Star Trek: TNG - season one episodes, ranked

Ranking every episode of the entire series (or franchise) is far too difficult a task, and to be totally honest I think I would find it virtually impossible, considering how many episodes there really are in Star Trek that are absolutely forgettable. So instead I will just do mini-countdowns like this, where I rank every episode from within its own season, and maybe I can expand on this a little further with a more updated favorites list; and perhaps even a few worst-of lists as well.

So let's start from the beginning, with the first season of TNG. I'm skipping TOS not because I don't like it, but because I'm currently watching through TNG, so it's still fresh on my mind as I'm writing this.

Oh, and as for two-part episodes, I am counting both parts separately only if they were released in different seasons. For example, Gambit from season 7 will only count as one single episode, but I'm splitting Best Of Both Worlds up, as it served as the season 3 finale and season 4 premiere. Now to the actual list, which will be much less wordy than this introduction.

Top 10 Robert Englund performances

One of the last true horror legends, Robert Englund sits alongside the likes of Karloff, Lugosi, Price, Lee, and Cushing as a bonafide icon of the genre. But much like many of the aforementioned, Englund has a lot more to offer than simple thrills, as he's actually a quite a talented actor who just never seemed to find the right opportunities to show how great he was.

Here, I will be naming my personal favorite performances of Englund's career, and hopefully a few of my mentions here will inspire people to dig a little deeper into his filmography. I won't be reinventing the wheel with this list, but I hope at least a few of these wind up standing out and possibly surprising a few people who are fans of his. If not, sorry to disappoint you. Let's begin.

200 Items Or Less: McBain (1991)

A few thoughts: Oh man, this movie is dripping with political commentary. But not the good kind that works itself into a narrative without feeling like you're being preached at. No no no, this is the kind of movie that wants to ram commentary down your throat and force you to swallow. The result is, predictably, a movie that thinks it's a lot more poignant than it actually is. But even more than ham-fisted social statements, this movie is guilty of an even greater sin -- a misuse of not only one, but TWO great actors: Michael Ironside and Christopher Walken. Granted, they both tend to thrive in even the worst of the worst movies, but the direction they're given here seems to come from a place of genuine misunderstanding. And that's something pervasive throughout the whole movie -- misunderstanding of what the movie is and should be. It's a dumb action movie that thinks it's a smart action movie, it has a great main cast that it doesn't understand how to use, it fills the plot with characters and scenarios no one is interested in, and it does all of this while having the pieces to a perfectly enjoyable puzzle sitting right under their noses. "Frustrating" doesn't quite cover it.

Jeff's 25 Favorite Movies of 2019

I was very unimpressed by 2018 as a year for movies, but the world of film redeemed itself in 2019, ending the decade with a bang. The top 4 movies on this list would land higher than anything else that's come out in the past couple years, and that's not even to mention how many things I felt belonged in the top 10 but couldn't quite land there. It was an amazing year for movies, and I'm hoping 2020 picks up where 2019 left off and gives us even more great things to watch.

Additionally, I feel it's worth stating as I usually would in this situation that this is not my attempt as an objective list of the best movies of the year. These are just my favorites. And there are going to be several big ones that won't appear here that most people would include. I haven't seen every movie, and I don't love every movie I see, so keep that in mind when going through this list. That being said, I have seen nearly 100 films from 2019, and there aren't many others that I really felt like watching.

To start out, I'm going to list 8 honorable mentions. These aren't necessarily the next 8 best movies of the year, but more ones that have stuck with me somehow and I feel like mentioning for whatever reason.