Critical mass: How to break down a show or a film the way the critics do

Films aren’t just Good or Bad; that binary is plain Ugly (See what we did there?). Yet, most viewers, even those who chomp through Netflix’s entire Award-Winning Directors selection, tend to fall back on the vaguest phrases to express how they feel. “Amazing” means nothing. “Epic” doesn’t mean what the internet thinks it means. Surely, there’s a sharper takedown than “Well, that sucked”.

Here’s how to take a closer, critical view of a film or a TV show, with help from film critic Sucharita Tyagi.