Torrid; I feel your wrath...
This series (like so many these days) was fucking PAINFUL to get through. I had to do it with breaks. Each with the every-dying hope that it would get better. I've put up with a lot for my half-century love of Trek... Just when I was thinking that we are in Trek's golden age with a shows like Strange New Worlds and Lower Decks, I am reminded that there was a whole lot of crap Trek (more crap than good) since TOS went off the air.
And yeah-- TOS has some ripe turds (like almost all of season 3), but at least they cranked out 26+ episodes a year...
But I tire of overly bloated subscription series that spend more time spending more time than creating a tight, smart, well-paced story. Holy shit, this show didn't need to be TWENTY fucking episodes long. I can follow the primary story line easily enough. And, it was a simple enough time travel tale that I could have enjoyed with some of the old TNG cast. Had it been done in the spirit of First Contact, it could have been fun. First Contact, dare I say, is actually the best of all the Star Trek films (even if it may never be the fans' favorite). I am sure some genius somewhere is finding a way to remake First Contact as an 8-hour trilogy...
Not only was the length of Picard season 2 abhorrent, but it strove (too hard) to jam as many social justice themes as it could conceive into it's Odyssean epic length. Fucking obnoxious.
I hung in for the entire duration for Trek and felt like I was slowly raped for my fandom. I am calling bullshit on Picard's tortured youth and bullshit on the LBTQ/homo-alien/noble immigant themes. It can have any of those elements if they add or are key to the story. But none of them were. Plus they ventured into pure stupidity. Jesus; I WISH America had little home-grown LA free clinics that could manage major trauma and cardiac arrest... Please, I'm becoming unhinged.
When I finally made it to the last episode, the person I was watching with said the following, "Wow, now Seven of Nine can do sixty nine."
Why is so hard to just tell a competent, reasonable, tight, story based on characters that the audience already knows?
My challenge question-- HOW MANY shitty, bloated, torturous, sequels can we be fed? Which am I missing (I bet a lot)?
1) Trek, Picard
2) Star Wars; almost everything after Return of the Jedi
3) Harry Potter post The Half Blood Prince
4) Stranger Things (post year 1)
5) Lord of the Rings / Hobbit remakes
6) Haunting of Bly Manor