Everybody has their own hot takes on the relative merits of their entertainments. Your appreciation of various film, TV and music will always be utterly subjective, and while I tend to follow along with the herd like the big dumb animal that I am, I do have a few scorchers of my own.
1. Voyager is better Star Trek than Deep Space Nine
A couple of years ago I went through the whole TNG/DS9/Voyager era of Star Trek at the pulsating rate of one episode a day, and discovered that the Next Gen crew will always be my favourite, because they were my crew when I was 12. This was no surprise, but it was the first time I watched all of Voyager, and it turned out to be much easier to dive into their world for an hour every night, than it was to take a trip to Bajor.
Deep Space Nine is brilliant space opera and says some gently disturbing things about the human condition in a way that none of its contemporary Treks managed, with an outstandingly charismatic cast. But It could also be an overall slog, especially when it all became more serialised, and the grand tapestry of the Cardassians and the blob people and the bloody prophets of Bajor could sometimes choke the life out of the series.
There is no doubt that Voyager had tonnes of clunky episodes, but it didn't matter, because something different was coming along in the next installment. The general cast of characters were exceedingly annoying, but that just made their small moments of emotional connection really hit. And occasionally you'd get an episode about the doctor or Chakotay that would be really striking.
It helps that every acclaimed modern series is all about the long-form storytelling these days, so indulging in that antiquated episode of the week format feels weirdly refreshing. But on an episode to episode basis, I'd always rather be in the Delta Quadrant.
2. The best Faith No More album was the last one
Angel Dust will always be the purest Faith No More, it was an album on extremely high rotation when I got my first fulltime job, rocking around the factory to Be Aggressive and Land Of Sunshine (the sub-banner for this blog is usually the quote from that song), and swaying between the cookers on the factory floor to their full-blooded version of Midnight Cowboy.
But if you asked me what the second best FNM album is, I'd go for the relatively recent Sol Invictus. Returning to the recording studio after years and years, the group produced a top-notch blast of funk metal, giving me everything I want in a more mature Faith No More album
Cone of Shame alone has all I could need - a ridiculously chunky riff, some throat-lacerating screaming and some top notch wailing in four minutes and forty seconds. But you also get the throbbing pulsations of the title track, and the straight and hilarious Motherfucker is never getting out of my skull.
The earliest phases of the band are totally the sound of my youth, but their epic crankiness in the most recent album also makes them the sound of my current withered age.
3. Inherent Vice is greatest Paul Thomas Anderson film
It's doesn't make any kind of fucking sense, and that's what I like most about it, even among the stifling mood and extraordinary cast. It's the kind of thing I find deeply inspiring - I've been working on a three-novel series sparked by a single scene in Inherent Vice for the past 10 years.
And I could only go through the glorious mind games of The Master and There Will Be Blood so many times, but I could watch Joaquin Phoenix's stoned ramblings over and over again, and I have no idea what Martin Short, Jena Malone and Joshn Brolin are up to, but I am all the way into it. Also Reece Witherspoon has never been better.
Fuck yeah, I'm looking forward to his new one. It looks like all I want in my PTA.
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