Last spring, the TV show “Girls” premiered on HBO, and though there were only 10 half-hour long episodes, there has been no lack of vitriolic criticism directed at the show from critics to your average layman.
Usually this concerns the characters of the show (although some people can’t seem to stop garbling about lead star and creator Lena Dunham’s weight), but there are also occasional accusations of nepotism, lack of racially diverse characters, etc. With the show already on season two, the knives are already being sharpened for the next round of reviews.
Now, what’s interesting about this is not that a TV show is garnering controversy. Any show can do that. Heck, even “SpongeBob Squarepants” has a group in the Ukraine trying to ban it for “promoting homosexuality.”
The same group is also trying to ban “Teletubbies,” stating that it is part of a group of “projects aimed at the destruction of the family, and the promotion of drugs and other vices.”
Now, “Teletubbies” I can agree with – nobody needs to see that.
But that’s beside the point. What matters is that so many people are getting riled up about a TV show even though a large number of commentators are basing this dislike after only one or two episodes of the show and then writing it off as a whole.
It’s like people slamming “The Hobbit” after watching 15 minutes of the movie. It just doesn’t make any sense.
No one is arguing you have to like everything that comes out. If that were true, then movies like “Battleship” and “Transformers” would be considered “classics,” and Lindsay Lohan would be on par with Maggie Smith. 
Thankfully, this isn’t the case, but that doesn’t mean it makes sense to just completely demolish a TV show, movie, book, etc. without at least some time sunk into experiencing it.
Making fun of Rebecca Black’s music video “Friday” without watching it makes about as much sense as describing a movie they haven’t watched.
Now, this doesn’t mean you have to finish every episode of “Two And A Half Men,” or finish reading “Moby Dick” (though why you would start either one of those endeavors seems to be a better question) but if an honest criticism or opinion is to be formed, then at least one full episode and at least a hundred or so pages ought to be read.
Then, once that’s done, feel free to rant for hours on end to friends about how idiotic Charlie Sheen was, or how Herman Melville is the most long-winded writer in the history of American literature.
I guarantee after 15 minutes of furious mutterings your few remaining friends will remark at how well-founded those arguments really were.
But I digress. The point is true criticism and vehement dislike have to be backed up by experience.
No, this doesn’t mean all Twilight haters have to read the books (that would be cruel, speaking as someone who read all of them), but it does mean if the desire to voice this dislike extends beyond “It looks dumb” to “its the worst thing in the world, everyone who likes it should die,” then at least one movie watching is in order.
It’s like anything else in life – everyone has his or her likes and dislikes, but you never really know if, for example, you hate the Tower of Terror until you ride it and throw up seven times.
It’s the same with everything else. True criticism is impossible without a cursory knowledge of the subject being criticized. The idea of eating haggis might seem gross to some, but you never really knows unless you actually try a bite.
And who knows? It might be good.
Or it might be the most disgusting concoction ever cooked in the history of mankind.