CBS/PexelsI for one can never decide what to watch on Netflix; those episodes you’ve seen so many times they feel like throwing on a comfy old tea-stained dressing gown.
I’m talking Gavin & Stacey, Friends and David Attenborough documentaries. Peep Show, The Trip, and particularly cathartic episodes of Marie Kondo.
When I need these sort of restless re-watching sessions – where continuity and intense focus goes out of the window – I sometimes need a little nudge towards classic, brilliant episodes which might have slipped my mind.
This could be the Queer Eye episode where the bloke proposes to his rom-com loving girlfriend. Or that underwater Bojack Horseman episode with the baby seahorses.
Now there is a new extension which will save me from scrolling incessantly through Netflix in search of the perfect evening wind-down watch, stopping my cuppa from going cold on my bedside table.
ShuffleFlix is the extension I never knew I needed, and is perfect for those of us who often just like to shuffle playlists on Spotify and go with it.
NBCShuffleFlix, an innovative new extension from the team at Flixed, adds a random episode button to Netflix when using Google Chrome as your online browser, as per GeekTyrant.
All you have to do is install the extension on Chrome and click on any TV show which takes your fancy. Here, you should see a ‘Random Episode’ button.
If you’re already in the midst of an episode, you’ll see a new button in the bottom right corner of your screen, which looks like two twin arrows. Once you click this, you can swap to a random episode from there too.
Warner Bros. Television DistributionThose who have already used this nifty add-on have been impressed by its helpfulness, having saved plenty of time they would have otherwise spent scrolling.
One person commented:
FINALLY. Got back from work last night and had 45 minutes to kill. Didn’t need to waste any time looking for what to watch, and I ended up getting an episode I had forgotten about and probably wouldn’t have picked but ended up loving it. Great way to re-discover old favourites!
Another said:
Really cool feature that can be used when you’re watching a series for the first time and unable to decide which episode to start with first! Glad this extension helps randomize episodes and keeps things refreshing.
NetflixFlixed have also created a similar extension for use on Hulu.
It had been rumoured Netflix were seeking to integrate a similar ‘random’ option natively into their app, but Flixed have clearly been losing too much time waiting for that day to arrive, stuck in an infinite loop of That Mitchell And Webb Look episodes, and have beaten the streaming behemoth to the punch.
There’s my day off sorted, and every day off moving forward for that matter.
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Jules studied English Literature with Creative Writing at Lancaster University before earning her masters in International Relations at Leiden University in The Netherlands (Hoi!). She then trained as a journalist through News Associates in Manchester. Jules has previously worked as a mental health blogger, copywriter and freelancer for various publications.