What I Missed By Trusting the Reviews
The Reader’s Edge | Charlie Samways | August 16, 2026 |
Last weekend I watched The Last House on Netflix, and it was the first film in ages I put on without checking the reviews online.
This is something which feels really rare. My family has developed a strong review-first mentality, and I am one of the worst for it.
My thinking has always been that if time is limited, review scores help us determine if something’s worth spending our time and money on.
Watching without any pre-perceptions, The Last House seemed reasonable enough for a Saturday movie night-in. Because it felt like a film with plenty of flaws, it sparked conversation between my partner and me about what worked, and what didn’t.
It felt like we talked about this film in a way we hadn’t for so long.
As we were approaching the end of the week, I started seeing reviews heavily criticising the film and labelling it as not worth watching. If I’d seen these reviews before the weekend, I wouldn’t have watched the film.
In a strange coincidence, during the same week I was listening to an old Romesh Ranganathan podcast with Ben Elton, where they started discussing reviews. They mentioned how a 1-star has become a weapon that media can use to draw you in. When something is bad, going to the very lowest rating makes that review entertaining.
This all made me step back and take notice of how I’ve become so review-centric. Was I missing out on experiences because I was happy to be led by what other people had experienced?
The more I thought about it, the more I realised some of the best conversations I’ve had about content have been when it’s not met my expectations.
One of my favourite examples of this was the final series of Game of Thrones. When something leaves you wishing it were done differently, everyone wants to share how they’d have made it better.
Increasingly, we never get to have these conversations, because we filter out the imperfect experiences before they happen.
The Rotten Tomatoes Effect
A 2023 Fandango survey shows that I’m not the only one whose behaviour is impacted by review performance.
It was found that 72% of moviegoers check Rotten Tomatoes before deciding what to watch.
Sites like Rotten Tomatoes or IMDB provide a level of comfort that you’re going with the crowd’s view. That’s provided through a quick aggregated score, which is easy to interpret.
The other benefit that I realised review scores give you is the ability to shift the blame for a bad pick from the individual to the crowd. I have recommended a film to someone before and backed it up by telling them a review score. My opinion feels more secure backed by this information.
Considered more widely, studios are increasingly aware of this shift. There is a priority given to content they believe will score well, which pushes smaller, riskier, unconventional films into the shadows. The impact can be that general audiences miss out on a wider range of cinematic experiences.
Across wider entertainment, this trend should be worrying. Alan Moore, a celebrated comic writer (Watchmen and V for Vendetta), advised young writers to deliberately read bad books. The idea was that when creatives find something bad, they can learn to avoid it in their own work.
This approach can definitely be both informative and entertaining. I watched the cult classic The Room, starring Tommy Wiseau, a film considered so bad it inspired its own movie about its making.
That’s why I am making efforts to avoid reviews and consume content based on what looks good to me. Before, every book, show or film was always preceded by a quick review check. Now, I make choices based on the merit of the blurb and trailers.
The more I avoid reviews, the more I realise that this comfort of choice may have been limiting my experiences to something that felt safe. Pushing myself into areas that ask me to form my own opinions is where I believe creativity can be found.
This Week’s Question
Is there something you've avoided, a film, a book, a show, purely because of its reviews? Would you be willing to try it now?
Reply to me at hello@charliesamways.com. I read every one.
From The Channel This Week
This week’s video was an opportunity to check out the most talked-about e-reader in recent years, and find out whether it’s really a “Kindle killer”:
Is the Xteink X3 About to KILL Kindle?
And I’ve just updated my Free Kindle Guide with a bonus section on speed reading, which is available for all members to download here
Wishing you all the best this week, and enjoy exploring content without the constraint of reviews.
Catch up next week,
Charlie Samways