I think of myself as a writer who happens to specialize in TV, but I wouldn't say that I'm a TV critic. The way I wound up writing about TV is somewhat circuitous and accidental, but make no mistake, I do love my topic. But when people talk about TV critics, I don't tend to include myself in that group, which is why I have to apologize for something. A few weeks ago, I wrote a column about 'Treme', the HBO show from David Simon of 'The Wire' and I went on and on about how awesome it is. I based this off the three episodes that had aired at the time.

I have to take it back. Guys, I don't like 'Treme'. If I'm honest with myself, I didn't really like the first three episodes that much either. I wanted to like it so much that I let that blind me to what I was actually watching. To whit, a slow, lumbering story that seems to purposefully turn away from the dramatic elements of its location and time in favor of navel gazing and long musical interludes. Even now, having decided to rip 'Treme' a new one in this column, I am reluctant to come out and say what I really think, but here goes: 'Treme' is boring.

I think this happens to critics sometimes -- of TV, movies, books, what-have-you -- where the pedigree of the people involved in a given project makes you assume greatness even when there's no evidence of it. I remember being the lone voice of dissent when Aaron Sorkin's 'Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip' debuted. My colleagues all thought it was going to be the next 'West Wing', but I kept pointing over at '30 Rock' -- which debuted the same season -- and saying "but this show is better. And it's funny." It's not that I had some insight my fellow writers lacked, I just didn't have a love-on for Sorkin like everyone else. I'd been girl-crushing on Tina Fey instead.

Of course it happens to us as viewers, too. My best girl friend started up with 'Fringe' when it debuted, purely out of love for J.J. Abrams. Surely the man who brought her so many hours of pleasure in the form of 'Alias' and 'Lost' knew what he was doing. Visiting her one evening, she suggested we watch an episode she had PVR'ed. She cringed through the entire thing, apologizing to me for making me watch such "garbage". She explained that she knew it stunk, but she kept hoping it would get better.

I've been doing that myself with the summer series 'The Good Guys'. I watched the pilot out of professional interest, and keep stumbling back on it. I want to like it since I have a fondness for Colin Hanks (it was his performance in 'Orange County'), but the show is riddled with problems. Trashing 'The Good Guys' or 'Fringe' is no big deal, though. It's not like they win awards or get written up in The New York Times or anything.

And since I've come this far, I may as well admit a few more blasphemies. I didn't like 'The Sopranos', 'The West Wing', 'Sports Night', 'Big Love' or 'Angel.' I hated David Cross on 'Arrested Development'. As much as I loved the show, a little piece of my heart was held in reserve because of Tobias Funke. But these are not things I brag about, you understand, they're more like dirty little secrets. I consider myself a reasonably intelligent young woman, and I'm pretty sure that if I don't like 'The Sopranos' it must be because I don't get it. And if I don't get it, I must be stupid. Such is the force of the critical praise that been lobbed in the show's direction -- the show can't be wrong, it must be me.

Which is why I felt the need to apologize about my 'Treme' thumbs up. Adding to the collective oohs and ahhs over the show, I may have inadvertently made someone out there feel dumb for not liking it, which is not only not nice, it's not my job. I'm just a writer, not a TV critic.