But there’s a trade-off here, and it’s the loss of the genuine humanity Whedon brought to this world—a personality and vulnerability that just doesn’t square with Snyder’s conception of these characters as fundamentally godlike beacons of strength and power

Interesting. I had no plans to watch this but I’ll give it a shot. Thanks for the review Kevin!

This seems like a pretty big target to put on your back/head. I will not be surprised to one day read a headline about Lil Uzi Vert being murdered and the diamond in his head being cut out. 

And a kid destroys all the dilithium in the universe instantly? That sounds really really dumb.

I’m usually not someone that cares about overly expository dialogue but holy cow at least 1/2 of the dialogue in this episode was characters making painfully obvious observations. I really wish this show had better writers because I love Trek. 

I thought it was suggesting another spin-off show. Otherwise why not just say “The Mandalorian will return December 2021"

Yeah, this was my thinking too. Accepting the Darksaber from Sabine was fine once. But to lose it to Gideon and then be asked to accept it from another Mandalorian again, this time one she barely knows, is a bridge too far. It’s insulting to the Mandalorian creed.

I’m glad it was Luke, I just don’t think the tech for CGI characters has gotten there yet. There’s still too much uncanny valley for me. Hell, I think I even would have preferred a de-aged Mark Hamill. He still would have looked older than he should for the timeline, but the performance would have been better (and…

I don’t know why this review expects the game to “say” something about diversity or trans culture or the world.

And did I miss the part where they explained how Michael’s apparently human birth mother just happens to pop up 900 or so years in the future?

Oof. Hard disagree on this one. I have my issues with Discovery, but this is easily one of the best episodes of the series for me, if only because it felt like a classic Trek episode. Who doesn’t love a good trial plot!

I do enjoy some asmr content, but mukbang videos (asmr or otherwise) are just baffling to me.

Jennifer Lawrence and Leonardo DiCaprio as scientists? I guess that’s better than Denise Richards and Mark Wahlberg.

I feel like Caleb Mclaughlin was born to play Virgil.

I don’t think Affleck is the best Batman, but I do think he’s the best Bruce Wayne. 

Oddly enough, I think his standup specials have been pretty damn good. He’s a funny guy. But Tosh.O was always deeply unfunny to me. I take no pleasure in laughing at people’s misfortune. Same reason I can’t stand prank shows.  

For anyone interested in a more comprehensive (but still condensed) history of videogames, I’d recommend the book Replay by Tristan Donovan. 

I will only watch this if they cast Laurence Fishburne as Uncle Phil. 

thank you for pointing this out, because I've been going crazy trying to figure out why she looks so familiar. 

I genuinely love that episode. It’s got an old 1920s-1930s pulp sci-fi feeling to it. I don’t know if there’s another episode quite like it in the Star Trek universe (There might be a few. It’s hard to remember all of them).