KenJennings

NASCAR is making more progress than regress. There's still a lot to be concerned about, but it has been a good season in general.

I never watched this show. But I like Neal Morse a lot.

Considering Vegas has been one of the more boring tracks in recent history, today's was an enjoyable race.

Now that was a race. No late race cautions to meddle with the results. I don't care that Byron won by 4 seconds, that race for second was amazing. Thoroughly enjoyable race today.

"Best Season Ever" What a joke.

Season four of Enterprise would like a word. I wouldn't mind CBS All Access Paramount+ finding away to tell a 90 minute Enterprise story. I think there's a possibility that mirror Georgiou's section-31 show ends up in the Romulan War era shortly after Enterprise. That would give them a chance to retcon the awful ending Enterprise got, and give a little more attention back to that seriously underrated era of Trek.

Season four of Enterprise would like a word.

I don't know... I just didn't hate it. I know the science was wobbly, I know they kept dipping into CWesq plot devices. But they tried, and I can feel that. I haven't felt that from the first two seasons of Discovery. They really tried to get this one right, and that made it feel like Star Trek- even for all its flaws. I'm not sure what that means. I can't really quantify it. But the hollow, cold feeling Discovery gave me in the past is dissolving; and this ride was much more satisfying. A few things... I felt like there was an opportunity to tie Su'kal and his relationship to the Burn back to the "thought-is-space-is-time" phenomena that was explored in TNG with the traveler and Wesley. A few callbacks to that, or maybe even a stray mention of Tau Alpha C would've pulled the fantastical into the familiar just a bit, while reminding everyone that even TNG did wobbly science! I loved the pacing in the finale. It neither felt rushed or dragged out. Maybe the action scenes went a bit too long for my taste, but only a little. It was a finale, a big setpiece for the series. I can forgive it, because it wasn't enough to affect the overall pacing of the episode. I hate those gigantic 'ship-innard' turbolift sets. This was a kelvin-verse invention that I regret has carried over into Discovery. I prefer to think of Starfleet ships as dense and thicc. Not just full of negative space and bottomless Star Wars-esq pits. I also really dislike that Zareh ended up getting bested by Book, instead of Tilly. I would've liked her to outmaneuver his duplicitous ass after the way he treated her. The scenes with Su'kal and Saru felt nice. Warm, fuzzy, etc... Doug Jones wears that role very well. Overall 7 out of 10 for the season. I'm happy to get more. And for the first time, in my opinion, Discovery was Star Trek.

The guardian forever reveal was slightly predictable, but in the best of ways. I'm glad they went back to canon, rather than just having it be some odd entity. And I'm glad it wasn't a Q. I loved that after the years that have passed, and the wars he proclaimed to be involved in, the Guardian has evolved and grown a 'personality' of sorts. The handling of all that was exceptional, and I really enjoyed the throwback. Ultimately, this was a good way to deal with the Georgiou problem. We know she's going to end up working with Section 31 and getting her own show, but the 31st century wasn't going to work as that setting. She grew a lot as a character in these two episodes, and I only wish we'd seen more growth from her before them; but I'm excited to see where she comes out... perhaps she arrives at DS9 around year 2400 to pick up the pieces of S31 after Sloan's death... the Bajoran wormhole always created a close proximity between the universes after all.

I liked the new Mirror Universe episode. The appearance of an alien entity known only as Carl, sitting in an adirondak chair in front of a lonely door to nowhere, was one of the most TOS things Star Trek has done since the 60s.

Discovery keeps showing signs of momentum and strength, only to fall back into these CW-esq fluff episodes. I also don't like the formula Discovery has been leaning on, of giving each character an episode to flesh out their backstory, before moving on to the next. It all seems so compartmentalized and linear. If Discovery were an episodic show, it would make sense; but they're telling a big overarching story here, parsing the b-stories amid a larger a-story seems distracting. If they're going to go with the serialized format, they should allow these smaller stories to dilate the same way.

Yeah, felt like the CW does Star Trek.

I think even Star Trek Discovery could be turning the corner. The soft reboot they gave the show this season seems to be working wonders for it. I've enjoyed the ride so far and am looking forward to what's next.

If it was pure fiction, I just wouldn't like it. It's the unwilling involvement of real people I have a real problem with. They actually give their consent. Under clearly false pretenses.

If it was pure fiction, I just wouldn't like it. It's the unwilling involvement of real people I have a real problem with.

The first one had charm? That film was garbage. Why call it a comedy when nothing in it was funny? 100% agreed. The fact that people actually enjoy his shameless, awkward attention whoring, and borderline illegal pathological deception is just sad. Well I do enjoy the President's ramblings from time to time too. ...at least Trump is funny.

The first one had charm? That film was garbage. Why call it a comedy when nothing in it was funny? 100% agreed. The fact that people actually enjoy his shameless, awkward attention whoring, and borderline illegal pathological deception is just sad. Humor is subjective, the fact that you don't think it's funny isn't sad, but believing that what he does is nearly illegal, is. Probably because he's punking people/groups you support or identify with. Fraud, sexual harassment, inherent exposure, impersonating emergency officials, constant defamation... Yeah just a stand up dude. At a minimum he should be sued, a few times over.

The first one had charm? That film was garbage. Why call it a comedy when nothing in it was funny? 100% agreed. The fact that people actually enjoy his shameless, awkward attention whoring, and borderline illegal pathological deception is just sad.

Rain on the Roval today in the Busch series. What a blast. AJ Allmendinger and Chase Briscoe put on a great show in the closing laps. It's jutoo too bad Briscoe couldn't fight thru to the end. Great race though!

Some of the best NASCAR news I've seen in a while, big schedule changes in place for 2021. SIX road course races, a dirt race at Bristol. California being reconfigured into a short track- like a high banked martinsville. Sounds like they're going to stick with the single day event format for most races. I think covid may end up being a blessing in disguise for NASCAR. Getting rid of qualifying and practice for most race weekends is going to save the teams a lot of money, and we now know it doesn't hurt raceday at all- single day race weekends are good for everyone. It allows more variation in the schedule and it allows the track facilities to run more lean and efficiently. Can't wait to see cup cars on dirt. Can't wait to see cup cars at Road America. Is 2021 the year Brian Frances' legacy finally rinses away? They're walking back that awful high down-force package at a number of tracks, and reducing the number of cookie cutter ovals. There's more diversity between the tracks than ever, and costs are finally coming back down for owners. I'm more hopeful for NASCAR now than I have been in 20 years. Now if only they'd end the stage racing and fix the points system, we'd be in great shape.

These lists are always hard because I can't decide between movies that are legitimately great from a more artistic and objective standard like Forest Gump or Jurassic Park, and movies I just plain enjoy watching because they please me like Happy Gilmore or Signs.

Seth Rogan isn't funny, and isn't a good actor. I don't understand his appeal at all. Not a fan. Adam Sandler isn't a particularly good actor; but Happy Gilmore is one of my top five favorite all tine comedies, so he gets a pass. Russell Brand is incredibly annoying, and doesn't make me laugh. Thinks way too much of himself to play a self deprecating stoner. Jim Carey and Steve Carell are both very good actors. Even comedy aside, they're talented actors. And they're both pretty funny too. Dennis Leary is a good character. He does his one thing well, but never made me laugh that much. Bill Burr makes him obsolete. Tom Green is actually a pretty funny guy, but he ruined his career by making "no shame" his whole shtick early on. Fallon and Corden are empty suits pretending to be comedians. They're about as exciting as unbuttered wonder bread.

Discovery sucks. It has no soul whatsoever. There's nothing challenging the boundaries, no moral to the story, no spirit of exploration and growth. Might as well be a Star War. Picard was a great. Michael Chabon's story gave us deep philosophical conflict, a true struggle for the ideological heart of Roddenberry's future, and a cavalcade of deep new characters. Lower Decks is just a juvenile love letter to TNG fans. It's very enjoyable in that perspective. Two outta three ain't bad. I'm not down on nuTrek. I'm just down on Discovery- and I think CBS is too, which is why they're essentially rebooting it this season.

I wish they hadn't brought back Data at the end. Data died at the end of Nemesis, and I was very comfortable with Soji carrying some little piece of him, and serving as the 'voice from beyond the grave'. Bringing him back in earnest felt like being beat with a nostalgia bat, and having to say goodbye to a beloved character all over again, for no reason other than to say "this time we'll get it right". The notion of Picard being made into a synth was a little too telegraphed, but ultimately handled well enough. The biggest problem with the series, and the final two episodes in particular was the breakneck pacing. While they closed the major holes, they left a number of details underserved. For instance, what became of Narek? He was totally forgotten after being tackled by a synth during the final fight. Does Jurati have to stand trial for Maddox' muder? Where the hell did that Seven/Raffi thing come from? What kind of leadership changes are happening with the Federation as a result of the Tal Shair infiltrator being exposed? And what becomes of the xBs? Do they just get left on that planet in a crumpled cube? These questions (and others) could've been addressed instead of spending all that time redoing Data's death. Unfortunately, the choices in the last two episodes dragged down what could've been an A or A- series to a B or B+. Some very slight tweaks could've made it so much better.

Soji had a line in this week's episode that absolutely killed me.