vandenheuvelfilip

When Picard season 1 came out, I checked out at the episode where he visits Riker. It wasn't at all what I expected from Star Trek. It's pace was very slow, leaving the series to buffer it up with way too many redundant dialogue moments. It's also non-episodic, where in the past each episode of a TNG or Voyager season would tackle a theme and resolve it by the end of the episode, all the while keeping on overarching story. Each episode was interesting in its own right that way.

I revisited Picard again, ending season 2 and the writing is terrible. It still suffers from all the points I made previously, but it doesn't even try keep a coherent story. It's mainly focused on the emotional makeup of its characters, so much that even in what should be dire circumstances where action needs to be imminent, they find the time to dialogue about their interpersonal relations and emotional states. It's one thing to put an emotional line in the action to colour a character, but it's an entirely different universe where in the middle of an altercation with the Borg the characters veer off into Picard's past to solve his emotional demons in minutes long dialogues, begging the question if they all forgot what's actually happening in the moment? There is a thing called "plot armor", well this series has "plot timing". There's always time for a "days of our lives" intermission.

The main reason we're in this whole storyline is so undercooked. 'Q', the architect of what's happening isn't present for most of it. He comes sporadically sprinkling a few hints, and comes in 'deus ex machina' to explain the reason for it all at the end.

Even the reason why the Borg ship attacks in the beginning of the series is left untouched until the last 10 minutes of the last episode.

Star Trek is no longer interested in space and exploration. It doesn't want to delve into the science, probably because its writers aren't knowledgeable enough, and not interested in it. As soon as they can, they deflect to the interpersonal, and I wish that's where their strength lied, but unless you're a fan of soaps, you will not like these shallows it never leaves.

I don't get it. It seems producers thought that catering to the fans by bringing all the old characters back would make us all cheer. But the way they do it...seriously. One episode melodrama with Troy and pizza-chef Riker. Wheaton who just pops in, gives a monologue and pops out. None of it connected to story.

More and more, I have the sinking feeling, there is a writer's crisis. It's as if modern writers won't dig deep and are content with their title, so they can get likes for the cool job they do, but they have no interest in the craft itself, or the love for stories.

Maybe it's because studios want to cater to everyone, that they need to make vanilla stories to please an as large as possible viewerbase.

That's never been Star Trek.

Star Trek was always a nerdy series, that allowed fans to invest in its deep fantasy-science.

I'm not even going into the uplifting character and the faith in humanity the early series had.

Picard is what you get after using the same Earl Grey teabag for the 20th time, a very flat and mostly tasteless concoction.

EDIT: I'm halfway through season 3, and it's day and night difference with previous seasons. The pacing is good, the tone is right. The episodes are exciting. Finally, something worth the name Star Trek!

I've finished the game 4 times, just because the story in it is so good, and the character build up is fantastic.

What the game does is settle you in its world. From overgrown cities, through its midwestern setting, it grounds you, enhancing nostalgia for the pre-pandemic world and the bleakness of its current one with Santaolalla's score strumming your emotional chords.

The series tries its best to stay faithful to the story of the game, but it's clear that the budget isn't there to guarantee that feat. Many episodes are devoid of infected, while they are a main fixture in the game. For instance in the last episode I've just seen that introduced David, the game has Ellie and David fight off infected while they wait for his buddy to come back with the medicine. It creates a little bonding experience between the two, that enforces the wolf in sheep's clothing David is. (Good to see Troy Baker in the series though!)

It's however not just the absence of the infected that brings the series down somewhat, but mainly its pacing. The game's story is told in seasonal chapters (summer, fall, winter, spring), and you spend 3 to 6 hours in every chapter, giving the story time to elaborate on the events and its characters. Combatting infected in the game, which you do a lot, also enhances your understanding of what they are, how they react and how to effectively combat them.

The series seems to sprint through the events, because it needs to tell the whole story in a single 10 episode season.

It suffers from having not enough episodes. The David episode should've at least spanned two, but then also included the infected ambush, and the chase through the diner at the end should've been longer and could've used a little better directing, because in the game it's a truly intense sequence. You know those intense scenes from horror movies where the monster is chasing the main character...well, this one should've been more like that.

There's still a lot that needs to happen before the end, but there's only one episode left, which again seems to mean it will rush through the story.

I understand that sooner or later the overwhelming success of this game would end up in a cinematic adaptation, and a series was the right choice. However, the budget is not there to do the game the justice it deserves, not in length nor production value.

Watch the series to wet your beak, but know that it is but a diminished version of the true masterpiece that remains the game.