Why this publication uses a four-point rating scale
Five-star scales cluster. Ten-point scales pretend to a precision nobody has. Here is the scale we use and what each point actually commits us to.
Every rating scale is a compression of a paragraph into a symbol, and every compression loses something. The question is only which losses you are willing to accept.
The problem with five stars
In practice, five-star scales become three-point scales. Almost nothing receives one star, almost nothing receives five, and the vast bulk of releases land on three. The scale's stated range and its used range are different things, and readers learn to read three as "fine" rather than as the midpoint it nominally is.
The problem with ten points
A ten-point scale asserts that the critic can reliably distinguish a 6 from a 7. No critic can do this consistently across a year of releases, and the ones who claim to are describing their mood on the day.
What we use instead
| Rating | Commitment |
|---|---|
| Essential | Seek this out. We will defend this in a year. |
| Worth it | Real merit, with reservations we will name specifically. |
| Mixed | Something works, something doesn't, and which matters more depends on you. |
| Skip | We cannot construct an argument for your time. |
Four points, each of which is a sentence we are willing to be held to. If a review's rating and its argument disagree, the argument is the review and the rating is wrong — write to us and we will look at it again.
Spotted an error? We publish corrections openly — email editor@thebollywoodwave.com and read our corrections policy.