For me, the whole concept of the book and what happens later in it is now, like the future history of Star Trek, unrealistic (there's no fertility/sterility problems because of nuclear waste, no chance of an overthrow of the U.S. government by right wing extremists [the right wing's in charge now anyway again, and they stymied Obama on a few things], no chance of all whites dying off and only leaving the First Nations [yes, there are going to be less white people in the years to come, but not because of what happens in this novel, and nuclear power is actually better for the planet and will allow a nation to meet its Kyoto targets-look at the example of France.]) All in all, the novel is wrong about the future, just in an interesting way, as Bruce Sterling once said.
For "The Critic", was it the FOX or ABC version you tried watching? (or both?) ABC had the first season and they wanted an edgy cartoon. They weren't getting enough ratings and thought it was too edgy (despite their other sitcom that - by 1994 was a live action cartoon - "Roseanne"), so FOX bought it, hoping it'd be another animated classic like 'The Simpsons'. The FOX version is decidedly tame (and lame!!) by comparison, the irony being interesting since FOX's shows of the time were built on sensationalized crude humor. I'm somewhat partial to the ABC version, FOX's was a turnoff. Well, apart from this (I suppose): Yeah, it's not aged perfectly well has it?