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| - So there's a show that everybody hates. The critics tear strips off it, your friends swear it sucks, and even the advertising seems to agree. So one night you happen to come across it... and it's not that bad, actually. It's not perfect -- the star is a Large Ham, the hero's daughter is a whiny brat, and the walrus scene doesn't work -- but it's nowhere near the disaster that everyone says it is. What's going on? You've just experienced a Critical Backlash. The opposite of Hype Backlash, Critical Backlash is when something is over-criticized and condemned to the extent that it couldn't possibly be as terrible as everyone makes out. Like Hype Backlash, it's yet more proof that the critics aren't always necessarily correct and Quality by Popular Vote isn't always a reliable indicator of something's merit. Critical Backlash tends to occur when critical reaction towards the product is tainted by some outside factor; over-hype, over-exposure and outside controversy may prompt the critics to focus on the noise surrounding the work rather than the merits of the work itself. Critics are often primed to dislike the product based on some pre-existing prejudice and fail to look deeply enough for redeeming value (if they even bother to look at all), particularly if the work suffers from Public Medium Ignorance. Some critics may Follow the Leader and echo more popular and louder critics. Of course, some things also just press a critic's buttons the wrong way; critics usually have different expectations and approaches than the wider audience, and just because something doesn't tick the right boxes on their checklist doesn't mean the wider audience might not find something of merit in it. If the work develops a particularly devoted audience in spite of an critical drubbing, then it may experience Hype Backlash and Critical Backlash from different quarters; the work may not be as bad as the critics say, but equally not as good as its most ardent fans claim, falling instead somewhere in between. Cult classics and works that are Too Good to Last have often suffered from a Critical Backlash, only to be later rediscovered and Vindicated by History. Adaptations and works that generally fall into a critic's Acceptable Targets radar (such as animation and science fiction and fantasy) often receive this kind of reaction. Please note that this page is not a personal blog to discuss your personal experiences of this trope; this page is all about the general properties which tend to receive this treatment. Remember also that Tropes Are Not Good and that this is a Subjective Trope; seeing something you hate here only means that other people may not hate it as much as you do, not that it doesn't have points worth of criticism, so try to resist making a Justifying Edit. Examples of Critical Backlash include:
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