This is rough. They're definitely trying too hard and the humour is very forced.
There's a whole ton of things that don't even make sense if they want us to consider this canon, especially the behaviour of some of these lower decks recruits.
One drinks on the clock and swings around a batleth and somehow doesn't get immediately fired. (They later reveal that the captain is looking for reasons to fire her too, how was that not it right there?)
A cyborg and a trill go on a first date and start to click when a zombie plague breaks out around them, and they barely acknowledge it's happening while they continue talking to each other. Like people literally get eaten beside them while they ignore it and keep talking like the date is more important than the lives around them. That's colder than some of the most ruthless villains in Trek history, but we're supposed to laugh it off and like these guys? Who wrote that?
That's the biggest problem I have with this show besides the forced humour. The characters are painfully unlikeable. The female lead is obnoxious and just yells a lot, jeering her friend to the point you wonder how they even remain friends. The male lead is a nervous, self righteous wreck that wouldn't have passed the entry exams or psychological tests to serve aboard a star ship, no matter how low rank.
I'd genuinely rather watch Spock's Brain, Sub Rosa, or Threshold again. Those episodes are even funnier than this, though unintentionally, but more watchable because they have likeable characters.
This has been a very rocky revival era for Trek, with Discovery and Picard forgetting that Star Trek is supposed to be about hope and going downright nihilistic (not to mention copying each other with each doing a season about a potential AI apocalypse) and so far it seems this first episode of Lower Decks is the worst yet. Instead of taking advantage of being a comedy and going for a lighter tone, it goes for Rick & Morty style shock humour that really doesn't work in this universe.
It's disappointing as reading how much the showrunners loved TNG and wanted to pay homage to it made it sound like this had the potential to be the best show in the Kurtzman era yet. I don't know how the writers are justifying their love of Trek with this weird mess. Probably would've played better as a fan fiction or a non canon web series.
That's the biggest problem I have with this show besides the forced humour. The characters are painfully unlikeable. The female lead is obnoxious and just yells a lot, jeering her friend to the point you wonder how they even remain friends. The male lead is a nervous, self righteous wreck that wouldn't have passed the entry exams or psychological tests to serve aboard a star ship, no matter how low rank.
I'd genuinely rather watch Spock's Brain, Sub Rosa, or Threshold again. Those episodes are even funnier than this, though unintentionally, but more watchable because they have likeable characters.
This has been a very rocky revival era for Trek, with Discovery and Picard forgetting that Star Trek is supposed to be about hope and going downright nihilistic (not to mention copying each other with each doing a season about a potential AI apocalypse) and so far it seems this first episode of Lower Decks is the worst yet. Instead of taking advantage of being a comedy and going for a lighter tone, it goes for Rick & Morty style shock humour that really doesn't work in this universe.
It's disappointing as reading how much the showrunners loved TNG and wanted to pay homage to it made it sound like this had the potential to be the best show in the Kurtzman era yet. I don't know how the writers are justifying their love of Trek with this weird mess. Probably would've played better as a fan fiction or a non canon web series.