The 5-Star Rating

You know her, you love her—it’s your classic five-star review. I generally give this rating based on the quality of the storytelling. It’s obviously subjective.

Shoutout to John Green for my favorite application of the 5-star rating system in his book The Anthropocene Reviewed. As he writes in the book, “The five-star scale doesn’t really exist for humans, it exists for data aggregation systems.” This might explain why there are 3-star shows I really enjoy and 3-star shows I’ll never watch again.

🍕 The Pizza Rating

I added the pizza rating to account for the difference between movies like She’s the Man and Schindler’s List. Schindler’s List is powerful storytelling. But I’m not likely to rewatch it. I have, however, watched She’s the Man several times and enjoyed it each time.

The pizza rating indicates my level of enjoyment and the likelihood of a rewatch. This might mimic a “guilty pleasure” show (many pizzas, few stars). It might indicate a great story that’s highly rewatchable (Avatar: The Last Airbender, for example).

Why pizzas? The nutritional value of a pizza isn’t correlated with its deliciousness. And there’s no shame in that! Sometimes, you just want pizza.