There was a time when I didn’t watch any TV shows at all, because I had a strong impression that all series were basically soap operas. (Too many of them were being shown on TV during the final years of the USSR—things like Santa Barbara and Simple María.) But then someone persistently recommended a space series called Firefly. Eventually, I gave in and watched it. And I was absolutely blown away by how powerful a well-made show could be—both in terms of writing and acting.
That’s where my love for TV shows began—as well as my appreciation for actor Nathan Fillion, who played the lead role in Firefly. He later starred in the excellent series Castle, currently appears in The Rookie, and, in my opinion, would have been the perfect choice to play Nathan Drake in the Uncharted movie (though for some reason they cast Tom Holland instead).
For my wife and me, watching good shows has become a favorite way to spend our evenings together. But at some point, keeping track of what we’d seen and when new seasons were coming out started to get tricky. So I went looking for a good tool to help with that. A coworker recommended the service MyShows. I’ve been using it for many years now, and recently the developers added a new feature (still a bit rough around the edges, but promising)—tracking not only TV shows but also movies. So I figured I’d write a bit about this platform.
The main purpose of the service is to provide information about TV shows and help you track your viewing progress.
Naturally, for everything to work at full capacity, you first need to use the search to find all the shows you’ve watched or are interested in, and assign the appropriate status:
- Don’t watch — this is the default status for all shows; initially, you’re not watching any of them.
- Going to — means you’re interested in the show and plan to watch it someday.
- Watch — an active status indicating you’re currently watching the show; all unseen episodes will be shown in your list (more on that below).
- Dropped — lets you remove a show from your active list while still keeping the info that you used to watch it but stopped for some reason. For completed shows, this isn’t necessary—they won’t appear in your active list anyway (unless they suddenly release a new season years later).
The homepage of the website shows you what new episodes have already been released and are ready to watch (based on your “Watching” list), what new episodes are coming soon, as well as recommendations based on what you’ve watched and rated, and some industry news:
If you open the page for a specific show, you’ll see general information about it, the average user rating (both from MyShows itself and pulled from IMDb and Kinopoisk), as well as a detailed list of all episodes.
In addition to general information about the show, you can also find a description, a list of actors, trailers, and news. For some shows, there are direct links to online streaming platforms where you can watch them (provided those services are available in your region). The emphasis is mostly on Russian-language platforms for now, but that may change over time.
You can also leave your own notes about the show if you wish.
Next, all episodes are listed in reverse order. Right on the show’s page, you can track what you’ve watched and when new episodes are expected. Star icons indicate your ratings for specific episodes, if you choose to rate them individually. Next to the release date, you’ll also see the number of comments for each episode:
In the top right corner, there’s also a separate list showing the highest-rated episodes of the series (based on user ratings). First comes the season and episode number, then the average score, followed in gray by the number of votes:
Each episode also has its own dedicated page with general information specific to that episode. If you’ve already watched it, you’ll be able to see all the comments left by other users. If you haven’t watched it yet, the comments are hidden by default to avoid spoilers. However, you can choose to reveal the comments section and read them even if you haven’t seen the episode yet.
If you want to dive into the episode ratings in more detail, you can click on the “All episodes” link found in the “Top Episodes” section (as mentioned above). This will bring up a detailed rating table that displays the average score for each episode, with each cell color-coded according to that score. A color legend is shown on the right. You can also see the average rating for each individual season of the show in that same section:
MyShows lets you add friends, allowing you to see what they are watching, what ratings they give, and also compare your stats with theirs. Both your profile and your friend’s profile display general viewing statistics and the current status of the shows being watched:
Users can also view their own time-based statistics (here’s an example):
If you’ve suddenly watched everything and are not sure what to watch next, you can explore shows based on ratings and awards:
But the service can also generate personalized recommendations based on your own viewing history and statistics:
There are also a number of other features, including badges and achievements for certain actions. But I wanted to focus on the most important and useful ones.
It’s also worth noting that most of the functionality is completely free for all users. However, if you’d like to support the platform’s development, you can purchase a paid Pro subscription. Besides the satisfaction of helping out, Pro users get access to a number of extra features—none of them essential, but nice to have:
- Remove all ads from the site
- Hide your profile from others
- Add images to your comments
- Transfer watch marks (important mainly for those chasing the “no day without a show” badge)
- Comment on episodes that haven’t aired yet (a peek into the future)
- Mark certain episodes as “will not watch” so they don’t appear as pending
- Calendar of upcoming episodes for favorite shows in iCal format
- Custom background for your profile page
- Experimental “Rewatch” function (not sure how it works, to be honest)
The subscription pricing is shown in Russian rubles: either 99 rubles per month or 799 rubles per year.
For any series enthusiast, this is a fantastic tool!
But what about movies? The developers recently added support for them too. Of course, there are already giants like IMDb and Kinopoisk that offer excellent tools for rating films and managing watchlists—I’ve used them for years myself.
However, as soon as MyShows added the movie category, I decided to give it a try. Overall, the way films are displayed is similar to how series are shown, minus the list of episodes and their ratings:
In the “Movies” section, you can also browse through both your watched films and those you’ve marked as “want to watch.” Here’s an example of what that might look like:
This mode has only just come out of beta testing, so not all features are fully polished yet — but it already does the job well.
Yes, it still falls short compared to the industry giants in some aspects — some titles might not be immediately found or may still lack full descriptions. But that’s just a matter of time, as the service is evolving quickly.
What’s most convenient for me is that, instead of juggling several different platforms, I can now manage everything in one place. As a movie and TV show enthusiast, that’s a big deal. So I’ve decided to give MyShows a try, even as a potential alternative to IMDB or Kinopoisk, especially for tracking the “want to watch” list.
Of course, nothing beats IMDB when it comes to digging into full cast and crew details for a movie or even an individual episode. But how often do we really need that? Far more often, I just need to track what I’ve watched — and if you’re a series addict, that matters a lot more. And almost every show page on MyShows already has links to its respective IMDB and Kinopoisk entries.
It’s also worth noting that the service offers a mobile app. While it doesn’t have the same full-featured usability as the web version, it’s great for quickly checking upcoming episodes or marking something as watched.
So this isn’t an ad — just a genuine recommendation from a long-time and grateful Pro user. If you’re into series and movies, MyShows is definitely worth checking out. Great job!
