Are Critics Grading ‘Starfleet Academy’ on a Woke Curve?

Richard Roeper said what he wasn’t supposed to say about that 2016 “Ghostbusters” reboot.

The veteran film critic suggested his peers graded the Paul Feig reboot “on a curve.” That’s not something a critic shares lightly, and Roeper isn’t right-leaning by any stretch.

He genuinely felt film critics went easy on a film derisively labelled “The Lady Ghostbusters.”

Why? The film’s all-female lead cast made it a culture war battle, and critics adjusted their reviews according. That’s according to Roeper, of course.

And, as fate would have it, the film dramatically underperformed. That led to a more traditional sequel. which fared better, in part, thanks to a smaller budget.

So how does this connect to the current reaction to “Star Trek: Starfleet Academy?”

The Paramount+ series debuted earlier this year and quickly became fodder for gimlet-eyed YouTube stars like Nerdrotic and The Critical Drinker.

They weren’t pleased.

The new series features a youthful cast led by screen veteran Holly Hunter. The saga boasts an aggressively diverse cast, not unusual for a brand that featured TV’s first interracial cast more than 60 years ago, and an upbeat tone often compared to “One Tree Hill” and “Beverly Hills 90210.”

That’s not a compliment. And, by many accounts, it’s as bad as advertised. And the ratings show it.

Even Collider, hardly a right-leaning platform, spelled out the dire news for the series.

At the time of writing, just three days after the premiere of Episode 3, Starfleet Academy has been ousted from the current Paramount+ streaming charts in the U.S. This is made even more damning when considering the lack of brand-new content providing competition for Starfleet Academy.

Shows like “Criminal Minds,” “South Park” and “Everybody Loves Raymond,” which went off the air more than 20 years ago, are all beating “Starfleet Academy.”

Badly.

The free YouTube version of Episode 1 has fewer views than The Critical Drinker’s takedown.

Tell that to the professional reviewers. The “top critics” at Rotten Tomatoes gave the show a 93 percent “fresh” rating, a stellar mark. Yet general audiences weighed in against the saga, giving it a 43 percent “rotten” score.

Are modern critics grading “Starfleet Academy” on a curve a la “Ghostbusters?”

This is Star Trek, now.

I legitimately didn’t know I could hate modern Star Trek any more, but Kurtzman has outdone himself.

If you didn’t know better and were told that STARFLEET ACADEMY was a parody, you wouldn’t know it wasn’t. pic.twitter.com/dqev1t2nME

— Worth it or Woke? (reviews) (@worthitorwoke) January 16, 2026

This critic sampled the first episode and came away thinking The Critical Drinker and Nerdrotic nailed the show’s comical flaws. The dialogue is embarrassing, as are the clunky plot twists and sad fight sequences.

While the show’s “woke” trappings are undeniable, they’re the least offensive elements of the first installment.

Now, art is subjective, but a show like “Starfleet Academy” appears hard to rally behind. So why are so many critics doing just that?

This review snippet from Variety’s rave feels … telling.

To ensure the franchise lasts at least another 60 years, it must reflect our actual world. There must be space made for queer identifying, multi-heritage and mixed-race characters. It’s clear in many ways (on television and in real life) that the old guard has long dropped the ball. As “Starfleet Academy” declares, it’s now up to a new generation to fix the mess they’ve inherited [emphasis added].

Over at the far-Left Pajiba, the scribes declared the bad audience reviews to be “review bombing” (because any show critics like can’t be challenged by the great unwashed). The site also says it’s now a “must-see” show due to said bombing.

Tell that to Paramount+ subscribers, who prefer a decades-old comedy to this kind of “Trek.”

This Pajiba paragraph, once more, is telling.

Think of it as a post-Trump America analogue: there is a great deal of work to be done to regain the world’s trust and reestablish ethical leadership. Starfleet Academy is, at its core, a school designed to teach people how to act right again.

Grading on a curve … again? You decide.