When you finally get to watch Discovery and realize it isn't actually an enormous pile of mugato dung
When you finally get to watch Discovery and realize it isn't actually an enormous pile of mugato dung
Discovery, especially the last 2 seasons are very, very inclusive. Which pisses some people off.
Next to that everything is debated. Sometimes way too long. And if you cant look past that it’s sure to annoy you very much.
Yeah I’m in the middle. More positive than negative, but I’m not a fan, especially of the 2 first seasons, it became better after the time jump.
However, even the first seasons do not deserve the hate we see.
I’m also in the middle, though more negative than positive. I love the inclusivity even though it’s a little heavy handed at times (more “let that be your last battlefield” than Uhura’s position on the bridge). I hate the stakes, internal conflict of the earlier seasons, and how far it feels from canon vs SNW or LD.
I agree the show is better post time jump, but to me it now feels like we know where the universe is going. Futures shown in one-off episodes are easy to wave away as alternate, but that seems harder for the franchise to manage when it’s multiple seasons.
Watch it without reading any critic reviews first, is my opinion. (When I watched Enterprise, it just so happened my opinions aligned with other people’s complaints. I am glad I watched it first though.)
Things that people found divisive, I really didn’t. Some changes probably caught everyone off guard, hence the major controversy of season 1, but at least it was plausible that the change could align with the rest of the Star Trek universe in some way. Maybe.
Like most other new shows, it can be a bit rocky as the writers develop the story and underlying theme.
There’s few different criticisms of DISCO. From different perspectives
People who are concerned with canon have issues with the first couple of seasons because it’s set before TOS but has had a big visual reboot. They’d also probably argue that some of the story elements don’t fit in with canon.
The first season (at least) doesn’t feel very star trek, it’s got this whole grim dark thing going on. That is thankfully dropped later and you do get the normal hopefully outlook.
Characters aren’t developed very well. Even by the end I don’t think we’ve got to know anyone other than maybe Stamets and Tilly.
Plots often rely on the mystery box format, which has been disappointing when they don’t stick the landing
Plots are over whole seasons, when they probably don’t need to be.
Because of 5 production often started before writing had finished, and it shows. So you end up with a good start, a bunch of meandering, and then suddenly bam you’re at the final crisis.
Yeah, my only complaints with it overall are the insanely high stakes every season. The format of the show is hyper-serialized by design, so each season is a 10-13 hour movie which appears to make “high stakes” a requirement. Once you accept that and go along for the ride, it is quite enjoyable.
That said, I do prefer the episodic format of SNW and LD.
Right? It's pretty solid.
I think it's a shame the show ended on a bit of a downer, but season 1 is underrated and 2-4 are actually very watchable. I think my power rankings are 4>2>3>1>5, but I could change that in a rewatch.
My reaction when someone says they don’t like Disco:
Personally, I was overall disappointed with DIS. But when watching it there was the occasional moment that I loved. Lorca was a great character (until they did the haha he’s actually super space Hitler rug-pull), much of the props, set designs, and costumes were great, Mudd was superb, it introduced us to Anson Mount’s Pike and led to SNW, Saru was genuinely one of the most interesting characters in all of Trek, etc.
It also had a bunch of stuff that I just really really didn’t like. But meh. That’s just, like, my opinion maaaaann.
I think a lot of the criticism of DISCO is overblown. It’s definitely a fun watch, but it never really feels like Star Trek. It feels like an action sci-fi show wearing a heavy coat of Star Trek paint.
It was good once I accepted it for what it is and stopped expecting it to be something like what I generally expect Star Trek to be.
That’s what a lot of modern Sci fi shows are doing these days, it seems.
Like the “Halo” show. It very much feels like someone took their idea for a show that got shot down, used find+replace to redo all the names and places to make it “halo” and got greenlit. And honestly I think I might have liked it as it’s own thing.
It’s pretty bad. Comparing it to other Trek or not. Writing is atrocious. Much of the acting is bad. Crying Captain crying damn near every episode. Not developing much of the bridge crew over 5 years. Not to mention not remembering their own rules (I remember once they said they couldn’t jump while cloaked, and then they did it).
Stamets, Saru, and Georgiou were they only ones that kept me watching.
If others can find joy in it, sounds good to me, but I’ll pass thanks.
The acting is fine. The issue is the genre.
Discovery is melodrama, something previous series explicitly were not.
I can’t tell you much about acting, because I see the shows subbed. However, the writing is terrible, in any language. Not only their choice don’t make sense and there are constant plot holes, they are supposed to be seasoned Starfleet veterans, yet they act to dramatically, so emotionally, illogically and scared all the time.
And it’s not a smart “logic vulcans vs illogic humans” confrontation, it’s not a quirk of well defined characters with balance in their emotions; they are simply badly written for dramatic and sitting-on-the-edge type of narrative, which is fine I guess, but it’s a cheap way to get traction in the narrative, which doesn’t hold well for fans of the series that enjoyed the professionalism of Starfleet captains, supposedly the best of the best, capable of facing every menace.
Again, you want to do such a series, do it. But brand it as Star Trek, and you will get this kind of criticism.
That’s what I mean about the bad acting. That was regularly cringey for me.
But they DID very directly and prominently address acceptance of and compassion towards various mental heath conditions, neurodivergences, and non-traditional personal/sexual identities, the importance of which should not be understated in this day and age.
That’s what I mean about the bad acting. That was regularly cringey for me.
But they DID very directly and prominently address acceptance of and compassion towards various mental heath conditions, neurodivergences, and non-traditional personal/sexual identities, the importance of which should not be understated in this day and age.
Same, I needed more after SNW and wasn’t quite ready for the way 80’s - '00s era Trek was filmed. I actually liked the first two seasons and thought season 3 was okay.
spoilerBut then we learned about the source of the burn.
And then season 4 happened. And then season 5 happened. It felt like all of these were leaning into my least favorite parts of Discovery. By the finale, I was fast forwarding through everything just to get through it.
Watching TNG for the first time now and loving it way more than Disco :)
Sounds like you saved yourself 2 more aneurysms haha.
I actually liked a lot of S1 and S2 (S2 being peak because enterprise crew just carry the hell out of everything) but I also like edgy and dark media and can overlook a lot if the tone is done in a way that grabs me.
S3 looked promising until the “big reveal”. Couldn’t take it seriously after that. Forced myself thorugh S4 and S5 but those were just straight up annoying. I can’t stand it when things go wrong just because the protagonists are being stupid, or getting held back by some weird moral stance they clearly didn’t have 3 episodes ago. What’s even worse is when it’s so generic I can accurately predict how a 40-60 minute episode will end within the first 10.
Watching TNG for the first time now and loving it way more than Disco :)
There’s so much to look forward to! It is a bit dated and I watch it through rose-colored glasses, but even with that in mind, it’s a good show.