My work is very much like the restaurant critic's - a number of factors come together to make for a strong review.

Just as it's unfair to review a taco stand for not being a four-star restaurant, I also have to be mindful that not every drama on TV is trying to be "The Wire."

My first few years as TV critic, I would go to parties and people (usually older Posties or ex-Posties who seemed to pride themselves on not watching very much television) would take me by the arm and insist that I watch this show they'd recently starting watching on DVD, about drug dealers in Baltimore.

I do get lots of links to advance screeners, which helps, but there's no way I could do my job without the full-on cable subscription.

As far as my personal nostalgia zone goes, I find I watch more of AntennaTV than anything else.

Mobster stories are always a harder sell for me. I don't romanticize organize crime the way others do, though I can be swayed.

I'm a fan of half-hour shows that can be both funny and dramatic.