Find the Best Thanksgiving Movies With Netflix's Secret Tool

Thanksgiving is a time when people come together and binge. We eat a bunch of turkey, drink a lot of wine, and when the festivities are over, there’s a good chance we’ll settle in to stream more videos than anyone should ever watch. The hard part is figuring out which movies are worth playing in the background while the family argues politics and which are more likely to elicit complaints.

Fortunately, there’s an easy way to search. The unofficial Netflix online global search tool (UNoGS) can separate the wheat from the chaff, by searching through the available libraries of every major country’s unique Netflix page. Different countries often have different offerings — most of the time, you’re restricted to viewing things in your country, but there are ways around the system. Besides helping you explore Deep Netflix and handle the post-election blues, UNoGS will also surface the best movies to binge once you’ve finished stuffing your gizzard. Here’s how.

Don’t get too specific with your search

UNoGS allows you to search movies based on their title, description, and cast. Searching for “Thanksgiving” doesn’t return a whole lot, and the movies it does surface are only tangentially related to the celebration of gratitude. “Holiday,” on the other hand, has a bunch of results. Most of them are about Christmas, but let’s be honest, at this point Thanksgiving is basically just a marker for when it’s acceptable to kick off the winter holiday season after Halloween.

Include the whole family with descriptive audio or subtitles

Thanksgiving brings many generations together, so it’s best not to forget someone’s limitations. With UNoGS you can choose to filter results based on their available languages or subtitles. These include descriptive audio, which is useful for the visually impaired, and many subtitles can let anyone with hearing problems know about any relevant sounds happening in the movie. Grandpa might not hear well, but that doesn’t mean he can’t #netflixandnap.

Don’t forget about the children, either

Of course, older generations aren’t the only ones that congregate for the holidays. Many people will also bring their children, and unless you want to explain any “no-no words” or naughty bits to the next generation, you’re better off using the genre selection tool to highlight children’s movies. Bonus points for getting rid of all the unbearable videos by using the ratings tool to exclude anything that IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes, and Netflix have deemed unworthy.

Stick with the classics

Thanksgiving is all about tradition. Chances are that in addition to the holiday staples — turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes — your family also makes the same dishes each year. Support the comfort of experiencing the same thing each year by making sure UNoGS only includes movies released in a certain year. There’s nothing wrong with Forrest Gump or The Princess Bride — why not include them in your marathon streaming session to appease everyone?

Celebrate the golden age of television

Whether you’re hosting everyone or visiting someone else, you probably won’t have to worry about needing to leave in the middle of watching a movie. TV doesn’t have that guarantee: Episodes are short, but seasons are long, and binge-watching is all about getting through multiple episodes in a row. If everyone is okay with sitting for a while, use those same ratings tools and set the type to “series” to share the best television in history with your loved ones.