Here we go, folks.

Three things I like

The future! Oh look, all of my aesthetic and creative complaints have immediately gone away. Shocking! Who could have possibly guessed that? Oh and it was smart to address the “Temporal Wars.” It was a dumb idea when Enterprise did it and I’m glad that they dialogued it away.

Series Reboot! The end of season 2 was the finale of a failed experiment. I know it, you know it, even that fuckwad Kurtzman knows it. So they correctly rebooted the series — it’s still all about Burnham and it’s still overwrought with unearned melodrama, but now…

Lower Decks is CBS’s third attempt at making Star Trek and their first attempt at creating developed characters and interesting character dynamics.

It’s also a 24-minute cartoon.

It’s only been two episodes, but I really, really like Lower Decks. I shy away from the l-word, though, because as Mr. Spock says, there are always possibilities. The most plausible of which are:

1. I actually do love the show.
2. I have been so desperately aching for so long for anything that resembles Star Trek, that I’m not thinking clearly.
3. I’m being held hostage and this is my cry for help.

Number One…

For the first time of the CBS era, they actually produced a Star Trek series.

The biggest hurdle is the animation style, and if that doesn’t work for you, it just won’t. Luckily for me, I like it. The second biggest hurdle is CBS. And just from the first episode, it seems like Mike McMahan did the damn thing and managed to keep Kurtzman’s slimy hands off the show.

There are still way too many listed “producers” but this is clearly written and produced by someone who understands the franchise. That alone makes this a success. Now it’s up to…

Richmond will be removing its gigantic statue of Robert E. Lee. Why? Because symbols matter. Symbols are expressions of values, of truths and beliefs, of love and fear. Symbols tell stories and stories are what create our communities. As human beings we need communities — and their stories and symbols — to help tell us who we are and where we’re going in this ocean of chaos.

Almost exactly five years ago, in the wake of another tragic, senseless loss of life, I ranted against the continued use of the Confederate flag, and happily, it resonated with millions of people…

After reviewing five thing I liked about Star Trek Picard, it’s time to get critical, critical. Yeah, let’s get critical. Let me hear your keyboard talk… ok, joke’s over.

This is a difficult one to write because I can’t just go “the entire premise and the execution and every creative choice.” Clearly I wasn’t in the writers’ room and this isn’t a show I would have written. A lot of people get caught up in this mode of thinking — that’s not the show I wanted! — especially with Star Trek because every single Trekkie has had their entire life…

STP was hardly “nothin’ but blue skies,” but for every cloud there’s a silver lining. In listicle format.

1 — It moves forward with Star Trek aka It’s not a prequel! Prequels are never a good idea. At best, you end up explaining things that don’t really need to be explained. At worst, you create something so infamously scarred into pop culture it’s known simply as “The Prequels.” Enterprise was bad— although it had an interesting premise that they never fully realized. Discovery is laughably bad, as we’ve covered in-depth. If they make a Pike series it will be bad…

Note: this was written before Episode 9 was released so whatever maybe I’m wrong about everything who knows.

Star Trek Picard has a few interesting ideas smothered in boring, derivative nonsense. I liked the pilot. I liked the Troi-Riker episode. I even liked this last episode, in a way. The Holo-Rioses were endearing and when Raffi isn’t a stereotypically offensive drug addict welfare queen, she’s pretty great. And in a meta moment, Picard as a character seemed to really find himself after visiting the Troi-Rikers. But let’s be real — the show is still largely a big ol’ mess. …

First, a mea culpa: Last time I said that Agnes Jurati was “clearly” Maddox’s daughter. I even emphasized “clearly”! She wasn’t. They were lovers or married or something, whatever. That’s my bad. I made a fundamental mistake: I assumed a level of competence that the CBS Trek regime hasn’t earned. See, Star Trek Picard is a show rooted in themes of personal rebirth and generational redemption, in which major characters are trying to resolve something from their past by finding their children — the physical manifestation of their future. …