When I want to know if something is good or bad, I often find that the fastest way is to look for the bad things that people have said about it. If the only bad things about it are obscure, contrived or ill-reasoned I know that it's likely the thing itself is good. If there are convincing arguments that something is bad, it probably is.
I suppose looking for the good things that people have said about it could be done in a similar way, but looking for the bad things seems to work better in my experience.