How TV shows are rated

TV shows are rated on a set of 10 criteria, each scored out of 10:

• Writing - Is the story engaging and entertaining?
• Characters - Do the characters invite exploring their histories and depths?
• Performances - Casting choices and the quality of the performances, judged together.
• Direction & Production - How innovative, beautiful, or appropriate are the direction, music, and craft?
• World & Design - Setting, aesthetic, costumes, and sense of place.
• Pacing - Does the story move along so you don’t notice the time passing?
• Consistency - Did quality hold up across seasons, and did it stick the landing?
• Rewatchability - How well does the series hold up to repeat viewing?
• Originality - Did it do something new, or a familiar thing exceptionally well?
• Extra - Personal extra preference.

What’s excluded

• Must have seen 2 whole seasons, or all of the only season (or all of a limited series)
• Doesn’t include:
  • Variety shows (SNL)
  • Talk shows (Tonight Show)
  • Most children’s cartoons
  • Sports shows
  • Documentaries
  • Reality series

Scoring

The final percentage score is the average of the criteria above, scaled to 100. Averaging (rather than summing) keeps the score on the same 0–100 scale even as criteria are added or refined over time.

Top 10 scoring

The top 10 uses a separate score, the “decider,” to cleanly separate the best-of-the-best. It blends:

• My score (80%) and the show’s IMDb rating (20%), to temper personal preference against public consensus (IMDb reflects a show’s whole run, unlike critic scores frozen at season one)
• An endurance bonus for older shows that still hold up — age counts only in proportion to how rewatchable the show remains, so a dated show I no longer revisit gains little
• A completion bonus for having watched more of what exists
• A volume bonus rewarding shows that sustained their quality across multiple seasons