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Those who look at my ratings list might be somewhat confused as to how it all comes together. This will be an attempt to explain how I decide what to put in the tags and how it applies to the overall score.
Characters
Good Characters
A majority of the characters in this show were believable with the overall design. Their actions made sense with their personalities and their experiences, and when the time called for them to change, they did. Characters that aren't "three dimensional" characters don't inherently detract from this rating if they were designed to be that way from the start and it makes sense with the rest of the show.
Bad Characters
Very few to none of the characters made a significant impression. Chances are their actions made no sense with what was going on or they didn't change over time in a believable way (or they didn't change when their experiences would have caused it). Note that I don't care whether characters are cliche; I only look at execution.
If there is no character tag, then the characters were just unremarkable. They weren't a selling point of the show, but they didn't detract significantly either.
Plot
Good Plot
The plot of the show was both engaging and made sense with the overall design of the show. For more serious shows that is going for a more 'realistic' type of interaction between the characters, a strong, sensical plot has to be behind it for this mark to appear. If the characters were clearly designed to be over the top or just straight up weird, the plot has to be just as ridiculous. Overall, if it feels really good and doesn't seem out of place, it will get this mark.
Bad Plot
There were big issues with the plot's execution somewhere. The most glaring issue in most of the shows that receive this mark are shows that try to jam too much into too small of a time frame. Other entries had too shallow of a plot compared to the design of the show; shows designed to have a separate plot per episode would be judged based on the individual plots rather than as a whole, for example. The last common reason a show would receive this mark is by being too ambitious. Complex plots require a lot of care to work; if there are too many unreasonable plot holes (plot holes are completely inevitable in some cases; they wouldn't be judged for it in those scenarios), then it will be judged accordingly.
Shows without a plot mark had an unremarkable plot. It either just got the job done and nothing else, or it had its ups and downs throughout that made it very difficult to judge it either way.
Flow
Good Flow
Shows that receive this mark went through the plots, mini-plots, and character development at a reasonable speed. If there were moments where things felt rushed or dragged on too long, they were fairly minor scenes in the former case and was for a more important scene in the latter case. Generally, shows receiving this mark feel carefully crafted to convey exactly what it wants to convey with a low margin of error.
Bad Flow
This show failed to keep good time on enough scenes to make the show difficult to watch at times. The most glaring issue that generally is the cause of this mark is trying to fit too shallow or small of a plot into a larger timeframe, so scenes were drawn out needlessly to make up the time. Other possible causes might have been feeling sluggish to get through several scenes, having a weird idea of when to draw out scenes entirely (very useful tactic for suspense when done correctly), or just overemphasizing unnecessary elements of the plot.
Shows without either mark were usually inconsistent with the pacing, or were reasonably consistent enough with a suboptimal pacing that it can be adapted to in a reasonable timeframe.
Tone
Good Tone
The show was excellent about delivery; the situations and characters were both easy to relate to and understand. Note that the plot marker is more about overall delivery; this is more in the details and individual scenes. Generally, if I could understand how and why things were happening from moment to moment, the show deserved this mark.
Bad Tone
While the plot may or may not have been good overall, the delivery of the individual scenes was lacking. There's not a whole lot of varience to how this occurs. If there was awkwardness to a lot of the delivery throughout the show, then this mark gets applied.
Shows without a tone mark didn't make an impression either way. The delivery of the individual scenes were usually either erratic or they didn't make a significant impression in my enjoyment (or lack thereof) in the show.
Ending
Good Ending
This is the most difficult mark to get, since the ending is the most difficult part to design of any story. If the show's conclusion was satisfying, sensical, and tied up all the important loose ends to my satisfaction, then this mark gets applied. I will note that shows that are seasonal will be judged based on the subplot of that specific season (or if it's the last one, the overall plot as well). If you can break up a large plot into several subplots, one of which is covered per season, then they will still get this mark as long as the subplot's ending meets the requirements.
Bad Ending
The show, regardless of the quality of everything before it, had an ending that was specifically not satisfying. Cliffhanger endings are by far the worst offender of this. It's fine to have mysteries about what's going on that will be explained in future seasons, but subtlety is required. Other possible offenders to this mark is endings that left unreasonable plotholes hanging, destroyed a character (an example would be an altruist character going on a murderous rampage for no reason), or didn't wrap up the overall plot either at all or very shoddily.
Shows without either mark had an unremarkable ending. I didn't feel ripped off by it, but it didn't make the show leave a mark in my mind. The final impression is important, and this one just didn't leave one.
Other Marks
They should be reasonably self-explanatory. They don't apply to the scores in any way.
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How do these apply to my ratings?
Each show starts at a ranking of five. For each positive mark, it gains a point. For each negative mark, it loses a point. Note that this means that as long as I give a show above a five, it's most likely a recommendation from me to watch.
10: The show literally got every positive mark listed above. This show is truly extraordinary.
8-9: This show is very good and deserves a watch if you're interested in the premise.
6-7: This show is worth checking out. It likely won't knock your socks off, but it'll most likely be worth your time.
5: This show is unremarkable. That doesn't mean it's not worth watching, though. You just likely won't have much of an impression.
3-4: This show is bad. If you were interested in the premise, then the execution just wasn't there.
1-2: This show is horrendous. Don't watch these; they're at the bottom of the barrel for quality.
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