"I was unprepared for the vitriolic response she inspired," wrote Anna Gunn in an eviscerating op-ed in The New York Times in August. Gunn, who played Skyler White on Breaking Bad for five seasons, used the reach of The Times to calmly ream practitioners of the internet sport of "hating" female television characters — and often the women who play them. This hatred, as we all know, takes many forms. Name-calling is primary, of course: The characters are sluts, whores, bitches, cunts. They're ugly. They care only about money. They're stupid. They nag. You know the words and phrases: It's just like the way some people talk about women on the internet. And in life!

In the piece, Gunn expressed fear and alarm that hatred for Skyler had slipped into a wish to harm her, Anna Gunn. "The already harsh online comments became outright personal attacks," she wrote. "One such post read: 'Could somebody tell me where I can find Anna Gunn so I can kill her?' Besides being frightened (and taking steps to ensure my safety), I was also astonished: how had disliking a character spiraled into homicidal rage at the actress playing her?"

How indeed. Imagine you are Anna Gunn, at the top of your profession, playing a complicated, difficult character like Skyler on one of the best shows ever to be on television and you have to deal with this shit.

Unfettered and anonymous message board threads (or, as Gunn pointed out, Facebook pages on which commenting is not anonymous) have rarely shown the best of humanity. But when you dive into their depths, it can get truly depressing. You might despair that people have forgotten that there are other ways of discussing things they dislike. That we've lost the ability to be critical without seeming unhinged…or just truly dumb.

There's a lot to analyze and criticize on television (and in any pop culture we consume). And yes, sometimes those things are female characters and/or the actresses who play them. There are characters who don't work: They are poorly drawn or don't fit into the narrative. There are actresses who are miscast, or just aren't talented. Once in awhile, an actress doesn't look right for the part she plays, and that can be true too!

None of those things apply to Gunn and Skyler, by the way. Which is why the reflexive hatred of female leads on TV shows is often called "the Skyler White effect."

In 2014, let's demand a different way of talking about issues we may have with actually problematic characters. Watching television, consuming something in your home, is emotional: We feel love and hate, and we cry and laugh and, once in awhile, shout. It's no wonder that people flock to social media to share the experience with strangers in real time, or dump their feelings onto a message board, blog, or Tumblr.