Ian J. Ball's TV Page:
My Grading Guide to TV Shows & TV Episodes:
Last updated: December 21, 2003.
This version: 1.00a
The 'Series Grades' used in my TV Show Review are a 'sense of the show' grade,
both in how I feel the show is doing versus its own expectations and against
the other shows I watch. Essentially, the grades break down roughly this way:
| Grade |
Definition |
| A |
A very, very good show, probably among the very best
TV shows presently airing. An "A+" would mean among the very best
TV shows of all time.
|
| B |
A solid and entertaining show. It may not (or may) be very "deep",
but it's good entertainment just the same.
|
| C |
Passably watchable, but nothing more. |
| D |
A generally unwatchable mess; almost nothing about this show
works, and probably gets by on the goodwill generated by one
or two of its stars.
|
| F |
A terrible show, the kind of show you wouldn't wish on your
worst enemy! |
The grades for individual episodes of a series are not
based on any 'curve' (i.e. I do not arbitrarily assign x number
of episodes a grade of 'C', etc.), and I have simply given each
episode the grade that I feel it deserves based on the other episodes
of the series (e.g. Roswell, Buffy) as well as on
the quality of the episodes of the series being graded
relative to other TV series.
Individual episode grades break down roughly this way:
| Grade |
Definition |
| A |
Among the top episodes of that series. An "A+" would mean among
the very best TV episodes (of any show of all time!). |
| B |
For the series in question, this probably indicates a pretty
good episode, but it's not among the very, very best episodes
of that series. |
| C |
In fact, a 'C' grade would probabaly indicate a relatively
sub-par episode for a good TV series - a good TV series
should maintain some 'B'-level average with its episodes. |
| D |
An exceedingly sub-par episode for the TV series in question
- it probably indicates one of the worst, if not the worst,
episode of the series. |
| F |
An episode that is a complete and total letdown on every level!
If a good series starts turing out 'F'-level episodes, it
probably means that
it has 'jumped the shark'. |
For the curious, this means that I've graded everything on a 12-point scale
like so:
F: 0 points; D-: 1 point; D: 2 points; D+: 3 points: C-: 4 points...
A-: 10 points; A: 11 points; A+: 12 points
Epsiode grades can thus be totalled and averaged, a useful tool for
comparing various seasons of a TV show.
|
