Now on Lemmy at https://startrek.website/ - here's why: https://www.theverge.com/2023/6/10/23756476/reddit-protest-api-changes-apollo-third-party-apps
Fans are happy but is Patrick Stewart ?
One of the main selling points that Patrick Stewart mentioned in agreeing to come back to Jean-Luc Picard was that it wasn’t going to be TNG season 8. Also he wanted it to be an unfamiliar feeling Star Trek for him as an actor. Seasons 1 and 2 just didn’t feel very Star Trek to the audience but now this 3rd and final season is TNG season 8 and it’s knocking it out of the park. Imagine if all 3 seasons had been this good, but if it were presented to Stewart like this would he have turned it down ?
I think he is very happy. It feels like a lot of fan service to us but, he’s been able to really flex his acting chops with Jack, bev, will. He hasn’t had to be this stoic captain/admiral. He’s had an opportunity to develop Picard more this season than the first 2 combined.
Not at all. This season has had very little real development of Picard compared to S1/2. Especially S2.
The stuff with his mother and father, what he thought was abuse, his mother's mental illness, the guilt and responsibility he felt in regards to her death, are WAY more developed then we've gotten so far with Jack.
S1 had him dealing his hos "holier than thou" attitude(His chill-like temper tantrum in regards to the Romulan Evac/expecting Starfleet to just hand him a ship and crew), the massive issues it caused for people around him in TNG and later(Raffi, Elnor, and the Romulans of Vashti), having to actually sit down and listen to his former crew for once(Riker and Troi on Nepethe)
The writers developed the scaffolding for Picard’s backstory, that wasn’t Patrick Stewart developing Picard by his acting. I mean just, wow. How much Stewart was able to convey by his facial expression when Jack was telling him about the good qualities he inherited from him was powerful and a master act
I think on paper and in theory the character explorations depicted in seasons 1 and 2 of PIC are great ideas. In execution though, these seasons were a mess and I found the attempts to drag Picard's character work into 21st century intellectualizing facile. With the exception of "Nepenthe" there is no episode I feel strongly positive about.
There is a middle ground between either living by the anodyne, bloodless code of Rick Berman-era scripting which helped kill the shows or trying too hard to make Star Trek sound like every other contemporary ensemble drama on TV or streaming. Those seasons did the latter, and in doing so the writing often felt either too youthful or simply shallow. It felt identity-less. It is not enough to say "Jean-Luc Picard has a therapy moment, feels seen!" You have to dig in vs. simply showing me an older man tossing off a few lines while in a contemporary context.
I don't know, I don't think anyone wants their work to be poorly received. I hope he's happy with this because he's nailing a Picard that feels like a natural progression of the character this season, in a way that didn't quite happen in season 1 & 2. I doubt that was his fault, mind, the writing just wasn't there.
We'll never know what pitch brought him back, since it was Chabon's 3 season plan, which, even his first season had heavy alterations.
I think he is happy about the reception of S3, but I think it bothered him about the fans reaction to S2
If he wanted it to be nothing like TNG then I imagine he's happier than a pig in shit
Have you seen this season yet ?
The fans reaction to S3 says it all. Any new watchers could very easily skip at least S2 and possibly S1 too
Human beings are notoriously bad at knowing what actually makes them happy. I think this show suffered what Cyberpunk 2077 did with Keanu Reeves. The people making the thing get starstruck and make a story that leans too much on the personality, instead of trusting their vision and telling a good story. I think Stewart had too much input in the first 2 seasons but for the 3rd the vision was put into someones hands who weren't so starstruck and blinded by it.