perfect means perfect … awful means awful

Scrolling through this blog, you will notice that there are very few one star or five star reviews. But why? Is it because I intentionally only watch mediocre content, avoiding the peaks and valleys on purpose? Not at all, I love watching excellent films and awful films (although I may not yet have recovered from Ghost Story): excellent films because, well, they’re excellent, and awful films because, well, have you ever seen Mystery Science Theatre 3000?

The reason for the scarcity of one and five star reviews on this blog is simple. Unlike most people, especially on Amazon, who just give something a one or a five, the numbers mean something for me.

If a film is worthy of a five out of five perfect rating, it means it is pretty much a masterwork, virtually unimprovable, and probably a film of such importance that it will likely go down as one of the greatest movies of all time. That is what a perfect score means: perfect.

On the other hand, if you are getting a one, that means your product has nothing redeemable or good about it, or that the flaws are just simply overwhelming. That is what an awful score means: awful.

In reality, most things are either good, a bit poor, or really good. That is, 3 stars, 2 stars or 4 stars respectively. Very little in life in truly perfect, or truly awful. Just like how very few people are actually truly physically ugly or stunning; the overwhelming majority of people fit into the three to seven bracket.

And there we have it.

Weirdly, after binning the 5 stars system in favour of thumbs up / down, Netflix has recently introduced thumbs down, up, or double thumbs up. They’re well on their way back to a five star system, although perhaps by another name. I’m waiting for YouTube to follow suit.

© 2022-2023 Bryan A. J. Parry