I'm also having trouble figuring out how to browse Netflix streaming properly. It only seems to want to show me a selection of titles, the ones the system thinks I'll be most interested in

That's my Grumpy Old Lady beef with Netflix, and a large swath of otherwise very useful services like it -- they seem to be doing their best to circumvent random browsing and make it difficult, and random browsing is a big part of how I like to find new things. It's the thing I miss most about video rental stores, for example, for all their drawbacks.