I’ve always liked having a place to keep track of the movies and television shows I watch because it’s fun to look back at what I’ve seen. I also enjoy rating the things I enjoyed and discovering something new based on the experiences of others when I’m not sure what to watch next. When it comes to movies, Letterboxd does a pretty great job of making all of that possible.
But television shows are a different story. With dozens of episodes, series can take months to finish. So keeping track of everything isn’t quite as straightforward. I wanted a platform that treated television as more than just another thing to add to my watchlist. And it turns out there’s one built specifically for that. It’s called Serializd. And after discovering it, I am obsessed.
Serializd understands that watching TV is a commitment
I don’t always finish what I start, and that’s totally fine
One of the things I’ve come to appreciate about Serializd is that it understands how unpredictable my taste in television shows can be. I might start a series because everyone’s talking about it, get a few episodes in, and realize it’s not for me. Or I might genuinely enjoy a show but hit pause on watching it because something else grabs my attention.
So keeping track of what I’m watching can get messy when there’s no easy way to tell what I’ve finished, what I’m still working through, and what I’ve totally abandoned. But Serializd gives me a way to organize all of that by allowing me to mark shows I’m currently watching, pause them when I need a break, or drop them altogether.
There’s even a watchlist for the shows I want to get around to eventually. What I like about this is that it reflects how people actually watch things. The episode tracking is also very useful for longer series, especially if I’ve been watching several different things at once. I think this is where a dedicated TV tracker makes the most sense since my relationship with a show can change as I watch it.
Serializd makes discovering TV shows feel more personal
Sometimes the best recommendations come from other viewers
Serializd is also great for finding your next favorite show. Especially since scrolling through the massive catalogs on streaming services can be a tedious task. But that doesn’t mean I just want to pick something with the most views. I want to know what other people have spent their time on, whether it’s an older series or something new.
That’s where Serializd’s Discover page comes in. It lets me explore shows, while user-generated lists offer recommendations based on the interests of other television fans. Instead of relying entirely on an algorithm to decide what I might like, I can stumble across a series because someone took the time to recommend it or explain why they loved it.
The social side of the platform is just as important. I can follow other users, read their reviews, interact with their lists, and recommend shows to people I follow. There are also discussions dedicated to particular shows on the mobile app. And I think television benefits from that kind of conversation because it makes tracking shows feel more personal than checking stuff off a list.
TV shows deserve more than a single rating
A season finale isn’t the only episode worth talking about
The biggest thing that makes television so different from movies is that a show’s quality can change dramatically from one episode to the next. A series might spend weeks building toward a moment that completely changes how I see its characters, or deliver a mid-season episode that’s much more memorable than the finale.
Giving the entire show one rating doesn’t always leave much room for those distinctions. And it isn’t always fair when a series finale is a complete let-down. That’s why I like that Serializd lets users rate and review individual episodes and seasons. It gives people a way to talk about the parts of a series that worked for them, rather than squeezing their entire experience into a single verdict.
It also makes the platform more interesting for shows that are still airing since viewers are still figuring out what they think. The most interesting conversations about a series happen around specific episodes, especially when viewers have completely different reactions to the same plot twist. Being able to capture those individual reactions makes Serializd a better fit for how I actually experience a series.
Serializd isn’t perfect, but it’s the best option
The alternatives don’t always get the balance right either
Of course, an app can have all the right ideas and still be a little glitchy. But despite a few bugs reported by users on Reddit, they still preferred Serializd over other television trackers. Their reasons included everything from its interface to the active social community, and being able to review individual episodes and seasons rather than treating an entire series as one entry.
I also don’t think Serializd needs to replace Letterboxd entirely. Letterboxd is excellent for movie fans, but there’s a good argument for keeping film and television separate instead of combining everything into one giant catalog. What I’d like to see is Serializd continue to improve without losing sight of what makes it appealing.
As someone who spends loads of time watching television, having a place to record all the things I’ve seen is very satisfying. Especially when my memory of a specific show might start to fade after a while. It’s also super fun to see how my opinion of a series and its characters might have changed based on my own detailed reviews.