Goodshows Review: Viewers Rejoice!

I’d like to think that my friends have pretty good taste, especially when it comes to movies. On the occasion we find ourselves at the movies, one of us usually has a recommendation or at least a general opinion about something playing. Goodshows hopes to bottle that experience of friendly recommendations in an app-sized social network.

Goodshows is branded as an app to “discover movies & TV shows with friends,” which it does a pretty good job at. While your friends’ suggestions and reviews are the app’s focus, the outside community will probably be where you get your info while the network builds its user base. The app is clearly the neighbor to the popular book rating service, Goodreads (important note: the app isn’t connected to that service at all). With a recommendation and review service for a specific kind of media being the app’s focus.

The app’s interface is simple and barebones, with no confusing menus or complicated gestures. As you first app, and after you scroll through the tutorial, you’ll be met with a timeline for reviews for movies and TV shows. In the next tab over, you’ll find a watchlist, a self-explanatory feature to tag content that you’d like to watch at some point.

Writing a review is quick, easy, and relatively painless. Just tap the pencil tab, search for the Movie/TV show you’re reviewing, then write away. Sharing with Goodshows is one of the generally cool features of the app, as it connects to Twitter and Facebook (as is to be expected) and posts the reviews to those platforms. Facebook even saves your star rating, something that’s nice to see when you’re not on mobile and want to see ratings for movies on the web.

Right now, the problem with an app like this, one that relies on a community, is the lack of one. There’s certainly people using the app, just not my friends and family. Honestly, it’s basically a non-problem as the app just launched, just something to keep an eye out for. Content for the social network will (hopefully) only get better as more people use Goodshows. It’ll definitely be interesting to see a community form.

Overall, the app is great. There’s nothing especially new or exciting in the app, but if you want a movie/TV show recommendation and review social network, then Goodshows is where you should go. My one bigger complaint with the app is it’s lack of Android or web support, something that would definitely add to the service.

Right now, you can just check Goodshows out on the iOS App Store.