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As a general case, how can I find movies or TV shows similar to an existing movie or TV show that I like?

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For any future visitors, this question and it's answer are intended to be a one-stop shop for all future "i like x, what's something similar?". But instead of only answering one, fairly limited question, it gives users the ability to find their own answers. – DForck42♦ Jan 7 at 19:04
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Also, since this is community wiki, you can edit in your own answer to the connonical answer started by keen. – DForck42♦ Jan 7 at 19:05
Just type "Similar movie/TV Show to XYZ" in Google Search. It will give you many link resources. Then see what you would like. – Somnath Muluk Jan 8 at 7:14
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Also, I would like to add that you can always come and chat at the Screening Room and another room for Indian Movies. I have found some good guys in the Indian movies room, and got lots of recommendations there. – KK. Mar 27 at 4:08
just search on google "Related:<Movie Name>" – vs4vijay Apr 17 at 11:01

4 Answers

up vote 15 down vote accepted

There are a couple of websites that can help find similar shows or movies:

  • If you go to the TV show or movie's Wikipedia page, scroll to the bottom and you'll see a box with the Categories for that page. Often this will contain links to various genres or classes of TV shows and movies. Clicking on those links will take you to lists of all the works that have been put into those Categories, so they'll share that similarity with the work you enjoyed.

  • TV Tropes is a site that documents and classifies works (it covers TV shows and films, but many other things as well, such as books, manga, fanfic, etc.) based on genres as well as 'tropes' which are more specific plot/writing devices. So you have pages that list various works that have casually killed off characters. Similar to Wikipedia, if you head to a specific TV show or movie page, you'll get a list of tropes that this TV show or movie used. Those trope pages will then have links to other works that are in the same genres or use the same tropes.

  • IMDB documents TV shows and films and the people who work on them. So if you like a specific actor, or the writing, or the directing of a TV show or film, hit up IMDB. You can look up a specific actor/writer/director and see everything they've worked on. Wikipedia also has some of this information, but IMDB tends to be more comprehensive as this is their specific focus.

  • The moviespoiler.com is a great site to search for movies based on plots.

  • Jinni.com is also used to search for movies and TV shows based on your taste.

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Just a warning for anyone who's not familiar with TV Tropes. It's a giant time sink! It's nearly impossible to just read one page, and once you start following links, you can't stop. So make sure you have lots of free time first. – Matthew Crumley Jan 7 at 18:34
Agreed forever on TVTropes. Enter at your own risk, and not at 2am. – pandorym Apr 16 at 11:14
up vote 2 down vote

Jinni is the way to go, and is the future! (See movie genome info.)

Wikipedia was mentioned, but what was not mentioned is that they have a few stellar consolidation pages to do searches from. This list of lists page is invaluable, as just one example.

IMDB was mentioned, but what was not mentioned is the unbelievably great Keyword search function. Searching for movies by keywords is a great way to do it. (Ahm.. I’m rather chuffed with myself for creating the first keyword for “female sitting on a toilet” (Wow – did I just share that?) and “meme”. Be sure to click on the “Movie” link on the right to refine your search to just movies or TV or whatever. Jinni is basically generating huge amounts of keywords like this for movies so that people like us will make it to the next level of the pagoda!

Netflix changed the world! (if you have a subscription.) They have great cross references to similar shows too. Also, you can use their central search field for your own keyword search based on movie summaries. (e.g. “Biker” will bring up Angels from Hell (1968))

Finally, YouTube again for keywords is ..key. Type in a movie name + “trailer” and then see what other movies pop-up on the right hand side. Love that!

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Jinni is already mentioned! :P – Mistu4u Jan 7 at 17:32
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The answer is CW so that you may edit your own advice in it instead of posting another answer, this whole question is meant to be a canonical solution to users who post "I like X, where can I find more like it?" – TylerShads♦ Jan 7 at 17:33
@Mistu4u - The entry was edited and did not have the last two entries when I started. Didn't see the change before I entered my info. If it had jinni, I would not have bothered to answer the question. – ipso Jan 7 at 17:42
@Tyler - CW – oh. Does that mean everyone goes in and makes one big list? – ipso Jan 7 at 17:48
Essentially, yes. Your answer is great, don't get me wrong. But if we're going to be using this for a canonical then the CW works well. The great thing about CW is that no-one gets rep from it so that it is purely informational! – TylerShads♦ Jan 7 at 18:00
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up vote 2 down vote

Google Search

I think people should be trained/ advised to use Google search.

But though Just type "movie/TV Show similar to XYZ" in Google Search. It will give you many link resources. Then see what you would like in different results.

e.g. TV shows similar to Friends

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up vote 0 down vote

I know I'm late, but in addition to jinni.com and moviespoiler.com, tastekid.com is really useful and along a similar vein.

But as a bonus, it also allows the user to get similar for Books, Music, and Video Games.

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protected by TylerShads♦ Jan 8 at 14:35

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