Meet Nestflix, the fake streaming service for fictional shows

Horsin’ Around. Sunrise Bay. The Manny. None of those things exist in our universe, but they’re entertainment staples in the world of BoJack Horseman, Schitt’s Creek, and This Is Us respectively.

The technical term for a fake show within a show is a “nested story,” and there are a lot of them that we who inhabit this reality will never get to watch. Web designer and artist Lynn Fisher, whose website is a veritable toy box for pop culture aficionados, has given us a glimpse of what a streaming service might look like in the fictional world of TV shows by creating Nestflix, a scrollable Netflix dupe that only lists nested shows and films.

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Fisher’s attention to detail in Nestflix is seriously impressive. Each entry has a thumbnail with thematically appropriate lettering, a short summary, a list of in-universe actors or directors who “worked” on it, and of course the name of the original project in which the show is nested.

Credit: Lynn Fisher

In an email to Mashable, Fisher said she’s always been a fan of nested stories and has been “mentally collecting” them since she found out Angels with Filthy Souls from Home Alone wasn’t a real movie years ago. She was also motivated to make Nestflix when Schitt’s Creek released a fake trailer for Moira Rose’s The Crows Have Eyes 3, because “that level of dedicated meta definitely sparked something in me that this could be a real project.”

Nestflix isn’t a comprehensive site yet, and Fisher has received hundreds of submissions from fans who want to add their favorite nested shows to the site. At the time of publishing she’s only fully added one suggestion to the site (Lieutenant Diablo from Lucifer, the most common request according to Fisher), but plans to add more from the 700+ submissions she’s received.

Fisher also has a solid rubric for what does and doesn’t count as a nested show. “I’m not currently adding films or shows that aren’t seen on screen,” she wrote. “Lots of classics are only mentioned in dialogue or shown as a poster in the background. A lot of the Seinfeld ones are like this unfortunately, as iconic as they are.”

There’s also the question of shows-within-shows-within-shows (“may include them eventually in a ‘fake fake’ category or something”) and whether or not fake trailers from Saturday Night Live count (“They technically are films/shows within a show, but they aren’t nested within a greater narrative”).

Some of Fisher’s other projects include a complete menu of all the food mentioned in The Good Place, a tool that lets you dress up David Rose in any of his iconic outfits from Schitt’s Creek, and an interactive list of airports and how they got their three-letter codes (no really, it’s fascinating). When asked what tips an idea over from something she thinks might be cool to something she puts her time into creating, Fisher wrote that presentation and size are both important factors:

“I think it’s the matching of presentation and having enough content to realize it. Nested films and shows could just be a wiki technically, but wouldn’t be nearly as fun. It’s the combination of the recognizable streaming interface plus 400+ titles to choose from. Once I fit those things together, it felt like it could be real and special.”

Of course as Nestflix proves, something doesn’t necessarily have to be real to be special. But the fact that Nestflix exists at all is a testament to Fisher’s creative mastery.

“My medium is the web,” she wrote, “so an idea I have has to make a compelling website first and foremost. Once I figure out how the information can be presented in that way, it usually goes smoothly from there!”