viroodiem

NOT a comedy. Its an intruiging sci fi show but do yourself a favor and ignore the advertisements that make you think its a comedy. Its not. Unless of course you find Karens funny. Like All of Sony/Apples sci fi shows its very well made, but in the first two episodes there is literally nothing to laugh at unless you like making fun of the W main char for being logical and correct, but the rest of the passive cast are sort of OK with what is happening. Undoubtedly with the pedigree of this show and its creator being a "slow burn" type, it WILL have to get better, but based on the premier 2 episodes it was VERY difficult to sit through. Its not that the humor is subtle or its intelligent writing that goes over the audiences head. Its not. The things it is trying to call comedy isnt comedy. Its just vindictive and intentionally punitively attacking the main char for being a classic Karen archetype. Once I accepted that its NOT a comedy and just viewed it as a sci fi drama that it is, It started to click a lot more. So TENTATIVELY giving it a 1 due to the dishonest marketing.I will however continue to give it a chance and if it starts evolving into something better as the season goes on, Ill amend this score accordingly. This is definitely the most worth while 1 Ive ever seen but right now that is all it deserves and that is being gracious.

Hidden is the agenda, but it still is prominently there. It LOOKS gorgeous. Basically what we have been expecting from Nu trek for the 7 years. But it simply cannot escape its DNA. Still promoting very hate filled views that do NOT align with trek's ethos. So the best thing about this season is that mercifully it will soon finally be over. Which I think Academy will present the GOOD things from ST D while dialing back a lot of the things that served as its albatross. Episodes are mostly above average, but take a hit for all the ham fisted subtext that does more to break canon than fix problems this specific star trek show created.

All of the elements This show is what it is. This is not a kids show. This is a show for the kids who grew up watching this show. It is like a remix of the original story. Perhaps one of the better ways of remixing the content. Even through the remixing of plot points, the plotpoints are about as 1:1 as you are going to be able to get. It has true flaws like being a bit too dark (gamma, not tone) But the visuals are VERY good. From CGI to costuming, this truly does feel like the avatar world come to life visually. There are other flaws like some of the character remixing. (Cause Sokka is very different now and lacks a lot of the nuance he should have) Overall the most glaring flaw is the pacing. Probably the second biggest flaw is forgetting that while they made a show for adults, these characters are still tweens and teens. So its is very intentionally weird because there is so much "romantic tension" and awkward "thirst" ing with chars ranging from 11 to 16. Some of those elements were in the original story, but creepy staring and grouping scenes, not so much. The most irksome flaw, however, is the comparatively low lack of humor. Granted you can attribute that to an older demographic, but fans want everything. So of course they want child like fun in a photo realistic depiction of a fantasy war. Those are still not incompatible. Only very difficult to merge. THAT is the biggest point where the Nickelodeon show was vastly superior For a project that had every probability to make grave "design choices", like being made by netflix, and the original team and how they nosedived the whole franchise after the nick show with she who shall not be named. I would say this would be best suited for adults who only had a passing or no familiarity with the anime first and foremost. Original kid aged fans, your going to see 50/50 on it at best. Simply because this is like a generation of kids holy grail of a nerdly series and some people will like or hate it based on nothing more than how far it deviates from what they remember the show to be in their own personal head canon. Not what is actually there. Either or... I am a firm supporter of the show until it does something to otherwise make me reconsider that. All in all this is what we as viewers want out of this. More or less. So come into it with an open mind on the timeline changes and enjoy it for what it is, and who its there to cater to.

Interesting. An unexpected blend of OLD school pulp comics style sci fi, with some flashes of 1990s weirdness like from The Maxx or Aeon Flux with a dash of Studio Ghibli thrown in for good measure. Its definitely unlike most modern sci fi. It truly feels like an alien world and humanity is a tiny little spec on that food chain. Pros: Unique/rebooting of dead styles Story telling that is far more visual American aesthetics in an "anime" form. Cons: Too slow of pacing Just filling the screen with conceptless aliens is not world building. By virtue of being MAX label it does have that air of pretentiousness bore into the DNA of HBO shows. Its been a good run for American style anime. Between this and Pantheon, there is hope for the genre if we can start creating more efforts like this and break the mold that Japanese anime rigidly forces on audiences. So watching this show was both nice and unexpected. In fact I ignored it all together until about Week 8 and finally started researching it. It doesnt quite live up to the hype for it, but it absolutely is a good show that needs to continue to evolve more. Id say 7.25 out of 10 but round down to 7 for required even numbers. Hopefully the last 3 episodes of the season will build up something powerful for a second season.

One of my favorite stories of all time, Netflix comes in hot with an absolute mockery of Poes work. Yet another example of netflix taking an ideal story and rendering it completely unwatchable with its unwelcome "interpretation" I made it through half of the first episode before turning it off in utter revulsion. This is absolutely unacceptable.

Absolutely horrid. First off, do you understand how difficult it is to even find out that these characters are mostly original creations just for this show? Once you get past that you start to understand that this show is just a spin off tool of the same thing infecting TV and movies. They took something that pushed the boundaries and used it as a vehicle for their own ends and in the process created something utterly unwatchable. I absolutely adored the character of Emma but after 5 episodes I had more than enough and turned it off. Save yourself the effort and dont even start.

Rest in Peace Futurama 3.19.19 Season that has no purpose to exist. So much so it actually doesnt as this is season 8. Not 11. That being said this is pure soulless Disney garbage. This is futurama in name only. The downgrade in quality here is very similar to the example Disney made out of Archer. The show is dead and had a proper finale. This is nothing but abomination. The only positives that can be uttered here are people confusing this with the actual show and being overwhelmed with nostalgia. Just let the show be over. It ended perfectly fine. Nothing is served by bringing the show back again a decade later but Disney trying to make its money back off these ill gotten properties.

THIS is TREK. FINALLY!!! It takes a bit to get going as it sets its stage in the first few episodes and its connection to trek starts off VERY murky. However, by the midseason break at about 10 episodes in it becomes clear this is a worthy trek production. By the end of the first season it becomes clear this is the natural continuation of Trek. Not STD. Not Picard. Not Strange new worlds. Not Lower Decks. All of them serving their specific niche. Prodigy stands alone as the true continuation of Trek that we have been dying for. In effect being the one that is the total package of the good parts of those other shows. Its edges might still be rough and it might not fit old preconceived notions but the story telling is the key hallmark here. It takes the serialized structure trek evolved from DS9 and Voyager and has seamlessly blended it together with modern production and story telling found in other franchises. This is securing the future of the franchise. Not just by connecting to the existing fanbase, but by introducing a new generation of fans being reached in their youth that will grow with the franchise much as the TNG generation did. With Prodigy, despite being only 22 minute long episodes we are getting the depth we were getting with hour long shows decades ago. This is the bright, hopeful future for trek, even if it is sometimes wearing a very dark coat. The best part is it shows the people creating the shows what we want out of the show and the biggest problem this generation has been plagued with is its ham fisted shoe horning in of romance and orientation identity politics plaguing ALL of TV and movies in this generation. Prodigy is thankfully devoid of this completely unneeded social engineering while still remaining a progressive, idealistic show. I have not had hope for trek on this level since the end of DS9. Watching the first half of the season finale I literally weeped tears of joy from beginning to end. Like the trek heavens had opened up and finally gifted us on the edge of Christmas the miracle what the last 5 years of Trek was making seem impossible. This is the trek we have been waiting for. The fact it is in a kids show format is irrelevant. As shows like Avatar: The last Air bender have shown in the past, no longer is it a foregone conclusion that kids shows are immature and lacking depth. It brings us a step closer to Borg-like perfection. Watch it for yourself. Watch it for your kids. Just watch it and watch through the first season and see for yourself. This IS Trek, past, present and future.

Hard to review on 3 episodes. What I have seen so far has been a compelling story arc and interesting futures. Cast perform well, the writing is reasonably engaging, sets both Real life and CGI are well produced, and sound is on par. Its still premature but maybe Amazon is starting to turn the corner on making TV with how many bad and mediocre shows they have put forth so far. Not holding my breath but at least this one is worth watching for now.

Rest In Peace Archer. 03.19.19. The show should have ended with the 10th season. Everything about it now is Archer In Name Only. All the charm and heart is gone and in its place is a dead rat. 1 whole point to be shared between what the show once was AND with the cast still under contract trying to polish this rat dropping.

Well... Its pretty at least. I am not going to focus on casting choices. The fact is that the show is just boring. Perhaps from seeing this type of show/movie over and over again for the last quarter century. The problem is that it is bloated. Its clear they tried their best to maintain visuals on par with the films but they should have focused more on the story telling and pacing. None of the characters are likable. It doesnt take long before the question of "why do I care" will inevitably come up. This is far from a problem that plagues this show as the new GoT spinoff has the exact same problem. In the end its going to get crushed under the weight of its budget and Amazon will quickly deem it a failure. It might get as much as two seasons but dont expect a second one. Its far from terrible but its definitely further from enjoyable.

3rd attempt at a review: Unwatchable. Utterly disrespectful to the source material. Audio is mixed poorly. Prepare to constantly adjust the volume to compensate for the MC endlessly droning mumbles. Show only good to cure a bout of insomnia.

A serious step backwards from the previous two seasons. We get what they are trying to do here but the relationship angle was tired in season 2, Dragging it out through Season 3 is making the show a chore. Not enough focus on the things that were enjoyable of the show. Characters like King Shark, Clayface, Bane who are pure comedic gold. Ivy can have some good zingers but with way too much focus on her character it shows the flaw that she has always been second tier. Too much focus on her is just grinding the show into the dirt. Hopefully they get over this bad season and get back to the actual comedy.

If you can watch season 2 of Picard and still think it is bad and does not live up to the legacy of TNG you are lying to yourself..... After some grievous stumbles with season 1, Season 2 IS the continuation of TNG we always wanted. Is it perfect? Of course not. But if you can watch some of the scenes between TNG cast members and not be on the verge of nostalgia tears, you didnt actually understand Trek in the first place.

Absolutely awful. I thought the Orville couldnt get any worse yet here we are. This one time supposed homage to Star Trek in its 3rd season under the thumb of the Disney plague rat has become Star Wars. Complete with overly loud screaming orchestral score, Boring pewpewpew and explosions Michael Bay would be jealous of. You even see the influence in some of the new costumes now. The sets still have that generic sheen to them while interfaces were glossed up to look better but just look cluttered and janky. What is worse is the writing. Ultimately while flashy with Disneys bigger budget, its incredibly boring and predictable. You knew what the plot was within the first FIVE minutes AND you knew how it would end within the first 10. The first episode is completely devoid of anything comedic. Much like what happened to Archer when the rat made an example out of that show. The predictable ending was a horrifically "hope punk" disney-esque" ending that made no sense at all and is antithetical to how humans behave. This is garbage from stem to stern. Being quite generous by giving it a 1 and that is out of respect that this will be the shows final season until being thrown in the Disney vault for a few years only to be rebooted without Seth. My personal criteria for any show is how long it takes me to watch it. I first paused a whole 38 seconds in to take a moment to roll my eyes at what I was seeing. I had to up the speed of the episode playback to x1.33 and even doing that it STILL took 3 hours to meander my way through this slog of a boring and predictable dumpster fire. The real question is who is trying to kill this more, Disney so they can reboot this later to compete with ACTUAL trek, Or Seth so he can get out of his last legal obligations to The House Of Mouse. Either or, dont expect a season 4 of this with this cast/crew. The show is dead and nothing can revive it. If and when it comes back it will be "In Name Only" bearing no resemblance of the merely mediocre show it was before devolving into something truly heinous.

First and foremost I speak not as one of the early detractors complaining about how this wasnt "Gene's Vision" I have seen the potential in STD since the first season. I have watched it get progressively better each season. That is until season four. That said It was predominantly the first half of season four that is the primary problem. Its not so much about exploring space, Or even exploring humanity. The first half was about exploring romantic relationships no one has any reason to care about. So its first half was pointlessly meandering around psychology and sorrow. Trying to ham fistedly force feed melodrama instead of much of anything science or exploration related. They managed to B plot a barely serviceable season arc in the first half. The second half did a good job of making it into something that did genuinely feel like Trek. Though its far from the course correction Picard made to make itself the true torch bearer of Trek now. The problem is for all the good the back half of Season 4 did it cannot undo how absolutely Season 1 of TNG unwatchable the first half is and while you could start to forget how bad that was and think it was getting on the proper heading, The show creators took the final episode of the season and used it to remind everyone just how much STD is not about Trek so much as it is about treking to push a very clear racist sociopolitical agenda. This is perfectly encapsulated in the final moments when the show shows just how black its cast is and doubles down in one of the final scenes looking at earth and showing this predominantly PC cast that just saved future Earth highlights the face of the globe impossibly shows Earth presenting Africa and exclusively Africa. It was a VERY beat you over the head symbol to show how racist and woke it is. It doesnt matter that you literally cannot show the face of Earth and highlight the African continent without showing corners of Europe, India, the ME, or Antarctica. So it was truly an offensive and racist cap to ensure that there is no doubt that all the woke racism people originally complained about when the show started is definitely at the core of the show and is going to continue going forward Thankfully ST Picard has done its own course correction and produced a VASTLY superior product with its second season. Avoiding the pitfalls of aggressive sociopolitical grandstanding its racist agenda that STD and its 4th season took such perverse joy in wallowing in. The people deep behind the scenes understand now what it takes to make Trek. They also understand that this garbage is NOT working. Thats why 4 seasons in you still see a complete disparity between "bought" critic reviews putting the show at 75% while actual fan reviews still consistently keep the show below 30%. The fans being literally the only opinions that matter because without viewers there is no point for the show to exist. So critic reviews and insider opinions are irrelevant. In the end I have to give the season 4 a 4. It tried. Its second half was arguably the best STD has been so far. There is just no divorcing it from its first half, nor its unacceptably racist woke agenda. Hopefully beating the dead horse of bad reviews will win over them brow beating the audience with its offensively obvious agenda. Thankfully the second half realized they had to get to the p

Based on 3 episode premier. They took the worst character from the recent Suicide Squad film and gave him a show. The results are pretty much what you would expect., Very limited comedy, Comedy that is geared for the mind of a 14 year old, and bland exposition, with gore and violence slathered in as filler. The thing that is genuinely funny is the Eagle and its just a stand in for Groot/King Shark. All jamming out to an absolutely horrendous sound track of songs that were pop culture B sides even during their heyday. That being the whole late 80s, early 90s hair metal phase. Though a few modern tracks sprinkled in to blend it out such as BAND-MAID / Choose me which is one of the best tracks used in the 3 ep premier Definitely a massive step down from what Doom Patrol is able to accomplish with comparative ease. Though far more violent than doom patrol. The end of the 3rd ep sets up the premise of the show clearly and to be fair if future episodes focus more on the humor than the gore there is potential here. They just did a poor job illustrating it in its premier. 4.25/10 rounded down. Given that early January is obscenely light on content, will continue watching as a filler show with the hope it will get better. So basically a two week extended trial period to improve till better shows start/resume. Edit: 4th episode was a modest improvement but not anywhere near enough to justify increasing the score. Still the same overall problems but the humor was at least a bit more balanced in this episode.

For everyone complaining about how this is now woke, go back and watch the original series. It always was. It was just pinned under the surface. This series just dispenses with all the pretense.

It really is that bad. Yet it is fairly good in a lot of ways. First off you will NEVER encounter a better voice cast for anything related to He Man. They even got Henry Rollins to be a very calm and persuasive individual for crying out loud. All of the voice work is top notch. The writing isnt terrible. The story is more or less decent. We have all sat through worse. Some characters were really well done in fact. Like Orko surprisingly. Then the bad creeps in and takes over. First off, Even if they are breaking a season into 2 segments, 5 episodes is pretty light. Also the animation looks OK. Definitely not great. It looks like an anime from 2010 give or take. Then there is the elephant in the room. Yes, the show has a Teela problem. That is why it was smart to not have He-Man in the title. Masters of the Universe was the logical way of getting around what they knew they were doing. It drips with SJW influence from beginning to end. Do they craft a good story despite that? More or less. That said you cannot escape it because you get reminders of it in every episode. Even then it still fails the whole Bechtal test given the gaping absence built into the plot that effectively becomes a Magguffin. Its clearly bending over backwards to take something viewed as embodiment of masculinity and does its best to curb stomp it and disregard the target demographic, the lore of the story or anything else relevant about it. Conclusion: The voice cast and more dark nature of this story goes exceedingly far to make up for all that is wrong with it. I still have to deduct 5 points just for the SJW agenda being pushed. Another point for the behind the curve anime. Leaving it at a 4. Had it not been for that agenda which is a completely avoidable problem, this would have been between a 9-10 for me. So hope it was worth it alienating the target demographic for this. Whos to say we will even see the second half given how terrible the reviews have been. I feel my grade is quite forgiving for just how bad it actually is. Sadly, you brought this on yourself. EDIT: After seeing the second half of Season 1 I had to come back and update this review. It got SOOO much worse. While the first half had at least a glimmer of potential, the second half ruins it all. The overall production is still good but the writing is a literal abomination. It misses the point, It actively spits in the face of the franchise, and leaves a stain on the franchise that will take quite a lot of effort to undo. There is no way Smith actually had any involvement with this because this is literally the most misandrist garbage ever animated. There COULD have been room to elevate women in this franchise, this was NOT the way to do it because it effectively became fem centric sexist in the process. Originally scored for the first half a 4. Reducing that down to a 1 because it amplifies everything wrong with the first half. Still have to give some score for the quality of animation and the voice cast which was top notch. The writing is as stated before an absolute abomination and someone needs to be held accountable for this.

Well Metacritic wants to hide my review I have to rewrite it. This show is the most racist thing I have seen in my life. I was excited for this reboot because of how poorly the original 4400 ended. I went into this production basically blind. I was absolutely stunned immediately at how cartoonish the racism in this show is. You cannot divorce this show from its agenda. There is no subtlety of it either. The pilot was basically 40 minutes of trying to rub your nose in how evil w hite people are. When the world is crying for tolerance I fail to understand how such a racist show can exist in 2021. Its unfortunate too because the production values were otherwise adequate and the actors put in good performances. They just cant help what has been written is so obscenely inappropriate. Now the real question is Metacritic going to let me see my own review or hide it from me.

Obviously only a review of the first two episodes. There is a weight here. Perhaps the weight of an entire galaxy. Everything about this is monumental in scope. With the weight of skydance behind it, everything about this feels like big budget and full when considering the scope of a TV series. Like Altered carbon (at least season 1) before it but on a much grander scale. The performances are full with what you would normally reserve for a film. The CGI is perhaps one of its weaker elements but still remains visually stunning. The writing is much harder to gauge at this point because this will be a long, plodding plot. Working its way through the story it means to tell. So far it has been mostly faithful to the plot at least for the setting and laying out the players. The pacing is great for how big and ambitious it is. This feels like it could be not only a major hit but a "killer app" show to drive people to getting Apple TV. It has all the potential and peices so far to become something on par with Game Of Thrones as long as they demonstrate patience with the subject. Again hard to grade on 2 episodes but there is so much polish and potential here that its hard to give it any less than a 9 at this point because there has not been a critical flaw so far. It leaves me NEEDING more NOW and impatiently waiting, which is as good of a sign for a new grand space opera that feels like in about a month we will be comparing to the upcoming Dune film and so far it seems like this might be the better of the two. We will have to wait and see on both fronts. For now, definitely need more of this. Perhaps one if not the best sci fi of the year. Even with big names like various Treks, and the expanse about. Definitely make it a point to see this when you can. What ever this universes future may indeed hold.

Everything is like moving in slow motion. I literally had to ramp up the speed to x1.38 just to keep awake. I can normally tolerate a serious slow burn but this just smolders without really catching fire. It took 2 full episodes to even catch on to the central premise of the show it tells its story in such a slow, plodding way. Then it starts to reveal its ugly underside. Agenda. Not only is this a showcase of a lot of misandrist ideas, apparently being sourced from a comic book it takes extensive liberties with the source material. It is also a vehicle to focus on a portion of its attention on a basically non existent trans character.... for reasons? Aside from its agenda which immediately kills 5 points, the show is shot well, dialogue is solid and even its agenda is subtle enough for most of it to not be overwhelmed by it. The performances by most of the actors are satisfying enough even with such a hard sell of the slowest of burns. It suffers mostly from having a pretty run of the mill, generic plot that after all of the dystopian future TV we grind through this is a path so worn we can mostly follow it with eyes closed. A little known comic, minor variation for its central premise, slow grim dark world that is fleshed out slightly better than average and solid enough performances from a competent cast. I think 4.25/10 rounded down to 4 is a fairly accurate score, if you critique it on only its merits or even if you critique it on its message. Its literally a filler show at best. Just entertaining enough to make it through an incredibly boring day.

Lucifer In Name Only First and foremost: DO NOT WATCH THIS SEASON! It categorically ruins the entire series while Season 5s ending was adequate to serve as a proper and INFINITELY better finale. NOTHING in season 6 is worth seeing. The humor is wrung out. It creates huge disconnect from established characters behaving in uncharacteristic ways and the conclusion defeats the purpose of the show. Again DO NOT WATCH because you WILL regret it, and it will feel like you are stuck in your own private hell loop after seeing it as what has been seen cannot be unseen. The show has been progressively getting worse each season but they decided to go out with a gender reveal type bomb of pushing politics in what was one time a quirky little comedy drama that was far better than it had any right to be. Too concerned with issues like how mean it is for males to abandon their daughters, toxic masculinity, systemic racism and other propaganda narratives than actually being entertaining. The truest test of this is so goes Mazikeen, So goes Lucifer. Progressively each year they take her from the absolute gem of a snarky little bad ass to being this overly emotional wreck up till they need her to beat up on a man for 20 seconds and promptly returning back to this blubbery mess that bears no resemblance to the fun character from the first two seasons Unfortunately most of the remainder of the characters follow this SJW character arc and in this completely unnecessary final season, the propaganda has come into full rancid bloom. Netflix literally destroyed this show. At least Disney was just going to quietly bury it underneath the Disney vault. In hind sight that would be a far more noble demise than the utter **** of everything the show once was. Its even so bad now that they are even reusing previously licensed songs for the soundtrack. All this for what? To tell a ridiculous story of how a being ascends to omnipotence in the absolute most emasculated way possible? This is only the beginning. The last 3 episodes kick it all into overdrive and serve no point to anything built up over 5 previous seasons. The conclusion is even worse as it is such corn ball Disney-esque garbage Netflix should be ashamed for actually putting it together. As stated the REAL series finale is the end of Season 5. 1/10 simply out of respect for the actors and what the show once was before this absolute defilement of its bloated corpse.

Bigger isnt always better. Second season of See takes a ridiculous premise with a lot of potential thanks to interesting world building. If you were looking for a violent action fantasy title this helped to fill the void of the ending of Game of Thrones and the end of Vikings on the horizon. So this ludicrous show that was far better than it had any right to be thanks to the performances, and intriguing world it laid out, the show defied the odds and was greenlit a second season. So with more money it brought more action, higher profile talent and a lot of promise. Sadly it has made critical mistakes in its second season. Primarily from now having an agenda. The beauty of the first season was it was a small, simple (comparatively) production that they knew stood little chance of success. Like a fantasy show from 5-10 years ago. It being successful brought with it the march of the plague of modern TV with it. SJW tropes abound, misandrist themes that men are evil and women are the ones to stand up for good. Shoe horned lesbian romance with all of the weight of an episode and a half behind it that makes absolutely no sense, even going out of the way to show women with pit hair. The show now becomes a chore to overlook the eye rolling from all the demographic pandering front and center in each episode. So ultimately all the improved set pieces, better choreography, new acting talent like Bautista is all pissed away along with all the good will earned by being a simple action fantasy show coming in at the right place at the right time. At the pace shown in the first 3 episodes it will be difficult to make it through to the end of the season with all this woke garbage that would never work in such a setting. 4.25/10

Surprisingly engaging. Overall Heels is a well put together drama. The performances by the cast are good from top to bottom of the card. There is a lot to chew on with this one episode and it is paced very well, but it begs the question if it will go the distance or run out of steam halfway through the match. For now its definitely worth sticking around for a second episode and see how the story all unfolds.

First and foremost this is a good show. That said it comes off as a great show. Not because it is great, but because it comes in the middle of a TV drought in the month of April 2021. If you stack this against other months where there are 2-5 good shows running, it illustrates is a good show and might even be at the head of its respective pack. But definitely not something above a good show. The show feels like the illegitimate love child between Anna Karenina and Final Fantasy or The Last Airbender or something of a similar vein with an emphasis on elemental style magic, A looming evil, Huge monsters and a battle between light and dark magic. All done with a well made steampunk aesthetic that is not too overwhelming that it becomes tedious. The writing is much wht you would expect for a YA translation. It does a good job of crafting likable heroes and even anti-heroes. It is however fairly predictable and does get pretty tropey at times.Even cringy how close they follow TVTropes templates for some characters. The world building here is a major strong suit. You really want to see more of this world and its fall. The actors, although mostly fresh faces, churn in good work that elevates that writing, for the most part. The lead actress being a definite step down in quality, but it not being so glaring it hurts the production. There are a few other weak actors but again, nothing so glaring as to cause much concern after you are an episode in and can suspend disbelief. Arguably the biggest strong suit is the visuals. Between the set pieces and costuming you can tell a LOT of budget went into it and they definitely got their moneys worth. This is one of the best looking fantasy series since Game of Thrones. The season ended well with a satisfying conclusion and setting up a whole new season for us to anticipate. Only complaint is it being netflix and netflix style of dumping everything for it to be binged which can be great, but at the same time the audience does not get to adequately digest episodes which makes a series more memorable. With as big of a production this has to be we are likely looking at a year if not upwards of two for a second season. Shows like Altered Carbon illustrate what happens when you go too long between seasons after a season was just binged. People forget and dont care the same way when a new season returns. So hopefully netflix knew how big this was going to be and had production set up well in advance to make a second season turn around low. We shall see. All in all I would give a 7.75 and go ahead and round up to an 8 because of it coming in the big drought and needing something good to sink teeth into.

First and foremost this is a good show. That said it comes off as a great show. Not because it is great, but because it comes in the middle of a TV drought in the month of April 2021. If you stack this against other months where there are 2-5 good shows running, it illustrates is a good show and might even be at the head of its respective pack. But definitely not something above a good show. The show feels like the illegitimate love child between Anna Karenina and Final Fantasy or The Last Airbender or something of a similar vein with an emphasis on elemental style magic, A looming evil, Huge monsters and a battle between light and dark magic. All done with a well made steampunk aesthetic that is not too overwhelming that it becomes tedious. The writing is much wht you would expect for a YA translation. It does a good job of crafting likable heroes and even anti-heroes. It is however fairly predictable and does get pretty tropey at times.Even cringy how close they follow TVTropes templates for some characters. The world building here is a major strong suit. You really want to see more of this world and its fall. The actors, although mostly fresh faces, churn in good work that elevates that writing, for the most part. The lead actress being a definite step down in quality, but it not being so glaring it hurts the production. There are a few other weak actors but again, nothing so glaring as to cause much concern after you are an episode in and can suspend disbelief. Arguably the biggest strong suit is the visuals. Between the set pieces and costuming you can tell a LOT of budget went into it and they definitely got their moneys worth. This is one of the best looking fantasy series since Game of Thrones. The season ended well with a satisfying conclusion and setting up a whole new season for us to anticipate. Only complaint is it being netflix and netflix style of dumping everything for it to be binged which can be great, but at the same time the audience does not get to adequately digest episodes which makes a series more memorable. With as big of a production this has to be we are likely looking at a year if not upwards of two for a second season. Shows like Altered Carbon illustrate what happens when you go too long between seasons after a season was just binged. People forget and dont care the same way when a new season returns. So hopefully netflix knew how big this was going to be and had production set up well in advance to make a second season turn around low. We shall see. All in all I would give a 7.75 and go ahead and round up to an 8 because of it coming in the big drought and needing something good to sink teeth into.

FAM is arguably the best sci fi going right now. Sure it is not mainstream sci fi, but what you have is something much more scientific than fiction. It is however the best example of alternative history we have seen out of the recent delugue of the genre. It understands a key principle, moving history forward. It has its flaws too. Namely the pacing in the first half of the season. The first season was much the same way. Yet when events start to ramp up on the back half of the season it produces some of the most intriguing ideas to look forward to. There are other issues. Certain characters are added and never really develop their place. There are filler relationships that are simply not interesting at all. However it is all coming together to make a really human story that is being crafted with attention to detail, realism and heart. Its making these characters feel truly real and readily identifiable. Those seemingly bad additions may well evolve if this show gets its third, fourth and maybe fifth seasons and become crucial components of the story. As the end of the second season comes it really reminds me of watching Deep Space Nine back when it originally aired. You had this feeling of something massive brewing on the horizon. If it goes as it looks like it is headed this is going to be on par with that show in terms of story telling. Now, I am one who has nearly zero tolerance for agenda pushing in media right now. That said this show does a good job of examining relationships and not falling into the common trap of making those characters poor caricatures of tropes. These people are who they are and for the most part it wastes little time preaching about it and instead just allows them to live their lives. Granted there is considerable over representation but it is one of the few examples on TV to illustrate inclusivity well. All in all, FAM S02 builds on a very solid foundation that so far has flown under the radar and is blossoming into something that if allowed to grow will be truly remarkable. Just have patience and it WILL be rewarded.

Terrible. Another example of something committing the cardinal sin of entertainment. Being boring. Its hard to find a reason to root for these dollar store knock offs of DC comic heroes. The comic books do so much better of a job drawing the reader in than this show does entertaining its audience. The trope of super heroes in high school is WELL worn territory and Invincible does very little to separate itself out from the tropes it leans on. The sad thing is there is a LOT of talent in this production. The animation style is somewhere between DCAU & contemporary anime. The cast are skilled actors in their own right. The problem is that all the acting talent in the world cant make a dog of a script good. Then there is THIS specific script. Dont expect to come in seeing something akin to an animated version of The Boys. While the first episode panders to that demographic it quickly abandons it in favor of something far more repulsive. Had they stuck to the source material a little more faithfully this show might not be that bad. There are a few genuinely good moments. Overall though the show feels bland and generic most of the time. Then there is the elephant in the room. The woke sociopolitical commentary lecturing you inside your entertainment. This seriously has to stop. Its ruining everything it comes in contact with its toxic rhetorical ideology. Many of these characters are already panning out to be shells of their source material. Normalizing hate filled rhetoric like 4th wave feminism. It also seems like there is a set up in the works for a big reveal that greatly diverges from the source material that has yet to be unfolded. Purely speculation at this point and Its best left at that for now. Had it not been for the hateful preaching the show would have came away with a run of the mill 5/10 OK, nothing great. Nothing you havent seen done MUCH better elsewhere. The toxic agenda being preached however knocks 4 points off the score leaving it at a very appropriate 1/10. Honestly the only thing that merits the 1 point is the voice acting. Everything else is either bland or terrible. Now, that is based only on the first 3 episodes. If the remainder of the season reigns that in, Ill gladly edit the review and adjust my score accordingly. Otherwise, based on the first 3 episodes unless you are an avid fan of this comic book, just skip SuperWoke all together. You are better off. You've seen better and this is both boring AND preachy. That is the last thing anyone wants from their entertainment.

Terrible. Another example of something committing the cardinal sin of entertainment. Being boring. Its hard to find a reason to root for these dollar store knock offs of DC comic heroes. The comic books do so much better of a job drawing the reader in than this show does entertaining its audience. The trope of super heroes in high school is WELL worn territory and Invincible does very little to separate itself out from the tropes it leans on. The sad thing is there is a LOT of talent in this production. The animation style is somewhere between DCAU & contemporary anime. The cast are skilled actors in their own right. The problem is that all the acting talent in the world cant make a dog of a script good. Then there is THIS specific script. Dont expect to come in seeing something akin to an animated version of The Boys. While the first episode panders to that demographic it quickly abandons it in favor of something far more repulsive. Had they stuck to the source material a little more faithfully this show might not be that bad. There are a few genuinely good moments. Overall though the show feels bland and generic most of the time. Then there is the elephant in the room. The woke sociopolitical commentary lecturing you inside your entertainment. This seriously has to stop. Its ruining everything it comes in contact with its toxic rhetorical ideology. Many of these characters are already panning out to be shells of their source material. Normalizing hate filled rhetoric like 4th wave feminism. It also seems like there is a set up in the works for a big reveal that greatly diverges from the source material that has yet to be unfolded. Purely speculation at this point and Its best left at that for now. Had it not been for the hateful preaching the show would have came away with a run of the mill 5/10 OK, nothing great. Nothing you havent seen done MUCH better elsewhere. The toxic agenda being preached however knocks 4 points off the score leaving it at a very appropriate 1/10. Honestly the only thing that merits the 1 point is the voice acting. Everything else is either bland or terrible. Now, that is based only on the first 3 episodes. If the remainder of the season reigns that in, Ill gladly edit the review and adjust my score accordingly. Otherwise, based on the first 3 episodes unless you are an avid fan of this comic book, just skip SuperWoke all together. You've seen better and this is both boring AND preachy. That is the last thing anyone wants from their entertainment.

Such a promising show that does its best to fill the horse shaped hole in our hearts from the loss of Happy! though much softer around the edges. Toned down but a lot of the same dark, edgy humor. It is far from perfect. The show is built on an incredibly well worn path in the model of Northern Exposure and other "stranger in a strange land" type themes. With a touch of mystery and drama that plays out similar to Wayward pines and a character construct loosely modeled on a combination of Invader Zim and Dexter. That said, comfortable can be good too. Outside of a few of the jokes failing to land in the first 3 episodes, for the most part the assemblage of its various parts is a well made and well acted cobbling together of favorite entertainment comfort food. Definitely my favorite new show of 2021 so far. However given that this is a comic book property that is not owned by SciFi channel, there is every likelihood that this too will suffer the same fate as others before it such as the aforementioned Happy!, Deadly Class, Dark matter, etc. So enjoy it while it lasts cause even though its really good, all signs point to it not being long for this world. Or maybe I am just cynical and jaded after being burnt by Scifi channel so many times like this. Which, yanno, is the target demographic for this type of programming. I would say 7.5-7.75 out of 10 Rounded up to 8. Hope it gets a proper run with several more seasons

So many problems. First of all as one would expect, this is a one sided hit piece out for Allens blood. I am not a fan of his work so I am not going to defend him based on being a fan. The problem here is that it is all stilted to one side and its very VERY light on factual evidence. I tend to believe Allen is in fact a pedophile but this examination undermines it by focusing on emotional appeals rather than anything tangible. It leaves a sour taste (with the first episode at least) of someone out for vengance that may or may not actually be rooted in their claims. It leaves you feeling just as much as it was outrage at a parental figure because "you ruined my life" and other nonsensical teenage angst than it does that he was a predator. So it only hurts the cause. Moreover, this suffers from the same issue with virtually everything produced by HBO. Its overly produced, pretentious and most egregiously boring to watch. A story like this should at least be mildly interesting if not captivating and fertile ground to keep audiences attention. This however seemingly does not care if you listen to its lecture or not. Hopefully further episodes will pick up the pace and be able to stir up some emotion to give a reason for audiences to care but the first episode failed to do so. 2./10 for a very subpar effort that should have been a slam dunk.

Ok Such a promising show that does its best to fill the horse shaped hole in our hearts from the loss of Happy! though much softer around the edges. Toned down but a lot of the same dark, edgy humor. It is far from perfect. The show is built on an incredibly well worn path in the model of Northern Exposure and other "stranger in a strange land" type themes. With a touch of mystery and drama that plays out similar to Wayward pines and a character construct loosely modeled on a combination of Invader Zim and Dexter. That said, comfortable can be good too. Outside of a few of the jokes failing to land in the first 3 episodes, for the most part the assemblage of its various parts is a well made and well acted cobbling together of favorite entertainment comfort food. Definitely my favorite new show of 2021 so far. However given that this is a comic book property that is not owned by SciFi channel, there is every likelihood that this too will suffer the same fate as others before it such as the aforementioned Happy!, Deadly Class, Dark matter, etc. So enjoy it while it lasts cause even though its really good, all signs point to it not being long for this world. Or maybe I am just cynical and jaded after being burnt by Scifi channel so many times like this. Which, yanno, is the target demographic for this type of programming. I would say 7.5-7.75 out of 10 Rounded up to 8

A show that was so much better than anyone ever dared give it credit for. Definitely flawed but definitely one of the better sitcoms. R.I.P.

This Should Not Exist. The problem is not the character. The problem is still that Batwoman as a character is effectively just Bruce Wayne gender bent into a lesbian. That is like calling Marie Curie an excellent scientist... for a woman. That aside, this is about Season 2. Look I bleed for DC (and DC has been particularly bad for demanding their pound of flesh as of late. The show should have been cancelled with Rose giving up because she did not want to be associated with such a bomb. Execs made the stupid decision of "we can fix this" and fix it they did alright. Wringing the character through such mental gymnastics that she is now not only super woke, but super cultural appropriation. Its hard to say where the primary problem is. The new actress who is as charming as watching a plank of wood for an hour, Or the writing that was clearly drafted by chimps strung out on a week long mescaline trip. The only positives are from the production end. You get scenes very much on par with CW level of DC shows like Legends or Arrow, but not quite up to what they put out last year with Star girl. All in all, the series was a flop. Losing its lead doomed the production, there was zero chance this was going to take off and this now looks like one of those productions that studio execs use to exploit cash off of before tanking the whole thing. So if that is the level of production they are going to put into it, there is no point to bother watching it. Its poorly conceived, poorly written, poorly acted, too busy craming social engineering down your throat to bother with being entertaining and is not going to survive another failed season with ratings that somehow are even too low for CWs standards. RIP

Such an utter dissapointment. It was bad enough it was being distributed by a platform now owned by the #EvilestCorporationOnEarth it comes off as something very often inappropriate for its target demographic. The show takes its original formula but veers off into propagandizing. Sure the original would feature things like sexual inuendo, and satirize things like pop culture and politics, but this iteration focuses less on talking about subjects like science and history and more about revering pop culture and inappropriate social engineering. For an example in the theme song there is normalization of "preferred pronouns" but to compare it to a similar topic from its time frame how many "gays in the military" riffs were in the original? Its not simply a matter of an evolving cultural shift. Its not on the same level. This goes WAY beyond what is appropriate for young teen target demographic. Instead of veiled sexual innuendos you get floppy man nipples and pubic hair. Instead of cute recaps of historical events you get politicized alternative history. Instead of quick political cutaways you get entire segments lampooning the POTUS which in all fairness is basically a cartoon and deserves to be mocked. It has retired Its simply taking way too much of the wrong things and not enough of the things that made the original so great. Looking beyond the politicization, the first thing that is absolutely unavoidable (yet it is understandable) is the dramatic changes in the casts voices. They sound either like its someone doing an off impression of the characters or its the original voice actors doing so without their false teeth in. Granted voices age and theres nothing that can be done about that, but it does create a disconnect and immediately flags that something is not quite right. The jokes are almost on par with the original. Definitely a clear step below but that might get better with a second season of writing and getting into a good groove. A wide host of characters were not brought back which is very disappointing for a variety of reasons. Sure you didn't need to bring back dated reference characters that are no longer really pop culture relevant like say Steven Seagull, but there is no logical reason to not include characters like the goodfeathers, Slappy squirrel, and the much ballyhooed Hello Nurse. If this were true to the original they would have kept these characters in in spite of "cultural sensitivities" as that is one of the things that made the original great and edgy for what it was. The music was also a pretty big let down. Again the voices have deteriorated is one tangible factor but what is far more relevant is that the songs are not as catchy and the lyrics not anywhere near as intelligently written. So what you are left with is a show that is just a shadow of its former glory. Like taking a huge breakfast platter on Saturday morning and replacing it with a 22 year old bowl of lukewarm oatmeal. Its not going to appeal to kids of this generation. Its going to be seen as something old and stodgy that parents are forcing on kids. Adults will either be hit or miss with it and realistically 30+ year olds should not even be involved in the equation. Yes my self included. Its not a kids show. Its not an adult revival of a kids show, its a mess and trying too hard while refusing to do the things that made people love the original. Seriously cannot recommend this at all. Probably better to wait for the Tiny Toons reboot to hopefully get an actual decent reboot along these lines.

A sign of just how much this franchise has jumped its own dead shark. While the actors try hard with what they are given (and one is just a joy to look at) the plot is so uninspired and predictable it feels like it was written via TVTropes. Its good that its a short duration spin off but the real question is if it will even be able to make it that long. The characters are unlikable, the setting is illogical, and we hit zombie saturation BEFORE The Walking Dead began. What we have now is a franchise that simply will not die. They went for the head by announcing the end of TWD, but WB just keeps clawing behind us like a walker crawling on the ground that has no legs.

7.5 It starts off with a perfect balance of intrigue and dark humor. Sadly by episode 3 that humor is mostly running on fumes. Then it is left with its conspiracy drama which is OK, but no where as great as it could have been. So 7.5 seems justifiable but 8 would be way too high. I will however round up to 8 to help offset the pretentious people who cant judge things on their own merit without being influenced by the source material and want to down rate something because it isnt the original. Its a good drama. Could have been better, but definitely **** requires extensive mental gymnastics and pretentiousness to not see that.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

While it definitely has some issues, This is the sort of weird, abstract, yet utterly enthralling in its bizarreness that we get far too little of and in modern times (2000-present) is virtually extinct. It is ripe with symbolism, metaphors, and analogies that examine things like desolation, motherhood, mental health, crumbling identity, science vs theology, and fears of the unknown. At times it has a very grim fairy tale feel to it that hopefully it can infuse much more of as the season progresses. The visuals are mostly top notch with a few odd weak points, like using Aloe plants in place of alien flora. The acting has been solid all around. That is impressive considering how many children in the cast and children actors typically being terrible. The secondary children mostly follow that same pattern while Winta McGrath turning in decent performances in the first three released episodes. As for the adults the cast is doing good work to support the narrative. Amanda Collin does a superb job creating Uncanny Valley primarily with unnatural body movement to really differentiate her Android role from anything human. Fimmel is the one most audiences would expect to turn in the best performance but as of the first three episodes he has been mostly adequate. This is likely to change as the season starts to crescendo. Sound is one area of issue. The soundtrack is very muted and mostly unmemorable. They could have really played up the alienness by putting forth counter intuitive beats and discordant, yet ethereal melodies. There is some of it there like that was what they were going for but you are at a 3 and we need you at 11. OK maybe 8. All in all the 3 episodes served to take a show that flew completely under my radar (despite being prime target demographic for it) and made it my primary new sci fi show of the year. When I think of Science Fiction, THIS is the kind of unearthly thing that I think of rather than just workplace dramas set in space like recent popular sci fi shows such as The Expanse that make space just another place where humans are. Now one thing I did find a bit distasteful was the release (though it has little impact on the show itself) . I am not fond of the hybrid style "release 3 episode premier then revert to weekly" model. I get that 2020 slowed production of shows and I hope that this is not signaling a new trend trying to straddle the consumers desire to binge watch shows and the creators desire to stretch out interest to keep viewers engaged. Recent examples such as Altered Carbon show what happens when you take abstract sci fi and leave the audience disengaged for too long as they forget, lose interest and move on. Then the follow up season fails to connect and in turn dooms the series. So it feels like this is an intentional design to try to balance both types. Especially seeings how its the same model that was employed by Amazon the same week with their second season of The Boys. Truly enjoying the potential the series has at this moment, while still remaining cautiously optimistic because there is a reason WHY this sort of abstract show is not common. All too often they quickly run off the rails into absurdness and audiences quickly lose interest. This production so far looks like it CAN avoid that pit fall, the question is will consequent episodes manage to pull it off, or will it just wander into a nearby lava tube and never be seen again. EDIT: While fully supporting the series 3 eps in, I would say that for most viewers who are not into abstract sci fi it might be better to wait for the entire season to be complete in order to binge it all. That would make keeping track of the plot substantially easier than digesting meaning and relevance week to week between episodes. While this is the type of show that definitely will benefit from that longer digestion period, its definitely abstract enough that audiences who tune in so that they can mentally tune out might not be willing to pay that much attention and thus not be willing to invest that much time waiting week to week.

Far too busy trying to exact social justice on a beloved but notorious racist and trying to "take it back", Lovecraft country makes cardinal sins of entertainment. Its boring and it does not understand its source material at all. So watch it if you enjoy being preached to. If you want good lovecraftian horror, your options are still very limited, but Bloodborne still exists. Yet another pretentious and preachy HBO series. Just like The Wire, The Leftovers, or this years Watchmen. There is just nothing worth watching here, sadly. Not because it is a predominantly black centric story. Because the story misses its own point and does a lame job of telling it.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

A conundrum. It simply does not know if it wants to be good or not. Yet it is not about where it is, its about where it is going. First and foremost the hardest part to deal with is the over use of sex. Once you can get beyond that element you can begin to examine the actual plot. It looks at the dark and philosophical ideas of Huxley and only just glances at it before losing its attention span and rejoining the party. Those glimmers of the philosophical make the show incredibly good. Yet they are few and far between. Mostly filled with solid performances that make the otherwise vapid spectacles more entertaining than they have right to be. Overall the show is good. Perhaps the best sci fi of the summer. Yet its hard to like it at times. The thing that ultimately makes it good is how it ends. It sets itself up in such a way where it leaves you wanting more of what the ending is promising yet you know if it goes that direction and tries to do a second season that it will fail miserably and taking the good of the first season with it and tainting the whole thing. Sort of like Wayward Pines. So enjoy it for the one season and long for but hope it never gets another. The ride is mostly fun and its not like theres much else trying to compete with it. It definitely is a positive launch for Peacock and if they produce a full slate of this level of programming it might just be successful.

A lot better than people are going to give it credit for. Yes the premise is incredibly stupid on multiple levels. But the performances do a good job at making it easy to suspend disbelief and enjoy the development of the plot threats. Definitely worth watching for a few more episodes to get a better feel if this is something to follow or not.

Stargirl fits right between CW and DCU crop of shows. Taking production value and name recognition of DCU with the more juvenile themes of CW DC shows. The show itself is greatly helped by recognizable actors in supporting roles, but what really makes the show shine is Brec Bassinger who may not be the most talented actress but is mesmerizing to watch. They have already elevated the series well above that of the source material and it might evolve into something with a decent following. Definitely worth watching a second episode.

Its not completely terrible. The connections to Rick and Morty are impossible to ignore. Comparisons are inevitable. So this show has no chance to ever stand on its own. So on the surface you will see that its the same animation visuals as R&M and the voice of Rick at the helm. So tht is going to deliver a high expectation. Problem is Solar Opposites does not have the same edge, nor the same depth. Its too reliant on vulgarity and gore for laughs. Its closer to say Final Space or American Dad with more gratiutious edgelording than it is to its forebearer. That is not to say there is nothing worth while here. Just like the first season of R&M it takes some time to get adjusted to these characters. It takes about half a season just to separate Korvo from Rick. The Aliens are arguably the least interesting part of the show and just serve as satire for more traditional sit coms. . Its the citizens of the wall where the show shines what light it does have. All in all its like a very lifeless and generic R&M but when it does generate a laugh its solid and a lot more enjoyable than most animated comedies of this vein. Far funnier than anything from Seth McFarlane in the last decade. So if you are REALLY needing to scratch that R&M itch, (which right now makes no sense given that this series premiered now that R&M are back for second half of season) then this can somewhat scratch it. Just do not expect a lot from it.

From only one episode I will say this has potential. Its a solid enseble cast featuring the likes of Nathan Lane, Natalie Dormer and Brent Spiner. Solid performances from the entire cast. Well shot and the story has just enough intruigue to bring you back for at least the next episode. I have spent a lot longer with far worse entertainment in my day. Plus with everything going on in the world right now we may have to accept the reality that we are about to enter into an entertainment drought. So a show like this might be the drink we need to tide us over. More analysis needed but it looks promising so far.

Definitely a step backwards. The second season kicks itself off with a huge mistake. With basically two years since the last season, there should have been a season 1 recap built into the first episode. While that is not a fatal flaw, it is indicative of the problems that the season faces. The entire premise was always one that was convoluted by its very nature. Characters popping back and forth between actors is ambitious but its implementation is questionable and season 2 illustrates why. It takes a special kind of actor to be able to pull off multi character acting in the same show (think Tatiana Maslany in Orphan Black) and while the actors in this show are decent actors, none of them are that level of chameleon actor to pull these types of characters off. Beyond that, everything looks much more generic this season. As if the budget for the second season was dramatically reduced. Which with how well received the first season was, there is no excuse for that. The writing also took a bit of a hit this time. Becoming much more sci fi trope-y than the first season. Pushing toward the dreaded Firefly effect of being a sci fi show where everyone is a bad ass in their own right which is not only been dull since it first started emerging, in recent media its been done to death. The upside is that the narrative in this season did a better job at fleshing out the world and history, it was still drip fed and not really all that intriguing. So definitely a step backwards, but did some positive world building that can be improved upon IF it manages to eek out a third season which at this point does seem questionable.

Absolutely vile. This should never have been made and should never give this thing a mouthpiece. She has had entirely more attention that she has ever deserved and this docu series is worsening that. Beyond her insufferable attitude and her clearly misandrist outlook, the series is simply bad. The subject being examined is flawed, the stories she tells are filled with falsehoods and misinterpretation of events. Its truly unfortunate because the people involved with creating this dumpster fire should not have to suffer for her problems. The production is made well enough but you could have made an absolute masterpiece in film making and this still would have failed because of the subject matter. You could have assembled a dream team of the greatest directors in all of history and they still could not have made a successful propaganda piece that shows the good side of **** and Manson. Cause make no mistake, the subject of this is FAR worse. So I would like to give this a score but honestly who ever thought to green light this has no business working in this field any longer

What can you tell from 40 minutes? To those who loathe STD this will be a bitter pill to swallow, but this is Star Trek, post TNG era built on the STD chassis. Like a refit of our beloved flagship. It is an amalgam of the two entities. It hits so many elements drawn from TNG-NEM era, mostly through single lines of dialog or visual cues. While having the overly shiny and glossy look of STD. Essentially proving the theory that STDs visuals should have always been set post NEM era. It also comes with those inherent flaws in that chassis structural integrity. It is too violent. People are going to scream the same things they have been screaming since STD started. "GENE'S VISION" There is entirely too much physical hand to hand combat in a world filled with phasers. However the reality is like it or not Gene's vision died with him. Trek was not following his vision even when he was alive and TNG was very much at the core of that deviation. So in that regard you simply cannot condemn this series because it does not comply to something even TNG did not fully comply to. You have to accept that this generation of Trek is going to be different, or there will be no trek. You simply cannot go home again, no matter how much you want and that is actually one of the emerging themes this show is setting up to explore. Now with that said if you can accept the shows aesthetics and story telling what you have with Picard is something that is bending over backwards trying to please the fans. Even if it still makes some mistakes, what you have with this show is something that is doing its best to be faithful while contemporizing the franchise which was a major reason the series puttered out and struggled after DS9. Having errors in the continuity has always been a part of the franchises DNA. With what was seen in Picard there are very few of them, but some are present and they are pretty small and mostly inconsequential. However, more importantly if you can accept this generation of Trek what you get is a show that is setting itself up to be a more human driven drama. Something that is going to be much closer to DS9 than it is TOS and honestly that is not a bad thing at all. Highly serialized with so far a tightly woven story that is weaving itself and producing an engrossing show. I judge the quality of a show based on how many times I pause it and for what reasons. The times I did stop it was to cross verify information to make sure it was right. However even that was limited because the story itself was compelling. Despite a bit of a slow start the characters, settings and scenarios are drawing you in making you want to know more. Which is exactly what this sort of show should be doing. I did not once stop to check DMs, see if something else was happening or other wise get distracted. The show did an excellent job at holding my ADD addled attention. As for its visuals, they are all as sharp as any of the STD visuals. This time they got the CGI much more accurate, albeit a bit too clean as seen with the almost chromed out D at the intro that looks too perfect. As do the recreations of D interiors like 10 Forward that look like newer, shinier, more perfect replicas of the original. There is an built in explanation for it and it does make perfect sense within the narrative framework. So the visuals look wonderful, albeit not quite as Trek as we are all used to or would prefer. The first episode was as good as I could have possibly hoped for. However I am also one who is not going to rail on STD simply because of the mistakes of the past. Ultimately this generation is starting to hit its stride with its production and story telling. Sort of the same way the first two seasons of TNG are almost unwatchable but things quickly began turning round in Season 3. Is it perfect? Absolutely not. Is Picard Trek? In every sense it is definitely doing all it can to pay tribute and hold true to the TNG roots. It may have its warts but this first episode shows something that IS good and WILL only get better. So judging it just on its own its definitely the best Trek we have seen since the last time Jean Luc was still in service and you owe it to yourself to give it a chance and let it grow.