Movie night stalls before it starts: forty minutes of scrolling, five shortlists, and still nobody agrees. This preset puts the genres your group actually likes on a wheel, so a spin ends the debate and you can start watching.
Step-by-step for movie night
- Edit the list so it only holds genres everyone will watch — delete anything that would cause groans.
- Spin once and let the wheel choose the direction for the night.
- Use that genre to narrow the shelf or the streaming search to three or four titles.
- Spin again only if the group genuinely has no film in that genre, then commit.
- For a longer night, run two spins and pair the results as a double feature.
Why a random pick beats an argument
Asking a group to agree hands the decision to whoever argues hardest. A random draw is neutral: the wheel uses the browser’s Web Crypto API (crypto.getRandomValues) with rejection sampling, so every genre has the same chance no matter where it sits in the list. No hidden favourite, no “it always lands on comedy”.
Customizing the list
- Add streaming-specific categories like “anime”, “documentary”, or “foreign film”.
- Swap genres for moods (“cosy”, “tense”, “silly”) if your group thinks that way.
- Keep one list for family nights and another for grown-up evenings.
- Let each person contribute one genre so the pool reflects the whole room.
Practical tips
- Remove the winning genre so next week cannot repeat it.
- Write the chosen genre on a sticky note and hide the wheel for the rest of the night.
- Pair a noun and an adjective list for odd combos (“horror” + “musical”).
- Save the list you settle on; a good genre pool lasts months.