I don't like "underrated"/"overrated". Either way pins too much of an assessment on fan/critical response rather than a work itself or aspects that matter more. "Overrated" especially is just "I like this less than most people!" which like ok wow you got me, art is subjective

I am thinking about this because someone commented on my new video & mentioned just having watched Evangelion & someone else swooped in to say Eva is overrated. I've seen like one ep & hated it, may never watch it, but bursting in to smugly call something "overrated" is so weird

It makes sense to call a work overlooked, unknown, obscure, even like "undervalued" vs quality/influence, but underrated doesn't say much. And if you think something is overrated it's better to actually articulate what you mean because you're risking sounding really smug about it

This isn't a thing I see much in actual criticism but I do see it constantly in fan discourse/discussions and it is just like weirdly irksome to me. Same thing as "plot hole" pedant nitpicky complaints

I think they work if you're talking about parts of a specific thing or media that are really similar that are compared to each other ("that's my favorite episode, I feel like it's really underrated compared to the others") but it gets weird and shitty when you throw them around

The Prisoner is a show I love that not a lot of people in my age range have seen, even film/TV nerds, that is hugely influential and important to TV/film history. But that doesn't mean it's "underrated".