I previously let my disappointment in some of the modern Star Trek offerings known in what I think was a pretty fair set of opinions.
Picard Season 3 is…. great. Not just great for Star Trek or great by comparison to the cookie cutter sludge factory of streaming television. Its an excellent show, especially if you are a TNG or DS9 fan.
How to summarized this without spoilers…Allegory? Metaphor? I’m not sure that I know the difference..
Imagine you go to a party where most of your pet peeves are on display.
There’s nowhere to park. The music is horrible; flapping its way through a separated speaker on a rattling shelf and filling the room - somehow both too shrill and too thump-y. The annoying and obnoxious close-talking guest that won’t let you get a word in edge-wise and keeps you cornered for the majority of the night. Someone’s snotty teenager keeps going back to the food-table after having sneezed on all of it during his 2nd-and-3rd trips to get at probably: bacteria-infested deviled eggs.
There is more than one Miller-light intoxicated redneck wearing Let’s Go Brandon attire and spoiling for a fight about something. There is more than one liberal-arts major hipster wearing a Rainbow Che Guevara shirt high on edibles and reeking of Body Odor that wasn’t within the masking ability of their homemade soap.
The Business Chads, sales-guy types are in the corner talking about their investment portfolios and island-hopping vacations between bursts of boisterous but totally unconvincing laughter. At least one of them will eat a bullet before Christmas.
Then, on the last 1/3 of the evening it all turns around.
You reconnect with an old close friend from school and their delightful new spouse. You didn’t realize they’d moved nearby and you have a blast catching up, even make plans for coffee or drinks after work next week. While you were sequestered away talking about bygone years the rednecks passed out, the close talker realized he had dog shit on his shoes the whole night and goes home. The hipsters are couch-locked in amazement at the LEDs flickering over the pool and two of the Business Chads are filing out insurance paperwork: apparently one of the Karen’s backed into their new Mercedes, which was a Lease. Even the music and food improved as a Taco truck operator sees the crowd and decides to set up for service.
This, in a nutshell is Star Trek: Picard. Season 3 is a great TNG outing and it does the rare thing of improving the seasons that came before it by firing a concentrated tachyon beam of STTNG nostalgia right into your eyeballs. To say it sticks the landing is an understatement.
I get it though: if you can’t endure Seasons 1 and 2, then just read their synopsis and skip right to the good part of the party. The tacos are worth it.