TV Dilemma

How do you know when it's time to stop watching a TV show?  Well, when it comes to current network TV shows, it's easy: I stop watching when I lose interest (I'm down to four: The Office, Glee, Family Guy, and No Ordinary Family, and No Ordinary Family is just barely hanging in there).  But what about shows on DVD?  There are so many shows that I dislike but which I feel like I should keep watching just because they're so beloved, and because the possibility exists that I'll grow to love them somewhere down the line.

I gave The Wire eight episodes or so.  Bored out of my mind.  And yet it's supposedly the best show ever.  If I keep watching it, will there come a point where I agree with that statement?

Watched the first episode of Dexter.  I didn't dislike it, but it didn't grab me, either.  But supposedly it gets much better.  Do I really want to invest the time to find out for sure?

Veronica Mars, I could only get through one episode, and that just barely.  Awful, awful show.

But I managed to get through four episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.  To think I avoided it for so long because I hate Sarah Michelle Gellar and because Buffy fans are so annoying, when I could have been avoiding it because it's a truly dreadful show.  It also allegedly gets better (of course it does, it couldn't possibly get worse), but in this case I'm perfectly comfortable living in ignorance.  And since I also hated the pilots of both Firefly and Dollhouse, I can cross all Joss Whedon shows off my to-do list.  At least now I know who to blame for the current state of comic books: comic book writers all want to write like Joss Whedon.  But he's not a good writer.  With every sophomoric one-liner I just want to go to his house and hit him with a rolled-up newspaper.  And yes, I still want to punch Sarah Michelle Gellar in the face.  Acting just isn't her thing.

Californication: absolutely despised every minute of it.

Mad Men: I just watched the first episode tonight, and there are things about it I find it intriguing, but mostly I hated it.  It's all wink-wink, nudge-nudge, "Aren't these people just aaaawful?"  God, is the whole series like this?  And, again, would it be a waste of my time to find out?  Such a dilemma.