History Main / CriticalBacklash

* This happened to Creator/StephenieMeyer's ''[[Literature/TheTwilightSaga Twilight]]''. The peak of its popularity with the [[TheFilmOfTheBook film adaptations]] was soon followed by the rapid growth of its hatedom, whose criticisms ranged from heavier matters such as the bad writing, [[UnfortunateImplications the regressive sexual and racial politics]], and the acting in the movies to things like the screaming {{fangirl}}s, the PrettyBoy male protagonists, and the idea that the series "ruined" vampires. It also didn't help that several actors (notably Creator/RobertPattinson) [[CreatorBacklash expressed regret over taking part in the movies]]. By the late 2010s, however, a backlash to the backlash emerged from former fans who agree that there's plenty about it to criticize, but also feel that it's hardly "the worst thing ever" as it was once touted as, and view the extreme vitriol the series received as both somewhat exaggerated and fairly misogynistic in its own right, driven by both men upset that women were infringing on "their" geek spaces and women who [[RealWomenNeverWearDresses didn't want to be seen associating with "girly" things]]. As of recent years, a smaller fandom for the series has grown in online circles, one where the general opinion can be summed up as "yeah, it's trash, but [[SoBadItsGood it's our]] [[GuiltyPleasures trash]]." Creator/LindsayEllis and WebVideo/SarahZ have [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8O06tMbIKh0 made]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4QEFLhlh-Y videos]] on how the pendulum has swung in this regard.

** The Mike Scully-era episodes are starting to get this. While almost nobody thinks they're as good as "Golden Age" ''Simpsons'', a good portion of them are still pretty funny and watchable in their own right. Some fans even believe they contain some of the best SugarWiki/FunnyMoments in the entire series.
** "The Principal and the Pauper" spent well over a decade as the popular episode to point to when declaring "this is when the show stopped being good", which eventually caused protests against that idea for a range of reasons. This includes the fact that the most common criticism is aimed at the "Skinner is Tamzarian" reveal rather than anything to do with the actual episode's quality, and perhaps a bit of a frustration with the fact that declaring an early Season 9 episode as the cut off point turns potential fans away from plenty of good later episodes. "The Principal and the Pauper" even has its defenders who state that, while the Skinner twist perhaps isn't sustainable for a StatusQuoIsGod show, the way the reveal itself was handled in this specific episode was good.

* The multitude of stories about the legendarily TroubledProduction of ''Film/{{Ishtar}}'' lowered critics' and audience's expectations for the released film, and indeed the box office[[note]]It won its opening weekend, but just barely, over its closest rival--''Film/TheGate''[[/note]] and reviews reflect that. But people who've watched it in the years since[[note]]a little difficult, as the film didn't get a home-video release in the US until the late 2000s[[/note]] say it's actually not bad.[[note]]Creator/GaryLarson, who had at one point depicted shelves full of the film on a "video stores in hell" ''Far Side'' panel, public expressed his regret for doing so years later.[[/note]]

* The UsefulNotes/{{Atari 2600}} versions of ''VideoGame/PacMan'' and ''VideoGame/ETTheExtraTerrestrial'' are frequently called "the worst games ever" by critics. Granted, ''Pac-Man'' suffered from being a PortingDisaster and ''E.T.'' has some [[TheProblemWithLicensedGames issues of its own]], but they're not as bad as critics might think, compared to other games released on that system at the time these two games were released. In particular, the urban myth that ''E.T.'' was the worst game ever even drove Digitalpress insane. To the point that [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzdqaJIeE0Q they]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PR50m78IIJs showcased]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwoUt-AGW3c 10]] even worse Atari 2600 games that, according to the people that viewed it, made ''E.T.'' look like ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime''.

* While few fans would try to argue that ''Film/GhostbustersII'' isn't a watered-down imitation of its beloved predecessor, several of them also have a hard time seeing it as the bottomlessly terrible and unfunny disaster it's often made out to be on the Internet.

** ''Film/GhostbustersII'': The attitude that the film is an utterly disastrous abomination is a relatively new one and rather confusing to those fans who consider it inferior to the original, but still funny enough in its own right.

* ''Film/Ghostbusters2016'' received nuclear levels of controversy from its initial announcements, in large part due to being a ''reboot'' to [[Franchise/{{Ghostbusters}} one of the most beloved franchises of the 80's]] rather than [[DevelopmentHell the long-awaited, much-desired, but ultimately ill-fated]] sequel, with wide criticisms for it not being anywhere near as funny or clever as the original. Things got especially ugly due to the decision to have [[GenderFlip an all-female main cast]], [[OvershadowedByControversy politicizing the movie to a near-irreparable extent that ultimately resulted in it bombing at the box office]]. In the years following the film's release (along with the more successful UnReboot in ''Film/GhostbustersAfterlife'' helping take the bad taste away), reactions towards the reboot have calmed down significantly, where beyond the intense periphery and biases from diehard fans, it's mostly seen as just a typically bad-to-[[SoOkayItsAverage average]] blockbuster, with writing that misses more than hits and a cast [[ToughActToFollow that fails to reach the lightning-in-a-bottle chemistry of the original film]], but otherwise nothing that itself warrants the vitriol it received. In retrospect, its gravest flaw is being attached to ''Ghostbusters'' and not being what longtime fans wanted, though the film's genuine fanbase who enjoys the cast and story for what they are don't feel the need to mind as much.