Ottis

Interesting take. I feel the opposite, love SNW, only liked part of season 3 of Discovery, the rest was overly emoting exasperation. But I did watch, unlike Enterprise, that I gave up on.

Let down #1: The bad gal is going to go scorched Earth on Picard … within 72 hours? I know they have warp, but what’s that, 2 maybe 3 trips? Not very scorched Earth. Let down #2: Jack isn’t something interesting. He just has the same thing J-L has. Huge miss here. Let down #3: We go on a side trip to R & D vs. have far more interesting conflicts with changelings in disguise. That’s a lot of let down’s for 15 minutes in so far. They are doing well with the fan service. The rest is inconsistent. One thing that puzzles me about Picard the show is its Data fetish. I have watched ST for 50 years, including all of TNG. Data was a main character but IMO was way down the pecking order. This show always seems to reveal him like the way ST:TMP revealed the Enterprise in dry dock.

Wait… didn’t they say in the first season they had food for years? Seems dd that just because eels don’t reproduce they are completely out of food. Did they drop the “flavorings” thing? That was what they needed, they ejected them from the shuttle, and not a peep? Speaking of, it didn’t seem like a big deal to send a 2-person shuttle to Av 5… shouldn’t they be sending more? Watching this from 2023, this chat simulator saw into the future.

Well, after two good eps, I guess a clinker was inevitable. And it featured Grogu, which assured it would be boring. Wasted time showing us Grogu’s escape. Unnecessary. These Mandalorians aren’t very bright. They regularly run out of fuel chasing the dragon? No new ideas, huh? And for a cult that is obsessed with keeping their helmets on, seems like wandering off to take them off to eat would result in a lot of accidental reveals. Maybe they need to open a base camp in the mines of Manda’lor for all the people who had someone unexpectedly enter a room or come around a tree. Also, why would a creature keep prey alive for what, hours? Before feeding it to its offspring? Aside from giving the rescue party time to get there. Nice touch bringing the dragon babies back, though I don’t know how that worked on that ship. Katie needed a magazine or Kindle while waiting. What is the big deal with acting like the Mythosaur sighting wasn’t real? They don’t have cameras in their fancy helmets? So that ep was a whole lot of nothing.

It’s a tribute to the inconsistency of this show that I now must ask: The serial killer who we saw kill the witness? If so, how did that guy manage to kill those people, get a bus, put them on the bus and bury it successfully? If you combined his acts with Milos’ intelligence, we might have a decent bad guy.

This helps. So it seems Dillon is just telling stories about people from his hometown. That would explain the lack of a coherent narrative. It’s just people reacting randomly. Bunny, who has been reasonable and thoughtful for two seasons, suddenly pulls off a heist in plain daylight with witnesses and cameras, because he’s… feeling vulnerable. He tosses everything he is out the window, to be uber armed. So now we have lost the voice of reason because … memories, I guess.

Is it wrong that I laughed through the shoot out at Mike’s, and at pretty much everything after that? Especially Mike leaving the paper in the other car, and telling Kyle that the fact Kyle shot their mom didn’t define him. Kyle, man, you did us all a favor! As I have posted before, it isn't clear what this series is supposed to be about. Everyone in it is either a criminal, criminally dumb or inexplicable. It isn’t taking a position on anything (prisons, police, small towns, etc.). Only the voiceover at the very end of the finale at last provided a clue… they all live in a shitty place, and that makes them into shitty people. Fair enough. But that could have been said in 2 hours. I would be surprised if there is a season three, and not because of JR’s injury (which I hope he recovers fully from). The show just doesn’t say anything.

The same reason the bug parasites tried in ST: TNG? I'm going to assume power and domination. The similarity in this Picard plot to that ep is one of my few disappointments this season, which has been the best Picard season so far, IMO. Heh. I'm kind of enjoying his discomfort. I like the character, even if I think he looks and sounds like a skinnier, more angry version of Ray Barrone's brother, Robert, in (in Robert's voice now) "Everrrrrrrry-body Loves Raymond." He's the least interesting part of the show for me, but I am pretty sure that, at the end, he will "be the key" to beating the bad guys.

I loved it. The absence of Grogu alone was worth it, but the depth that little side story provided to our understanding of what sorts of things were happening to people after the Empire lost was really interesting. I didn't care much that it was Gideon's henchperson, but I liked the city (finally, it's not a desert planet!), the amnesty program and the great shots of decommissioned Empire ships (though the show missed the chance for an awesome musical cue when the grounded star destroyers first appeared and it didn't play a few notes of the Imperial March). Also, the "it's a trap!" line when the scientist was on the table? Priceless. For me, it really slowed down when we returned to the Mandalorian and his being redeemed. I don't think privilege has much to do with it. I mean, maybe for that guy, but also, serfs who have no control or input into who is in charge also don't pay attention. For them, it doesn't matter - it always sucks. Also, the execution seems flawed. Having robots asking questions by route with no real observation of the human misses *a lot* of clues that we saw. I don't know who Dr. Pershing is or if he is important, but as I watched his sessions with the robot it made me wonder what the Allies would have missed out on if that was how they handled Werner Von Braun. Overall, another good episode, helped in no small part because we actually got to see more of the universe and no Grogu, at least for a bit. Did they change showrunners or writers or something? Because this season is far better than the first two so far, IMO. Yes, but the question was, why was she shady? I was wondering where this was going. Was she shady for the Republic, or the Empire, or for her own reasons? Apparently it could be all three.

So: - Bunny, who has been the voice of reason, suddenly robs a gun store, no mask, no proxies, to go after … Robert. Who has existed long before the prison riot and shot all sorts of people before that as well. Not buying it. - Milos needs to trade Iris for his paper… and doesn’t even sideline her from violent johns just before the trade? Not buying it. - And Robert, who I concede is a violent killer, can’t even recognize that the smartest thing to do when Mike asks if he killed the informant is to… just tell the truth (“no”) vs. get all offended by a question that had to be asked? Not buying it. Not only is there no one to root for, but the characters are all pretty dumb. It really is more like Mayans MC than the more intelligent show I had expected.

I think young writers don't have the depth, or have too much ego, to get to genuinely funny. Like the exorcism sketch, which felt like it was headed to "those silly old people? They actually have seen a lot, they have this and don't freak out about stuff that panics younger, less experienced folks." And indeed it initially looked that way. But they didn't bring home the "they got this" message, because I'm not sure they ever intended it because younger writers can't allow for "boomers" actually being capable. Instead, it played out like memories of someone's grandparents being sort of disconnected from the situation and slow, and in the end not actually being able to handle the issue (spinning head). I can see that, but my gosh, *6 years ago* she was touring the studio as a kid with her parents as a tourist and now she is *hosting* SNL? Good grief, that's something. She's so young, I give her props for doing it, period. She'll grow. LOL. I don't either, though sometimes it is because people call a skit "the diner skit" and I think of it as the "background fight" skit.

I didn't think anyone cared about that now. I mean, sure, shallow people who also care about what brand shoes someone wears, or watch, but aside from that, bald is an actual normal look. There are women who shave their heads as well. One is on ESPN, not sure anyone cares that she does. I've always been fascinated by the actors' relationship with Star Trek. They have to live it, so I don't know what they experience. But it seems like a good number of them don't appreciate it. A William Shatner digression ... back around 2010 or so, a new outfit called something like "Live Autograph" let you request greetings from your favorite stars for money. One of my close friends paid to have Bill Shatner say a few things that were both a play on my name and famous lines from Star Trek. So they sent me the video, and Shatner ... refused to do it. He sent me a video, but it was of him stumbling around verbally, saying my name and adding "I know you have it in you." I've read about him enough to feel pretty sure he viewed saying those lines along the line of being a trained monkey, and it annoyed him, I'm sure. It's too bad, though, I would have really enjoyed it. I can see Stewart feeling similarly about his privacy.

LOL. But the episodes without Lizzie were better than those with her! Uh, Mandalorian… that was a sad tale about the Empire making an example of the planet. I like references like that as a reminder of the bigger picture, while Din looks for a free pass for taking off his hat.

That was … actually pretty good. It helps that I like Katee S a lot. And it REALLY helps when Grogu is a side character and not the whole plot. No idea what the giant creature at the end was or why it let them leave. i’ve really complained about this show for 2 seasons. But this ep was alright.

We’ll have to agree to disagree. My comments were not about what the changeling thought, it was about what Shaw said, given the evidence he already knew, and what Shaw and Seven actually said. BTW, given what Shaw knew (and what we knew as viewers), it actually would have made more sense from a writing POV for the changeling to imitate Seven in thr nacelle. Shaw would have expected Seven to be there (as would we), and even if the real Seven showed up at worst we would have a “which one is actually Seven?” Issue. That writing would have been consistent with leaving the pilot on the bridge in an emergency (“Crash” during training aside, they had her with the first-stringers so odds are she is the best pilot they have), and with the bridge being smart enough to realize anyone sent to help would be suspect. It would have negated my objections.

LOL. And it is completely possible that Kirk shows up from the Nexus... but that would be bad writing. Because in order to draw the viewer into a sci-fi world, there needs to be some sort of internal logic that viewers can count on. That logic includes behaviors defined by the show and its characters, i.e. "what would make Starfleet sense during an emergency?" If things that are "possible" but are not consistent with the world's internal logic keep happening, then the show no longer makes sense and, like with Marvel's multiverse, anything can happen and nothing matters. So while the fact pilot LaForge has a dad who once worked on old starships could indeed mean she has some knowledge of the manual nacelle controls (and that's a big assumption ... given all the parts of a starship, what are the odds that particular procedure ever came up over the dinner table?), it does not trump the logic that says if you have a star pilot and your ship is navigating in space during an emergency that you are a fool to send that pilot to be a *back up* to do an old, obscure engineering procedure. Same is true for Seven saying she said to send no one to help them, given there is a shapeshifter who is likely to show up there so anyone who does show up is automatically suspect. The bridge is not likely to ignore that security procedure - *especially* to send someone who isn't even needed (how many times did Shaw and Seven say to the bridge, "we got this"?). The show is giving us clues, which make sense. Then it turns around and acts like no one saw the clues to give us an emotional moment or a quippy comment. That's the type of writing I'm calling out. That's why I liked it more than the other eps! I didn't think so, but I am binging to catch up. That's what *later* happened. At the time the bridge would have sent Sidney to help Shaw/Seven, no one knew that was what would later happen. Irrelevant. I think we watch shows the same way! The sloppiness drives me nuts. I really like ST:SNW, and even it has some of this sloppiness. I have seen it over the last 10 or so years in my real life career, and these days it mostly comes from younger/less experienced writers who either don't realize it or assume they can fix it later like websites. That's why I eventually chalked it up on new TV shows to younger/less experienced/less disciplined writers. Picard, all 3 seasons, has A LOT of it. BTW, don't get me wrong: SO far, this season of Picard is far better than the mess that was season two. And I will watch, because I grew up on ST and it takes a lot to make me stop (the only ST show I stopped watching? Enterprise).

I like Shaw. He is well aware he can be an ass, but he has reasons and even when he is being an ass, he is competent.

This show is afflicted with what I have come to think of as "writers who are too young or too inexperienced to know better." I've seen this a lot in the past couple of years, on multiple shows. Yeah, I'm old (I watched reruns of TOS as a kid), but I also write for a living and have for decades. For people who just want to roll with it, today's writers and their blind spots may not matter. For someone like me, who wants to see tight and logical links between actions and events, it drives me crazy. The silly "you have killed us all" from Riker to Picard last ep is an example (you can go back and see my post on that in that episode thread). The dialogue between Seven and Shaw in this ep, after Seven shoots the shapeshifter, is another example. "How did you know?" Shaw asks afterward. Well, let's see ... the bridge would not send its star pilot to help open nacelle doors during an emergency (duh), Seven herself has already said that she told the bridge not to send anyone to help, AND Shaw has said that in that space and moment is exactly when a shapeshifter would best be able to screw them up. Shaw should have known all of those things, making the question unnecessary. Also? None of that mattered anyway, if Seven just stunned the shapeshifter. It wasn't a dramatic choice like killing it or choosing to shoot it vs. someone else. Just stun fake LaForge already. There was also the very strange dialogue with Worf and Raffi (was that this ep or the prior one?), where one of them asked what the goal of stealing the weapons was, the other asks "to start a war?" and the first one replies, "no, to plan another attack." Planning a second attack doesn't answer the question. WHY are they planning attacks? Is it indeed to start a war? That exchange was just nonsensical. I will say the relived memory of Jack asking a smug Picard in the bar about family was well done. Jack clearly is more than human, based on his visions. And someone wants him. BTW, is it just me, or do the whites in his eyes seem to glow? I've thought that since he appeared. Maybe I'm reaching.

It was terrible writing - especially when you consider that BOTH Picard and Riker had moments before agreed that they could no longer run. They *had* to fight. So why the hissy fit? I'll tell you why - poor writing by people who are seeking the dramatic moment over any logical sense. "You have killed us all" feels big and emotional. In reality, it was both out of character and illogical given what we just saw. But these writers either don't see that, or don't care. At the very least, in all the little past scenes with Picard and Riker, show us that they had, in their retirement years, arrived at a basic difference in viewpoint or philosophy. Then that difference could come back on the bridge. But no, we don't even see that. Meanwhile, I don't know why the show has chosen to give half its airtime to an uninteresting and, face it, unimportant, Raffi and her personal journey and mission. This is not a knock against the actress. She's fine. What her character is doing is sterile and, at times, cliched. Yeah, yeah, fighting a past addiction and relentlessly chasing this lead to atone for something, we will no doubt learn. It's a shame, because the overall arc is leagues better than season two. They keep failing on the key moments. Or at least they are an important soldier in a bigger cause. The ones we have seen so far seem more like useful fanatics than the brains behind whatever is going on.

I don’t care that Crusher didn’t tell Picard about Junior. Kirk had the same thing happen, whatever. I have a way bigger issue with Picard saying he wouldn’t hand over Jack “because he’s my son.” That is not how a leader thinks especially on Star Trek, and especially J-L Picard. That was blatant emotional pandering by the show. I’m glad they gave Shaw a defined perspective, vs. the dick we saw at dinner. He’s not bad, he’s just specific.

My first thought: Oh no, not the family vineyard again. Second thought: Who would be using a 20+ year old communicator? Someone from 20+ years ago. Third thought: Why “no Star Fleet?” Guessing a mole or traitor. Picard has to be smarter than this. And I am only 13 minutes in.

I totally see this. The show could have explored so many ethical issues via religious archetypes and crimes/human actions. Is doing A bad if someone does B first? How does Lucifer and his angel bro see it? Instead, I have made it to the end of season 3, and in a single episode it had 1) Lucifer being jealous about Decker and Pierce, 2) Maze being jealous about Lucifer and Decker, 3) Ella being a busy body who moans about all of it, and 4) Tricia Helfer's character and the angel and the psychiatrist in some weird triangle. The actual crime that occurred is pretty much an afterthought, much less any interesting take on it. It's all so juvenile. I think I will stop watching the show here.

Thank you. It feels like Ian having the ability to occasionally take imprisoned criminals to the dentist, after sorting through appropriate red tape, isn’t a huge threat?

Was it really? It was clear Mike wanted someone to come after him, because he left his keys and gun with the bartender and wandered aimlessly in broad daylight alone, not telling anyone else where he was. Maybe he felt guilt over some aspect of the mess that is this show's plot and wanted penance, maybe he needed to be picked up unarmed to get to Milos, I don't know. Clearly he thought he needed to have a confrontation with someone, and he wanted to reduce the chance it would be violent. I'll go with it. Then his wandering went on a loooooong time before he finally found someone who would rat him out, and then someone finally came get him - and instead of allowing himself to be picked up, Mike went to get his gun and shot (and killed?) the guy. What? So what was the point of leaving his gun at the bar if this was a plan? If he intended to shoot whoever followed him before even talking to them, why go unarmed? Just to tell the woman snitch he wasn't armed? You can always say you are unarmed but still be armed - why be vulnerable? Iris makes so much money that Milos won't kill her? I think it is more likely she is a nonfactor, and he is happy to take her money and also will kill her when he feels like it. I did actually like Kyle and Bunny, each person measuring the other and figuring out how to interact. I'm sure Bunny is already thinking about how to work Kyle at some point. The whole Ian and the serial killer thing was weird. Ian's leverage was ... that he showed a mentally disadvantaged killer where the guy lived? The killer, who is in jail? What did I miss? Meanwhile, Mike's mom wanders into the show, does something pointless, and is out - again. This show is done well, and it drives me crazy. It's not only slow. It usually makes little to no sense, and seems to have no direction. Is it about a corrupt police/prison system? Is it about the dreariness of life in a prison town? Is it "A Day In the Life" of a fixer who isn't good at his job? I dunno.

Made it to the end of season 3, and am bummed. The show went all CW, with more of each ep being about who wuvs who and who needs to tell someone else they wuv them and who is jealous. Ugh. I know this is years later so whatever, but what a disappointing direction. May have to stop my binge.