Critic Language decoded

So, I was just watching ABC Family and there was a commercial for "Secret Life of the American Teenager". In it they talked about what the critics are saying about the show and one of the comments was it was "brilliantly written".

Rule number 1 about critic-ese(the language of critics):
When critics say a show is well written, that means pretty much everything about the show is horrible--which is the case of "Secret Life" (and yet I still watch it, so go figure that one out!). As a critic, I know that if you are forced to focus on the writing that's because you cannot bear to focus on anything else.

That's your lesson for the day.