If my Netflix recommendations are anything to go by, I am tragically basic | Emma Beddington

A friend is feeling uncomfortably targeted by the streaming service’s personalised suggestions. Mine, meanwhile, reinforce an inconvenient truth

A single female friend is feeling uncomfortably targeted by Netflix. The content categories the streamer is now offering on her homepage include Grown-ass Women Living Their Best Lives (sample content: Sex and the City) and Sad Girl Fall (Gossip Girl). It feels a bit patronising – like an acquaintance loudly “go girl-ing” your lifestyle choices without anyone asking for their opinion in the first place. It’s pedestrian, too. “Where are my Period Drama Sluts?” she complains. She’s not alone: social media users have expressed their bemusement at being offered Sad Girl Fall viewing.

It made me and my friend wonder whether Netflix gives men similarly dopey, stereotypical suggestions. Snooping at my sons’ Netflix profiles, I was relieved neither is being targeted by any Angry Man Autumn content (though given how much lengthy black-and-white auteur cinema they’ve made me sit through, I doubt they’re enjoying the Watch Together for Older Kids offerings of tween sitcoms). We started brainstorming: I came up with It’s Got Vin In, It’s a Win and It Doesn’t Count As Crying If There’s Sport. She suggested Lasers and Explosions and Art Flicks for Mansplaining. Netflix, call us.

If my Netflix recommendations are anything to go by, I am tragically basic | Emma Beddington

Topics

Related

Tom Hanks reckons 35 is the worst age – my highly unscientific research says otherwise | Emma Beddington

I’ve gained a whole new insight into my personality – from a cat psychiatrist | Emma Beddington

Winter is coming – and so is my 50th birthday. It’s time to eat all the pastries and grab all the joy | Emma Beddington

Welcome to the new era of midlife lust! I need a lie down | Emma Beddington

'I'm a hoarder - it's my mess and it's who I am'

‘I’m a mother in turmoil’: My daughter refuses to see me — and she won’t let me see my grandchild. Should I cut her out of our will?

My husband is seriously competitive in our weekly bridge matches. Am I abnormal not to care if I win or lose?

‘We have no health insurance’: My wife died, leaving behind a lot of medical debt. Am I responsible?

More from The Guardian

US and Israel reject ICC warrant for Netanyahu’s arrest – Middle East live

Matt Gaetz withdraws his nomination to be Trump’s attorney general – live

Merkel: I mistook Trump for ‘someone completely normal’

First close-up image of a star outside Milky Way shows supergiant in ‘cocoon’

British lawyer is fifth person to die in suspected methanol poisoning in Laos