As much as I like watching reviewers that tear apart bad media, I feel like there's still missing a more nuanced approach to figuring out why and how a piece of media doesn't work. There's LOTS of shades of terrible and I feel like it's important to distinguish them...

...because for a long time I was worried I was just going to fall into "bad media" out of ignorance. But when you break why down into specific failings, it becomes a lot clearer that everyone is bad at least SOME of the time, and that's okay.

The big broad categories of "bad media" I think come down to a couple essential elements, which I'd like to get into but it's game time now

Okay game's done, broad categories of bad media can fall under very different domains, such as:
1) Insulting
2) Lazy/Cliche
3) Boring
4) Obtuse/Confusing
5) Clumsy/Unskilled

Thinking of ways to subdivide further, but the key is that there's no simple way to perfectly avoid these

On top of that, in most cases, they fall different ways for different people. My intriguing might be your boring, my straightforward might be your obtuse, etc. And yet, there's still ways to do each of these better or worse, regardless of subjectivity.

Any of these categories is a matter of degree. We forgive a bout of cliche or artlessness or a temporary dull spot in the middle of an otherwise well-told story. It's only when these things compound that it starts to be a problem.

Plus, you want them least around your important story beats. You might forgive a cliche in the middle of a battle that serves as connective tissue between important scenes, but significantly less so when the plot pivots around it.

Triply so when it's the Sudden Twist at the end. A lot of storytelling is convincing the audience you know what you're doing (when you definitely only have the faintest grasp of it) so any time you're like "Aha, look how clever I am!" needs the MOST scrutiny

In fact this is usually why its easier to pick on large productions rather than small ones, because hubris requires ego. I mean, I know of many indie authors with a HUGE EGO too but "having an actual budget" imparts some implicit ego to start.

"We had enough faith in this story to budget your lifetime salary or more toward its creation" is usually a good starting point of frustration