39 Must-Watch Shows That Scored A Perfect 10/10

To find out more about movie ratings and the perfect ten, we reached out to writer, producer, and director Chris Presswell, who just released the movie The Whip, out now in UK cinemas.

He believes that no movie or TV series has been able to receive a 10/10 rating because such a medium is very subjective, and agreeing on one that would appeal to everyone is quite impossible. “Something like Die Hard may seem universally beloved, but it isn’t going to resonate with somebody who just doesn’t enjoy action cinema.”

He also notes that it might be the case that “no matter how good something is, we can always do better.”

Presswell suggests that in order to appeal to a wide audience, a movie or TV series has to have engaging storytelling and investable characters. “That’s not to dismiss the value of its technical brilliance, but a wider audience at large is tuning in to be told a story. It won’t matter to them that a TV show is beautifully shot if they don’t care about what’s going on screen.”

He also kindly agreed to share his own 10/10, which is The Apartment (1960). He described it as “flawless a film as has ever been made.”

Preswell signed off by saying, “There’s no shame in enjoying a show that sits at 3/10 on IMDb, and it’s okay to dislike a film that everybody else seems to think is a masterpiece. But it’s important to take storytelling risks, and not everything will work for everyone. That’s actually a good thing and makes for a much healthier landscape of storytelling and attitude towards art in general.”

Indeed, many of us rely on movies or TV series reviews to find what to binge-watch next. But have we ever wondered how they come to be and whether or not they can be trusted? Read on, as we'll be attempting to find out just that.

Generally, movie review websites use a “weighted average.” This means that the average score isn’t calculated by adding all the votes and dividing them by the total number. Instead, such a formula doesn’t allow all votes to have the same amount of impact “weight” on the final consensus.

Since each movie review website operates its ratings slightly differently, we’ll be looking at two of the major ones and their processes.

Let's take IMDb, the most popular ratings and entertainment media database, as the first example. On their website, they propose that their ratings come from a mix of user votes and professional critic reviews from newspapers, magazines, and other publications.

“We aim to offer a variety of opinions on a title so users can make informed viewing decisions. We also always display the breakdown of the ratings so users can see the distribution of votes and determine how uniform or polarized the opinion of a movie is,” writes IMDb.

They don’t fully disclose their “weighted average” formula. This ensures that their calculations remain reliable and prevents attempts to stuff the ballot and influence the voting system. However, it seems that website users tend to hold a heavier weight in deciding what score a title gets.