one could make the argument that now you just have MORE titles to blankly stare at, but it’s nice to know you’re going to be looking at a complete list — not just the selected few movies Netflix decides to show you.