Star Trek VI just keeps looking better and better in hindsight. It's great in its own right, but when I compare it to what I imagine what it would have been like had it been made according to the same ethos as Picard season 3, Jesus, it's a cinematic miracle.

A thread of some random wrestling thoughts this Saturday morning before I shift into Star Trek mode to shoot this week's Trek Actually video:

I watched last night's Rampage and noticed something that I think illustrates one of the big problems with AEW. 1/ It's a little thing in and of itself, but it speaks to the larger problem of the lack of discipline and focus in Tony Khan's booking — or what we refer to outside the context of pro wrestling as storytelling. 2/

Andor has mostly not been my cup of tea (though the new episode is pretty good), but by far the most inane complaint I've seen is "Where are all the aliens?" Jesus Christ, some of you. I don't even like the show, it has mostly bored me, but never have I thought to myself, "You know what would make this better? If more of these actors had foam rubber glued to their faces."

So, I un-shunned WWE over the weekend and Monday night, watched a little bit of WrestleMania and Raw, and it mostly just confirmed that I can continue to not watch it. Saturday I watched Cody's match and the rest of the show after that. Cody vs. Rollins was very good, and it seemed like a nice experience for Cody, so good for him. But, Jesus, I was not prepared for whatever the fuck they've done to Seth Rollins.

If I ever ran a Star Trek show, I would make it one of my missions in life to drive nitpicking canon-obsessed fans out of their minds.

https://twitter.com/paulsutherlin/status/1430938979617046536

Irreconcilable backstory inconsistencies, ship's scale and speed changing without explanation, set the show in the prime timeline but have a random background character dressed in a Kelvin-style uniform.

I'm a little over an hour into the Snyder cut. Feels like it's been four hours already. That was quite the dispiriting time check just now. So far any improvements over the theatrical cut have been marginal and counteracted by how long it takes this goddamn movie to go anywhere, and how up its own ass it is.

Okay, went back and finally made it through Justice League. Not as terrible as Batman v. Superman, mostly just dull and derivative, like watching The Asylum version of an MCU movie, only with more of a budget. I did appreciate that Superman actually had a few moments where he acted like something other than a dour mope. His sudden concern for the lives of civilians was nice to see, if totally out of character for the DCEU Supes up to that point. Better late than never, I guess.

So, assuming the current trends hold, it looks good for Biden. I am relieved. If he does win, I will be very happy. I will celebrate. It will be a great thing.

BUT. (1/) Sixty-seven million people voted for Donald Trump. And if you're one of those people, unless you're close family who I absolutely cannot avoid having in my life, you're fucking dead to me.

There was no excuse last time, there's even less of an excuse this time. (2/)

To everybody responding in good faith to my recent posts and video about Trump supporters with "But what about the Democrats?":

I get it. I agree with you. The problems run much deeper than just Trump and the GOP, and the Dems are part of those problems, for sure. If I seem to be focusing far more on Trump and the Republicans and not criticizing the Democrats or Joe Biden as much, that's because there's an election in November and I very, very much want the Democrats to do well overall and Biden to win the White House.

Just watched the new Dark Side of the Ring about the Brawl for All. Jesus Christ, what a shitshow.

(The BFA, I mean, not the DSotR episode -- that was great.) (1/) The thing about the Brawl for All is, as 18 year-old wrestling fans, none of us really understood at the time how awful it was. It was just another part of Monday Night Raw that we never really got into. (2/)

Here's the think about those who chose to cluck their tongues at antifa protesters that pisses me off the most: nobody was asking YOU to punch a Nazi. Nobody was expecting YOU to put YOUR BODY on the line. You were always going to safe. All you had to do was lift your voice (and some of you have podcasts or YouTube channels or even actual-by-god TV or radio shows or newspaper columns, so your voices are louder than others) and say "I support antifascists. I support people protesting hate and intolerance."

And while I'm thinking about it, everyone who was in that group photo with Armoured Skeptic and Shoe at Vidcon a year or two ago should be fucking embarrassed. Maybe they are. I hope so. Some of my favorite people were in that pic, looking very chummy with two absolute shits. I think it was Hbomb and Lindsay Ellis and Contrapoints and Dan Olson (who was the only one who looked unhappy to be there). And I love all those people to this day and I try not to hold it against them and I've never said anything publicly about it before, but that sucked.