User:O/Biases

Here I describe what kind of story I am biased towards. If you like different types of stories, you may not find my reviews helpful.

I like stories with a complicated plot that fits together nicely. Generally this means, in the case of a TV show, that the entire story had to be planned before work began on the first episode. A good example of this is the five-season science fiction series Babylon 5.

I enjoy hard science fiction the most. I dislike any supernatural elements that are not, in my view, consistent with the universe of the story. In effect, this means that a story set on Earth should have normal humans with normal powers. Minor enhancements like certain types of telepathy are fine, but stranger things like ghosts and vampires detract from my enjoyment. This may be because their powers are not usually well-defined, and so they sometimes get into a situation and use a power that you didn't know existed until then. On the other hand, non-humans in different universes can have powers that are farfetched, like a being from a higher dimension that is able to manipulate our universe, or a story set completely in a different universe.

My main interest when experiencing a work of fiction is the overall plot and story arcs. I really like a story that starts off with very incomplete information and gradually introduces information, often through plot twists - a story where the important spoilers are not about who lives or dies but about what a character's motivations are or exactly what is happening (see Babylon 5, Ever17). Other elements, such as music, acting, and writing quality are secondary; I may not even mention them if they did not affect my enjoyment of the work.

Finally, my writing isn't that great, though my grammar and spelling usually is. Maybe that's one reason I don't mind bland writing as long as the story is good.

My rating will generally reflect my enjoyment of the work, and should correspond roughly to its satisfaction of the above criteria. I will generally rate it as "very good" if I enjoy it so much that when it is over it feels like coming down off a high.