Why the hate for Masks?

[Mojochi]

It gave Brent a whole new canvas to paint on with Data; a chance to show his "real colors" as an actor as it were.

That's why I cut it some slack, because in most cases, when a small group of actors has a long running series like TNG, they are given the chance to stretch their character in ways that reflect themselves, like Beverly "The Dancing Doctor" or the French captain with a liking of Shakespeare, but it was almost impossible for Spiner in the Data character, & it would have gotten awfully boring now & then, to be trapped playing emotionally clueless for 7 years, & they had really worn out the twin brother plot line by the time of Masks & Fistful of Datas. So periodically they'd throw him a bone, so to speak. I just wish they could have managed to do it without it being so heavy handed, & obvious

You can count the episodes where Spiner gets to play anything but Data, Lore or Soong on one hand

Power Play
The Schizoid Man
Fistful of Datas
Masks
& perhaps The Naked Now

It's true that Data often toys with playing theatrical or holodeck roles in small bits, but even then, it's not Spiner the actor, it's Data the actor

 

[Gul Bones]

It's just a boring mess of an episode. It appears Brent Spiners 'Range' is crazy, shy and Data.

 

[R. Star]

The plot was incoherent and made zero sense and the acting was way overboard. It's quite literally embarassing to watch. Really I'd imagine this episode was just a result of season 7's running out of ideas.

 

[Salinga]

Masks seems one of the more hated / disliked episodes. Why? I have always loved it. Its unconventional, a bit more "fantastic" and mythstic tone always apealed to me. Great acting by Spiner through the whole episode.

I didn't find Spiner's acting all that great in it, just the usual over-the-top acting he normally did when he got to play a character other than Data. The episode for me is just silly and doesn't make sense on numerous levels.

Agreed. I was going to chime in and call it over-acting, and that's exactly what it was. But you already nailed it.

One of the reasons for the bad acting: Spiner said, that he got the script for the episode pretty much the night before first shooting. He had almost zero time to prepare the different characters.

Also his colleagues were often laughing their asses off behind camera while Spiner tried to act, because they too found this whole concept too ridiculous.

Considering these two things, the episode turned out rather well.

 

[T'Preea]

I too heard that Spiner had little time to prepare. However, little preparation time aside; it's not hard to laugh at Spiner. He's a hilarious, eccentric gentleman in reality.