Functionality

The purpose of the application is the ability to check off episodes of a series that you have seen and view details of episodes yet to come. In that respect, SeriesGuide works beautifully. Digging a little deeper reveals some features that function well, but feel crammed in at times. As an example, clicking the YouTube extension opens the aforementioned app’s search results for “Series Name + Episode Name”. In my experience, this usually produces fan-made reaction videos for the selected episode. While this may be interesting content, I don’t feel that it is necessary in this context, nor is it the type content the feature is designed for. Additional extensions, like Google Play’s, only work if that content is available through the source. For example, clicking the Google Play extension on the page for a Daredevil episode (a Netflix Original), provides nothing.

A native comments section yields some healthy discussion, provided the selected show’s audience is large enough to have made its way to SeriesGuide. The IMDb button provides more detailed information on the plot and cast of an episode. A ‘List’ feature allows for user-defined catalogs for shows and movies. I could see this being used for specific genres and the like. For example, I was able to use a ‘List’ to distinguish Netflix Original programs from the rest of the shows I watch. Additionally, SeriesGuide features a ‘Collections’ box, which seems to function as a “Liked” index, as well as the ability to add shows to your device’s calendar, so you’ll never miss an episode.

A good portion of the app’s content is derived from trakt.tv, a website with a similar purpose to SeriesGuide: helping users track what television shows and movies they have and haven’t watched, gaining valuable, detailed knowledge in the process. In a way, SeriesGuide feels like an extension of trakt.tv. I’d go so far as to say that if the app were called ‘Trakt,’ few users would bat an eye. Ratings are sourced from Trakt, and each person’s shows are stored and maintained on Trakt.tv. SeriesGuide provides a clean interface and some additional features, but it’s clear that a lot of the grunt work is done by utilizing Trakt’s APIs.

I’d be remiss to not mention the app’s movie tracking capabilities, which draw similarities to its television features. If there’s a film you see yourself watching eventually, adding it to your ‘Watchlist’ reflects that intention. Setting a movie as ‘Watched’ helps SeriesGuide provide suggestions for movies to watch in the future. It’s difficult to carve out different applications for SeriesGuide besides the simple “watch it, check it” use-case. However, SeriesGuide has a number of extra qualities to help draw users to its network.