Saving Relationships, One Movie Night at a Time

A scene we knew all too well …until now …

Take One

MICHAEL AND LAUREN’S LIVING ROOM.

Enter LAUREN (woman, 40s, slightly disheveled from a long day of working from home) into the living room, where MICHAEL (man, 40s, distracted) sits on the couch, mindlessly scrolling through his phone.

LAUREN: (half distracted) Ready for movie night?

MICHAEL: (not looking up) Absolutely.

Lauren sits down on the other side of the couch, and gets on her phone … 5 minutes pass.

LAUREN: (snapping up from her screen) Ok, let’s find something to watch.

She turns on the TV, pulls up Netflix, and begins scrolling through the suggested programs.

LAUREN: How about “Bridgerton”?

MICHAEL: Eh, maybe (clearly uninterested). What else?

LAUREN: That Tiger Woods Special?

MICHAEL: Already seen it.

LAUREN: Without me?

MICHAEL: You were visiting your cousins.

LAUREN: Okay… Oh! I’ve been hearing about that NXIVM Documentary

MICHAEL: I don’t feel like something that intense

LAUREN: (annoyed) Well then how about you come up with some ideas

MICHAEL: Fine! (He takes the remote and starts scrolling.) Ohh! Let’s watch “The Outpost”.

LAUREN: Really? Another war movie?

Arguing montage, with the subtitle “ONE HOUR PASSES” Michael is back on his phone. Eventually, Lauren turns on “Schitt’s Creek” — Michael barely notices, they spend the next two hours on opposite sides of the couch. Michael has fallen asleep half the way through.

According to the Office for National Statistics couples spend about two to two and a half hours a day together. And approximately one third of this is spent watching television. So if this is how we’re spending so much of our time, then why haven’t we figured out how to easily find something to watch together?

A primary reason is because there are more entertainment options than ever before. In 2019 alone, Netflix released 371 original shows. This is greater than the total number of releases in the entire US TV Industry in 2005. While there may be more high quality shows, there is also much more junk.

This phenomenon — growing inability to make a choice as options increase — is called the paradox of choice (a great read or watch). And with the streaming giants spending billions of dollars every year on new content, the options are seemingly endless. With seemingly endless options we find it difficult to decide. And with indecision comes frustration. This is made exponentially more difficult when you’re taking your partner’s viewing preferences into consideration.

It’s 2021, we can do better than this right?! Back to the question of why this has to be so difficult? It doesn’t! There’s an incredibly simple way to flip the scene above to this one:

Take Two

MICHAEL AND LAUREN’S LIVING ROOM.

Enter LAUREN (woman, 40s, slightly disheveled from a long day of working from home) into the living room, where MICHAEL (man, 40s, distracted) sits on the couch, mindlessly scrolling through his phone.

LAUREN: (half distracted) Ready for movie night?

MICHAEL: (not looking up) Absolutely.

LAUREN: Great! I’m in the mood for a drama or documentary. Can you Birdie it for us?

MICHAEL: Already on it.

Lauren sits down next to Michael, snuggling up to him, sneaking a peek at his phone

MICHAEL: I’m more in the mood for a drama (showing her the phone). How about “The Trial of the Chicago 7” or “The Irishman”?

LAUREN: Hmm, let’s do “The Trial of the Chicago 7”.

Michael selects the title, as Lauren pulls a blanket over them both, snuggling into their cozy movie night.

END SCENE.

What is this magical Birdie that saved movie night? It’s an incredibly simple app, and the brainchild of yours truly. Birdie gets its name from the saying “a little birdie told me”. We believe that word of mouth is the most powerful driving force when it comes to decision making.

So how does Birdie work?

• a super simple interface for tracking everything you want to watch in one place — no matter the platform
• the ability to only see the recommendations of the people you follow, and therefore trust. Doesn’t matter if a million trolls have reviewed a show or movie, you’ll only see the trolls you’re following ;)
• and of course, Birdie’s best feature — the ability to find where your watch list overlaps with another users’.

Which brings me to the Birdie challenge: If you and your significant other invest just 10 minutes to create Birdie watch lists — the next time you’re trying to find something you both want to watch you’ll be snuggling on the couch in no time.