Why streaming services keep suggesting the same five shows.

The streaming recommender's job is to keep you in the app. It does that by surfacing whatever titles other people like you have finished, weighted by recency. Across millions of viewers this collapses toward a small set of safe, familiar, mid-energy shows.

The flattening effect

A weird, brilliant 10-episode show gets buried by an okay 24-episode show that more people grind through. Optimising for finish-rate is not the same as optimising for taste.

What to do about it

Pre-decide what you want. Use a tool that ranks by fit, not by retention. Or, when in doubt, follow a writer or director you trust into their less-known second-best show.