I think this is a good point. At first glance it seems that using technology in this way is attempting to draw everyone’s attention to one film.

Highlighting romantic scenes in a movie which may not traditionally be seen as a romance film can be seen as manipulative if:

• There are advertisements in films/short series’ where those involved in getting the media in question to market receive advertisement dollars (Not 100% sure how this works, if someone is, I look forward to hearing your perspective).
• The intention is to get people to look at content instead of enjoy it.

I think we have to look at a few things to understand whether or not this is the case

1. The recommendation is based on what you have already watched. Not only that but you can close out of the film if you like, and I am guessing somewhere in their algorithm it notices that if I opened Good Will Hunting after watching 10 romance films and closed out somewhere around the time the romance scenes started than it would pick up on reasons why.
2. Not finding the content you enjoy would push you off of the platform which isn’t good for the user or Netflix, and everyone involved (filmmakers for example).
3. The goal is to continuously push (so to speak) content onto your screen. And since the ball is constantly rolling (new content is being generated and if you can’t find content you like you’ll keep looking) it’s important to realize that the point isn’t necessarily a “complete recommendation” but continuous recommendations until the day they can just start playing and you won’t disagree with their algorithm.

What is a Complete Recommendation?

I think complete recommendations have to be looked at in two ways

1. Completing the movie that you opened
2. A day sometime in the future where they know what you want to watch before you want to watch it.

The funny thing is that the most readily available way for Netflix to understand what you actually like, is their original content. Not only because of their control over being able to write the next season, but by the sheer fact that if you binge a Netflix original series than they have a more complete picture of the shows you like. I find myself watching more Netflix series than not. I think this will get my account to the day where I have a “complete recommendation” in the second type I described, where Netflix originals will play automatically when I open my browser.

Look forward to hearing everyone’s thoughts!