1GF Watches TV: Ash vs Evil Dead

Yeah, the peak of House was the first five seasons, though I might be someone who would claim six could probably be lumped in there. When House's team started becoming a revolving door and we started getting one-season cast members, it began to get a little frustrating. I mean, I like the idea of Masters being this straight-laced med student that became soured and ethically stretched by House's ideology, but they just kind of chucked her before they did anything interesting with her (though an argument can be made that her being sickened by playing by House's rules was her natural story arc). Then there was Adams, who was pretty much just Cameron-lite. And Park existed. They never did anything with her, but boy was she there.

It also might be that age-old television rule that when characters cave to the romantic tension it becomes less interesting. I think there was still some interesting stuff from House and Cuddy's relationship after that, since it called bullshit on the shippers and just had it tailspin out of control until House drove a car through Cuddy's home (which is pretty epic), but it did mark the end of the House/Cuddy dynamic that was so fun.

I'm posting this because I can.

Oh definitely. Season 4 was fucking amazing. I especially liked House treating his little hiring process like a season of The Bachelor. That was gold.

Plus that season gave us "Bring me the thong of Lisa Cuddy."

Carol Burnett Show on Pluto

The Twilight Zone

2019 Season 1 - Part 1

The Comedian - A failing comedian takes advice from his idol about putting his life into his act, but with every aspect of his life he adds to his act, he finds it disappears from existence.

Nightmare at 30,000 Feet - A writer listens to a podcast on an airplane that seemingly details the plane's demise as it happens in real life.  He frantically tries to warn the passengers and save the plane, only to be labeled a lunatic.

Replay - A woman discovers her camcorder can rewind time, but no matter how she changes time she and her son find themselves harassed and threatened by a police officer.

A Traveler - A mysterious prisoner appears in an Alaskan holding cell. He begins revealing secrets about the guests of the department Christmas party. But what is the truth and what is a misdirect?

Here's the thing, if there is something anybody who runs a version of The Twilight Zone today should have learned about this franchise it's that an hour long format hasn't been kind to it.  Notoriously, the fourth season of the original series was expanded to an hour to desperately fill a CBS programming void after one of their shows was swiftly cancelled.  The episodes aren't well thought of and they get tiresome to watch, and with the fifth and final season, Rod Serling put his foot down and insisted Twilight Zone was a half hour show.  Previous revivals in the 80's and early 2000's expanded Twilight Zone to an hour as well, but they played it smart.  The 80's series used a presentation of multiple stories of varying lengths during its episodes, allowing the storyteller what time they needed.  All stories on the 2002 series were a half hour long, and they were paired up as double features.  The actual quality of these revivals is debatable, but their use of Twilight Zone as hit and run weirdness is agreeable.

As a huge fan of the original Twilight Zone, nobody wants a revival to work more than I do.  Its expansion to an hour long format doesn't entice me though, as it doesn't play to Twilight Zone's strengths.  It may be an effort to compete with Netflix's anthology series Black Mirror, which has a very expansive runtime for each episode.  I haven't seen Black Mirror, heard great things (but then again, I've heard great things about other "must see" mediocre Netflix shows as well), but if they really want to compete in the anthology department, they would do best to let Black Mirror be Black Mirror and let Twilight Zone be Twilight Zone.  I personally wouldn't mind a return to the format of the 80's series, featuring several storylines, sometimes a main one, and a few quickies tossed in.

My worst fears are mostly realized with the opening episode, The Comedian, which is drawn out and kind of dull.  The episode is an odd mixture of The Butterfly Effect and Death Note, as the main character realizes he can erase people from his life with his stand-up routine, so he starts joking about people he hates and erases them from history, having a ripple effect on the timeline.  After stewing on the episode for a little bit, I think I understand the metaphor of using friends and family for your own gain could alienate them from you, but it seems like a metaphor that will most likely resonate with entertainers more than the Average Joe.  (If this isn't the moral of the story, I have no clue what the hell this episode is about)

Long story short, The Comedian is a really lousy episode.  Not to mention, even when the main character is "funny" onstage, there seems to be little effort in making what he actually says humorous, as a lot of what we hear are just rants.  If the episode had worked on that, it might be passable.  But it didn't and it's not.  What a garbage premiere.

The second episode promises to be a remake of the classic "There's something on the wing of the plane!" episode starring William Shatner (and remade for Twilight Zone:  The Movie with John Lithgow), but instead takes the concept of a perceived ranting madman on an airplane and reinvents it.  Instead of a gremlin tearing apart the wing, our main character listens to a podcast that seemingly narrates the voyage of the flight, promising doom at the end.  This is an imperfect episode, but there is enough suspense to hold the hour long format, and it's a step up from the previous.  While I don't think the story is fully involving, the one thing I will note about this version of the story is how the danger on the flight comes from within and not some random monster on the outside.  It makes for a stronger theme about the chaos of spreading panic rather than the ending of "The end justifies the means" from the previous versions of the story.

The third episode, Replay, is another step in the right direction.  I found myself mostly swept up in the main plight and wishing the protagonists safe passage.  Yet, at the same time, while the racism subtext is easy to pick up while watching the episode, the episode often seems to allude the antagonistic cop has a more complicated motive than skin color.  A lot of my intrigue in watching the episode came from that, but when we get to the ending...nope, racism.  The cop is just a dick.  The "stand up to bullies" and "You can't hide from us" ending is a bit thick with cheese as well, making this mostly good episode fail to stick the landing.

Then we get to A Traveler, which for better or worse feels the most like classic Twilight Zone. I think certain things about this episode run a bit archaic, as if plot developments and twists would have played better in the 1960's, but as is I'd call it the episode I faulted the least with what it was trying to do. If I were to hard critique it, it would be that I think it's too long, as are all of these episodes, but if it paced its mystery and intrigue better than it does, it would have passed that. The Walking Dead's Steven Yuen carries the episode though, and he's pretty terrific.

I think Twilight Zone can work in modern day, but this new series is crawling too slowly out of the shadow of its predecessor. It's possible it can turn it around with just one episode that's firing on all cylinders, though these four aren't it. Some are better than others, but I'm going to continue to see where it goes.

Moesha, The Game, Sister Sister, Girlfriends, The Parkers, Half & Half, and One on One coming to Netflix (US)

shadowandact.com/netflix-acquires-rights-to-7-iconic-black-sitcoms-including-moesha-the-parkers-and-girlfriends

I def liked more from the second season than the first. Wouldn't revisit any of them really and it might just be my low expectations making them watchable but that first season was remarkably awful.

Star Trek:  Picard

Season 1 - Part 1

Remembrance - Twenty years after the events of Star Trek:  Nemesis and in the aftermath of the destruction of Romulus, Jean-Luc Picard has resigned from Starfleet.  A woman mysteriously linked to Commander Data appears at his doorstep evading assassins who are after her, sending Picard on a mission to learn where she comes from.

Maps and Legends - Picard seeks clearance from Starfleet for a ship to seek out Data's other "daughter."  When Starfleet refuses, he must seek other means of returning to space.

The End is the Beginning - While putting together a small crew for the La Sirena, Picard finds himself the target of an assassination attempt.

Absolute Candor - Picard and the La Sirena crew travel to a planet housing Romulan refugees to recruit a Romulan warrior named Elnor. But Elnor's refusal to join them and the refugees' resentment of Starfleet complicates the mission.

We intended to go through Star Trek:  Picard a while back at my friends' house, but the show almost became incomprehensible through her screaming children, so it's been put on pause.  Hell, we even put on TNG a few days ago for some relaxation watch and I couldn't tell you what episodes we watched because I couldn't make out a word.  At long last, we're pushing hard to get through the show before season three of Discovery hits.  Meanwhile, the children seem more entertained by the bright colors of Lower Decks, which surprisingly is the most child friendly Trek show right now.

During it's airing, I heard some rotten rumblings about how Picard is killing Star Trek or whatever, but this kind of perked me up on the show because I can't help but think to myself "Oh good, that means it's a Star Trek show!"  Star Trek is a lot like Star Wars in that things have been constantly "ruining" it for decades.   Even TNG, which is the most beloved series in retrospect, faced backlash because A) it's first two seasons are kind of ass and B) because it had a new cast of characters.  "No Kirk and Spock?  Not TRUE Star Trek!"  Deep Space Nine took a different approach with more grey morality and taking place on a motionless space station.  "No optimistic space exploration?  Not TRUE Star Trek!"  Voyager was bad, dumb, and boring.  "Not TRUE Star Trek!"  Enterprise had a pop song in the opening credits.  "Not TRUE Star Trek!"  The Kelvin films were action blockbusters.  "These movies are about action and Star Trek isn't about action!  Not TRUE Star Trek!"  The fact that CBS All Access incarnations aren't "true" Trek either means little to me, because the loudest fans are the most pissy.

Star Trek means different things to different people, though.  Most don't want it to stray far from Gene Roddenberry's idealist view of the future.  My view is different.  If it stays that basic then it should have died with Roddenberry.  Longevity means evolution, and long form storytelling shouldn't mean telling the same story over and over again, otherwise each Star Trek series becomes an NCIS spin-off.  If Star Trek wants to maintain relevancy with its themes, it needs to realize Utopia isn't attainable but it always must be strived for, and the characters on Star Trek must work for it rather than be the result of it, otherwise they're unrelateable.  Some people like that perfection, but it's something that needed to be shot in the head.  Humanity isn't perfect, it never will be.  It will try though, and that's what Star Trek is to me.

I've been of the opinion that future Trek shows needed to look to DS9 to see the future of Star Trek.  Not to copy it, but seeq what it is and follow its example.  It carved out its own corner of the universe and created the most unique Trek series.  Perhaps Trek should strive to make each series different and let the fans pick which corners they want to inhabit.  Voyager seemed like it was trying to do this in its inception as a Lost in Space take on the franchise with crewmembers of conflicting interests reluctantly putting aside their differences for a common goal, but eventually pussied out into just making a safe TNG clone series.  Enterprise was unsure of itself but at least it was more experimental than the previous series, but its caution to jump into the wind may have killed it.  The new Trek shows have individual identities so far, and I'm digging it.

If I have one complaint about All Access Trek, it's that it has all been TV-MA so far.  I don't have a problem with more adult oriented Star Trek, but I don't think it should encompass everything.  Star Trek has always explored adult themes but kept itself a series that can be watched with a family.  But modern TV needs to be "edgy" post-Breaking Bad and Game of Thrones, I guess, so we get F-bombs and Klingon boobs.  I was actually shocked when the new Lost in Space on Netflix had a TV-PG rating.  Either a show was for adults or for kids with no in between for so long that I forgot what it was like to have a show for both.  And we actually watched that show as a family, and guess what?  The family enjoyed it!  It's nice to have edgy Trek, but if we're going to have two at a time it would be more enjoyable to have that edgy series and have another aimed at being able to watch it while the kids are in the room.  I have some hope that Strange New Worlds might be that show, but I'm not holding my breath.

All of this is my long winded way of saying that fans whining and bitching doesn't sway me.  It's not my place to say what is Star Trek and what isn't, and I'm more or less just a fan of the lore and am curious where we're going rather than being bothered by what it's not.  But then again, I still don't have the faintest clue what Last Jedi whiners are bitching about.

Anyway, Star Trek:  Picard.  That's a bangin' first episode, isn't it?  The next three, less so, but I enjoyed them.

I'm very glad to see that the show deals with the aftermath of Romulus's destruction, because while that was a major plot point in the 2009 Star Trek film, we never got to see it's repercussions in the reality it actually happened in.  And considering the Federation and Romulus seemed to finally be on the course for peace at the end of Star Trek:  Nemesis, the destruction of the planet is a huge deal.  Is there renewed tensions between the Federation and the Romulans?  What state is the Romulan Empire even in?  I love that the destruction of Romulus is a bit of a divisive issue in the Federation, because it seems like it should be, given the problematic history with the Romulans.  I like the refugee portrayals of the Romulans, which were undoubtedly crippled by the event and the look at them trying to survive as refugees.  I also really dig how the Federation's handling is a point of contention for Picard, who has had a falling out with it because of it.  The weaving of this plot thread into Trek TV is well done so far.

There being a second storyline of about a conflict of cybernetic lifeforms makes the series a little bit cluttered.  There are a lot of events to take in since the end of Nemesis.  I guess it's natural that a lot happened, though in time jumps such as TOS to TNG there were less big events to take in (the Klingons joined the Federation, that was about it).  But we live in a more complicated world of television today, rather than a week to week, status quo, episodic format.  So now "synthetics" like Data are banned in the Federation.

Digression:  It's weird to hear the word "synthetic" to describe robots like Data in Star Trek.  Normally I associate that word with the Alien franchise.  But whatever.

The storyline involving the "Daughters of Data" has some interest, though the origin of these synthetic women is mostly what interests me.  The romance/conspiracy with the Romulan in the Borg cube isn't compelling to me, but so far it hasn't robbed me with too much screentime.

Mostly the joys of these episodes is its "getting the band together" vibe, which has Picard seeking out a gang of colorful characters one after another, and putting together a new, small-time renegade crew, which includes Scott Pilgrim's Allison Pill and it is my sincere hope that they replace Picard's traditional catch phrase of "Make it so" with "WE ARE SEX BOB-OMB!  ONE TWO THREE FOUR!"  This batch of episodes ends with them face-to-face with Seven of Nine from Voyager, so the collage of new and familiar faces continues to keep pace with the show.

If there is anything particularly wrong with Picard, I'm either not seeing or it's not bothering me, or it's quite possible that I don't care.  That last one is probably the most likely, because that's usually my excuse for liking something that's disliked or disliking something that is heavily praised.  Something can be a masterpiece, but that doesn't mean I'm interested in it.  So far, Picard has my interest.  That's good enough for me.

Star Trek

Season 1 - Part 1

The Cage - In the 23rd century, a Starship known as the "Enterprise" is on a mission of exploration commanded by Christopher Pike.  The Enterprise investigates a signal from Talos IV, where the science vessel Columbia dissappeared many years prior.  Pike leads a landing party and diacovers a group of survivors, including a young woman named Vina.  Pike is soon abducted by a group of telepathic aliens who trap him in hallucinations with Vina, illusions for them to live happily in as a new Adam and Eve as specimens in a cage.

The Man Trap - Years after the events of The Cage, the Enterprise is now under the command of James T. Kirk.  Kirk escorts a mission to a planet housing a scientist and his wife, former flame of ship physician Leonard "Bones" McCoy.  Upon meeting the two, one of the escort team dies mysteriously of salt depletion.  Kirk and McCoy scramble to unlock the mystery of the ailment and what it might have to do with McCoy's former lover.

Charlie X - The Enterprise takes charge of the sole survivor of a wrecked ship, teenager Charlie Evans, who has lived alone for fourteen years on the planet Thasus.  Charlie grows a fondness for beautiful crew member Janice Rand which borders on obsession.  Kirk makes attempts to guide Charlie, but discovers Charlie has a sort of omnipotent power that, paired with his hormones, makes him one of the most dangerous beings in the galaxy.

Where No Man Has Gone Before - The Enterprise's attempt to cross the edge of the galaxy finds the ship meeting a barrier of energy that damages the ship, leaving several crew members dead and Lieutenant Commander Gary Mitchell in an unknown condition.  Mitchell begins developing telepathic abilities and is seemingly embracing them in an alarming way.  Kirk must chose between how to adequately deal with his friend, which may end in Mitchell's demise.  But can Kirk destroy a blossoming god?

I think those Star Trek Day panels did their job.  While I don't think they revealed anything revolutionary (Q on Lower Decks is pretty neat), it made me want to watch Star Trek.  Luckily that's a yearning easily solved, because I have the show at my fingertips, thanks to a combination of blu-ray, DVD, and CBS All Access.

I don't think I have anything groundbreaking to say about the series.  People far smarter than I have written books about the show, it's impact, it's philosophy, and every nook and cranny of all-79-episodes-ad-nauseam-yes-including-Spock's-Brain.  Star Trek is just my favorite television franchise.  I spent a good amount of my time in my youth keeping up with the various shows, and to this day have a powerful fondness for Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, and Enterprise.

But while I'm very much a second generation Star Trek nerd, one has to appreciate the one that started it all.  It's a focal point for science fiction in general.  It was one of the first shows to take space travel seriously, with shows like the Rocky Jones, Space Ranger and Lost in Space proceeding it, two shows that I also enjoy but for different reasons.  One might be hard pressed to find any science fiction that talked to its audiences like they were adults back then in general, like The Twilight Zone or maybe Doctor Who (which could feature intelligent and self-serious writing, though it sometimes demanded a child's imagination to take it seriously).  Star Trek is the weilding of a brushed off genre into a strong lightning rod for those who craved it.  Star Trek's popularity leads to the unexpected success of Star Wars, and helps pave the way for more space-faring science fiction programming like Space:  1999, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, and Battlestar Galactica all the way to more modern classics like Firefly, Futurama, Red Dwarf, Babylon 5, Farscape, and the Battlestar Galactica reboot, even to small cult stuff like Andromeda, Space Cases, and Dark Matter.

And yes, trash like Tripping the Rift also, but we speak not of that show.

But here we shoot back to the very, very early look we had at the series.  I start with the original pilot, The Cage, because of course I did.  It wasn't fully released to the public until the 1980's, to cash in off of the Star Trek demand surge that resulted in Next Generation, and for most old school Trekkies it's little more than just a revisit of the episode The Menagerie, for which it was chopped up and used to fill air time in the first season of TOS.  The Cage features a mostly different crew than the series we would see, with the only carry overs being Leonard Nimoy as Spock and eventually Majel Berrett (who would also go on to become series creator Gene Roddenberry's wife), who plays the nameless first officer "Number One" here but was given a different recurring role of Christine Chapel on the eventual series.  Other potential lead roles belonged to Jeffery Hunter as Captain Christopher Pike (replaced with Kirk), John Hoyt as Dr. Phillip Boyce (replaced with McCoy), and a slight role of Yeoman Colt played by Laurel Goodwin, who may or may not have been a one time character.  This pilot was famously rejected, while several reasons have been given throughout the years, the most widely spread being that it was "too cerebral" and didn't have enough action (though it barely has much less action than the other episodes here).  It's also been attributed to good ol' fashioned 60's sexism, as network executives balked at the idea of the Number One character being a woman in a position of authority.  It was probably a combination of reasons, these and otherwise, and for whatever reason Jeffery Hunter wasn't destined to command the starship Enterprise.  Hunter eventually died just before Star Trek concluded its run, attributed to a head injury he sustained on the set of a film he probably wouldn't have made had he had a TV commitment at the time.  Fate is weird sometimes.

As for The Cage, I'm going to be audacious and say it's the better of Star Trek's two pilots.  It's an interesting story about man's view of freedom, and how one man could fight imprisonment even if it's more pleasurable than his reality.  And of course, the episode goes into the grey area of what might cause someone to live such a life, which is portrayed with the Vina character, who has her reasons for saying in her illusion.  It's very possible to misread the ending though, as it also seems to be saying that if you're deformed and ugly you shouldn't face reality, but her issue is complicated enough as is and we shouldn't dwell on it.

Desilu chairman Lucille Ball (yup, THAT Lucille Ball) convinced the network to order a second pilot, which actually aired third, Where No Man Has Gone Before.  If The Cage was rejected for being "too cerebral," I'm not entirely sure what it is here that's less so.  Maybe it's a hair less cerebral, but it's still engages the nature of humanity in a thought provoking way.  If they wanted more action on the show, really all that it has over The Cage is a fist fight between Kirk and Mitchell at the end (complete with the first of many torn shirts for Kirk).  Maybe that was enough.  It's a pretty good episode, though the weaker pilot.

Interesting notes:  Cast members in Where No Man Has Gone Before that moved onto the regular series include William Shatner as James Kirk, Leonard Nimoy as Spock, James Doohan as Montgomery "Scotty" Scott, and George Takei as Hikaru Sulu.  The ship's doctor is played by Paul Fix, who would be replaced by DeForest Kelley when the show went to series.

But the actual premiere to the series, and the reason September 8th is considered Star Trek Day, is The Man Trap.  Why it was chosen to go first, I don't know.  Big monster? The episode is a solid monster-of-the-week episode with an interesting dilemma for Kirk and McCoy, of which DeForest Kelley makes his first appearance. Also present are Nichelle Nichols as Nyota Uhura and Grace Lee Whitney as Janice Rand. As the episode the entire legacy of Star Trek bloomed out of, The Man Trap is very ordinary. But it's unfair to hope it's the Alpha and Omega of all things Star Trek. Though I personally find it inferior to both of the pilots, even though the uniforms are a step in the right direction (those sweaters in the pilots are fugly).

That just leaves little Charlie X, the weakest of this earliest batch of Trek. The episode has some rough footing, as the character of Charlie is a grating whiner. The episode is very smartly made however, as it really amps up the tension once Kirk and his crew know what Charlie is capable of, and suddenly Charlie ceases to be an annoying character and becomes an unpredictable loose cannon. The suspense in this episode is pretty killer, but they made the mistake of airing it so close to another episode where the crew of the Enterprise deals with a near-godlike man in Where No Man Has Gone Before. Charlie X was aired first and it has stronger directing, but Where No Man Has Gone Before has the better script.

All in all, terrible show. I give it five more episodes before it's cancelled and we never hear from it again.

Doctor Who

Season 2 - Planet of Giants

Planet of Giants - The Doctor successfully brings Ian and Barbara back to their correct time on Earth, but due to a malfunction in the TARDIS the travelers have shrunk down to an inch in size.

Dangerous Journey - The Doctor, Susan, Ian, and Barbara are the only witnesses to a murder involving a cover-up to the powerful effects of a deadly insecticide, but there is little they can do when they're the size of insects themselves.  They attempt to journey back to the TARDIS however they can and hopefully reverse the effects.

Crisis - The Doctor and his companions try to concoct a way to alert the authorities of the murder and illegal insecticide schemes that are afoot by attempting to lift a phone receiver and calling the operator. But the situation grows more dire when Barbara is poisoned by the insecticide.

Skipping another serial (which has surviving episodes and animated reconstructions, but they're not available on BritBox), I now jump to the second season of the long running sci-fi/fantasy series, which is the most well preserved of the show's first six seasons, with only two episodes missing of the thirty-nine produced and only one incomplete serial out of nine. This season brings about the final fates of the Doctor's companions as the show grows further in popularity to the point where there is already pre-production on a Doctor Who movie, albeit out of continuity and starring Hammer horror star Peter Cushing instead of William Hartnell, which will be released in between the second and third seasons. The signs that Doctor Who was a pop culture success were definitely there.

The second season starts off with this little number (no pun intended) where the Doctor and his cohorts are the size of insects, which leads to a lot of imaginative and creative production design highlighting this serial, which makes it always interesting to look at. A lot of the props featured here are pretty wild, and watching the TARDIS crew navigate through them is a real treat.

That being said, the serial lets down in plot. How are the travellers now only an inch tall? Are they trapped on some other world that's far greater in size? Nope. It's modern day Earth and the TARDIS just screwed up. Instead of working with the fact that the Doctor brought Ian and Barbara home...with a catch...the serial doesn't seem to care about that. They work in some cockamamy scheme about insecticide and murder around it, which the group just happens to crash in on and just happens to be the size of insects while dealing with it. It's pretty dumb, but the fact that Barbara is poisoned by it adds some urgency to the matter, though that's mostly confined to the third episode.

Speaking of that third episode, apparently it was actually two episodes edited down to one in post, because they wanted a better pace to the finale. I have no idea what both episodes would have entailed (one where they play with the phone and another where they run back to the TARDIS?) but I'd say that was a wise decision. The premise was wearing itself thin and there wasn't really enough story left for two episodes. I'm curious about what survives of that lost material though and what was cut out, but for now I'm ready for the next story.

Star Trek:  Picard

Season 1 - Part 2

Stardust City Rag - After taking the former-borg-current-Fenris-Ranger Seven of Nine aboard the ship, the crew of the La Sirena travel to Freecloud to find the creator of Dahj and Soji, Bruce Maddox, and try to bargain for his life with black market dealer Bjayzl.  But Seven has her own agenda.

The Impossible Box - The La Sirena travels to the Artifact where they are aided in their search for Soji by the former Borg Hugh.  But Soji's nightmares send her down the road to the discovery that she is an android.

Nepenthe - As the La Sirena crew separates in their escape from the Artifact, Picard and Soji seek refuge on Nepenthe, and find housing with the family of William Riker and Deanna Troi.  Meanwhile, on the La Sirena, Dr. Agnes Jurati struggles with her guilt in killing Maddox and her choice to spy on the crew for the Federation and the Romulans.

Seven of Nine gonna have ta' choke a bitch.

Star Trek:  Picard seems to take inspiration from quite a few edgier space shows that held the fort while it was away.  It occured to me while watching Stardust City Rag that this wasn't too unlike the type of episode that Battlestar Galactica would offer, with shady dealings and internal struggles (though I imagine Picard's disguise of an eye patch, a barret, and an absurd Inspector Clouseau accent wouldn't have made the cut on BSG).  It's shipmate dynamic of brooding misfit outsiders seems a little in the same realm as Dark Matter, maybe with a dash of Pitch Black.  I dig it.  We've had so many shows inside the Federation that it's interesting to see a show that works on the outside of it, just to see the shadier side of the Star Trek galaxy.

Picard is also the most serialized Trek show of the franchise.  Deep Space Nine had a series long arc, but episodes stood as individuals, as does the third season of Enterprise.  Discovery has interlinked storylines that lead to a conclusion, but most of those episodes can probably stand up as individuals.  Picard is one long story, which is not my favorite type of television show.  Those shows can be belabored and boring, and they really need to hook me to get me to keep watching.  Picard has a casual first half, but this batch of episodes have a lot of energy and it's keeping me watching.  I can't say it's serial television done right, because my preference in serialized storytelling lies with shows like Deep Space Nine and Discovery, but Picard is telling a story that interests me.

This set also brings out a parade of guest stars.  Stardust City Rag is an episode devoted to Seven of Nine being a badass and Nepenthe is just an excuse to get that old Picard, Riker, Troi chemistry flowing.  The guest that surprised me was Hugh the Borg.  And they even brought back Johnathan Del Arco to play him too.  That's one role they could have recast and nobody would have given a rat's ass.  Color me impressed.  But now the cameos are out of the way, I'm hoping for an outstanding final three to focus squarely on Picard and his crew.

Maybe it's my excitement that Star Trek:  Nemesis is no longer the final chapter on these Next Generation characters talking, but so far I'm finding a lot to like in Picard.  It's a compelling story about the line between life and artificial life and when does one gain sentience.  I am very much on the edge of my seat to see where it goes.