Yeah, I know, using The Firm's Star Trek song lyrics is a low blow, but when you feel the need to search Youtube for that song to erase the memory of each episode of Picard you've just watched, what can you do?
ST:Picard is just a continuation of the Not-Trek that began with the JJ Abrams movies reboots and the awful ST:Dicovery show. It's sci-fi, but it isn't really Star Trek and no amount of shoehorning old characters into it will change that.
Star Trek was always about a hopeful future for humanity, where we had overcome all out prejudices and bigotry and become a force for good in the galaxy.
ST:Picard, on the other hand, reverses all this and now the Federation are basically isolationist a-holes that are willing to let entire species die because "we don't help our enemies" (This is actually stated in episode two). It's as if no one involved in this show ever watched ST: The Undiscovered Country.
What this show is, and not even remotely trying to be subtle about it, is political and societal posturing by the writers and even by Patrick Stewart hinself. They've made no secret of the fact that it is meant to be a mishmash of everything wrong with society at the moment. I just wish they had writers that understood that beating your audience about the head with your idealogical leanings will have the exact opposite effect, even if they somewhat share those ideologies.
What Picard feels like is... well, you know that scene in the Simpsons where Grandpa Simpson shakes his stick angrily at a cloud? Well this feels like that, only after he did that, someone gave him a job writing for television. Picard feels like that. Like grumpy old Abraham Simpson wrote it. It's miserable and dark, full of overdone societal commentary and politics and utterly NOT-Trek.
Let's be clear, because Star Trek WAS always about such societal commentary, but it did it in a subtle way. A subtle way that was actually made more effective by having our future human descendants be almost perfect. The Federation of the older Trek shows was the shining beacon of how society should be, against which, all other societies (with their flaws) could be contrasted quite markedly in order to get across whatever the message of the week was.
This new Trek has none of that guile, instead being intent on brow-beating the viewer with the issues of the day whilst showing our future as being anything other than hopeful and bright. It's depressing, honestly, and very tiring to watch. Am I in the minority of people that want to watch this sort of thing to forget about the real world, even if only for an hour or so at a time?
It's early days yet, for this show, and I know Kurtzman only really had input into the first four episodes, so it might improve as the season goes on. However, right now its dreary and miserable. Even Picard's presence doesn't help, since Patrick Stewart seems to no longer be playing Picard, but only Himself at the moment.
I also suspect that his role will be minimal as the show progresses. Oh, he'll be there, but mostly everything will be done by the show's new, younger cast. He's really only going to be there to legitimise the show as Star Trek. Same for the other older Star Trek cast that have become involved in this. Just there to add legitimacy to the show, hang around for half-an-episode (if you're lucky) and then gone forever. Picard, I feel, will be a guest-star on his own show.
Whilst I'm picking holes in this...episode two. What kind of lazy-ass prop department uses a 3D printer as a replicator, then can't even be bothered to remove the (clearly visible) 3D printing parts (print-head/carriage and motors) from said printer before delivering a CLOSE-UP scene of that "replicator". I can't even begin to describe how little care and attention that makes me feel is going into this show, hence my feeling that it is going to go downhill quite rapidly.
And another thing that is bugging me... Romulans. Has no one who is playing a Romulan in this show ever seen any episode of older Trek involving the Romulans? Or were they actually directed to act like humans all the time? Because so far, none of the Romulans are acting like Romulans, just like humans with pointy-ears.
EDIT: So we're up to episode 8 and there's been swearing, graphic torture and the murder of TNG/Voyager characters without any good reason. It's pretty dire. The pacing in the later episodes is all over the place. The editing makes it clear there were plenty of reshoots and through it all, women tell Picard off again and again. Even Troi does it. What a mess!
EDIT FOR SEASON 3: Wow! Talk about a night and day change! S3 of Picard is probably what we all hoped for when the series was first announced. Unlike S1/2 it IS actual Star Trek, and it's pretty good! Like my tag line above, all it took was scraping Kurtzman off the show's metaphorical boot and putting someone competent in charge, in this case Terry Matalas. Who could have guessed that putting someone in charge who has worked on previous Trek (DS9 etc.) would fix a sinking ship? Anyway, it is decent, watchable Trek now. I'd give S3 a solid 8 rating. The rest... well the rest of this review still stands for S1/2.
I can't help but feel so long as Bad Robot, Abrams, Kurtzman et al are involved with Trek, nothing worthwhile will emerge.
SUMMARY: More NOT-Trek from Kurtzman. Picard who isn't Picard, Romulans that act like humans. Godawful contemporary cursing. Exhausting to watch pseudo-drama painted to look like Star Trek (by a painter that's never seen Star Trek). Not really recommended.
RECOMMENDATION: DO NOT WATCH Seasons 1 and 2 if you loved Star Trek. Start at Season 3 and pretend the rest was a bad fever dream... A really BAD fever dream!
ST:Picard is just a continuation of the Not-Trek that began with the JJ Abrams movies reboots and the awful ST:Dicovery show. It's sci-fi, but it isn't really Star Trek and no amount of shoehorning old characters into it will change that.
Star Trek was always about a hopeful future for humanity, where we had overcome all out prejudices and bigotry and become a force for good in the galaxy.
ST:Picard, on the other hand, reverses all this and now the Federation are basically isolationist a-holes that are willing to let entire species die because "we don't help our enemies" (This is actually stated in episode two). It's as if no one involved in this show ever watched ST: The Undiscovered Country.
What this show is, and not even remotely trying to be subtle about it, is political and societal posturing by the writers and even by Patrick Stewart hinself. They've made no secret of the fact that it is meant to be a mishmash of everything wrong with society at the moment. I just wish they had writers that understood that beating your audience about the head with your idealogical leanings will have the exact opposite effect, even if they somewhat share those ideologies.
What Picard feels like is... well, you know that scene in the Simpsons where Grandpa Simpson shakes his stick angrily at a cloud? Well this feels like that, only after he did that, someone gave him a job writing for television. Picard feels like that. Like grumpy old Abraham Simpson wrote it. It's miserable and dark, full of overdone societal commentary and politics and utterly NOT-Trek.
Let's be clear, because Star Trek WAS always about such societal commentary, but it did it in a subtle way. A subtle way that was actually made more effective by having our future human descendants be almost perfect. The Federation of the older Trek shows was the shining beacon of how society should be, against which, all other societies (with their flaws) could be contrasted quite markedly in order to get across whatever the message of the week was.
This new Trek has none of that guile, instead being intent on brow-beating the viewer with the issues of the day whilst showing our future as being anything other than hopeful and bright. It's depressing, honestly, and very tiring to watch. Am I in the minority of people that want to watch this sort of thing to forget about the real world, even if only for an hour or so at a time?
It's early days yet, for this show, and I know Kurtzman only really had input into the first four episodes, so it might improve as the season goes on. However, right now its dreary and miserable. Even Picard's presence doesn't help, since Patrick Stewart seems to no longer be playing Picard, but only Himself at the moment.
I also suspect that his role will be minimal as the show progresses. Oh, he'll be there, but mostly everything will be done by the show's new, younger cast. He's really only going to be there to legitimise the show as Star Trek. Same for the other older Star Trek cast that have become involved in this. Just there to add legitimacy to the show, hang around for half-an-episode (if you're lucky) and then gone forever. Picard, I feel, will be a guest-star on his own show.
Whilst I'm picking holes in this...episode two. What kind of lazy-ass prop department uses a 3D printer as a replicator, then can't even be bothered to remove the (clearly visible) 3D printing parts (print-head/carriage and motors) from said printer before delivering a CLOSE-UP scene of that "replicator". I can't even begin to describe how little care and attention that makes me feel is going into this show, hence my feeling that it is going to go downhill quite rapidly.
And another thing that is bugging me... Romulans. Has no one who is playing a Romulan in this show ever seen any episode of older Trek involving the Romulans? Or were they actually directed to act like humans all the time? Because so far, none of the Romulans are acting like Romulans, just like humans with pointy-ears.
EDIT: So we're up to episode 8 and there's been swearing, graphic torture and the murder of TNG/Voyager characters without any good reason. It's pretty dire. The pacing in the later episodes is all over the place. The editing makes it clear there were plenty of reshoots and through it all, women tell Picard off again and again. Even Troi does it. What a mess!
EDIT FOR SEASON 3: Wow! Talk about a night and day change! S3 of Picard is probably what we all hoped for when the series was first announced. Unlike S1/2 it IS actual Star Trek, and it's pretty good! Like my tag line above, all it took was scraping Kurtzman off the show's metaphorical boot and putting someone competent in charge, in this case Terry Matalas. Who could have guessed that putting someone in charge who has worked on previous Trek (DS9 etc.) would fix a sinking ship? Anyway, it is decent, watchable Trek now. I'd give S3 a solid 8 rating. The rest... well the rest of this review still stands for S1/2.
I can't help but feel so long as Bad Robot, Abrams, Kurtzman et al are involved with Trek, nothing worthwhile will emerge.
SUMMARY: More NOT-Trek from Kurtzman. Picard who isn't Picard, Romulans that act like humans. Godawful contemporary cursing. Exhausting to watch pseudo-drama painted to look like Star Trek (by a painter that's never seen Star Trek). Not really recommended.
RECOMMENDATION: DO NOT WATCH Seasons 1 and 2 if you loved Star Trek. Start at Season 3 and pretend the rest was a bad fever dream... A really BAD fever dream!