Secret Codes Offer New Ways of Using Netflix Categories

Can’t make sense of that strangely specific Netflix genre “Hidden Gems based on Contemporary Literature?” Thought the streaming giant had run out of ways to label your innermost movie lover through its assortment of mismatched and awkwardly revealing categories?

According to Gizmodo, Netflix’s categorization system is a rabbit-hole that goes much deeper than we thought.

Engineers at Netflix have designed a digital catacomb, if you will, to help the streaming giant organize its library of ever-evolving licensed content. Apparently, you can access that hidden system by playing with the site’s URL.

Each of Netflix’s main genres has its own page and accompanying URL, at the end of which you will find a string of numbers. Those numbers are what the website uses to label that particular category. Change the number sequence and your Netflix universe suddenly expands exponentially. Categories found this way include titles such as “late night comedies,” “deep sea horror movies,” “steamy thrillers” and “Korean TV shows.”

The trick was first uncovered by The Atlantic’s Alexis Madrigal, after spending several weeks completing a rather extensive breakdown of Netflix’s “meticulous” collection of genre descriptions and keywords.

Check out this unofficial code list, for the streaming site’s “altgenres” to help you crack the Netflix vault and find that perfect movie.