It’s pretty terrible, not terrible enough to not see. The main problem is they made it very very difficult to care at all about anyone. Burnam is the most intollerable captain ever, they barely develop any character at all, and if they do, it’s only to kill them immediately after and try and squeeze some easy feelings from us. Well developed characters are instead falsely killed, but ultimately protected by plot armor. As you mentioned, Stamets and Saru are the only really decent guys.
I can’t tell you much about acting, because I see the shows subbed. However, the writing is terrible, in any language. Not only their choice don’t make sense and there are constant plot holes, they are supposed to be seasoned Starfleet veterans, yet they act to dramatically, so emotionally, illogically and scared all the time.
And it’s not a smart “logic vulcans vs illogic humans” confrontation, it’s not a quirk of well defined characters with balance in their emotions; they are simply badly written for dramatic and sitting-on-the-edge type of narrative, which is fine I guess, but it’s a cheap way to get traction in the narrative, which doesn’t hold well for fans of the series that enjoyed the professionalism of Starfleet captains, supposedly the best of the best, capable of facing every menace.
Again, you want to do such a series, do it. But brand it as Star Trek, and you will get this kind of criticism.
Oh yeah, especially the season level writing. It’s been a recurring disappointment. It’s clear that they don’t know how to structure a 10-15 episode serial drama.
It’s pretty terrible, not terrible enough to not see. The main problem is they made it very very difficult to care at all about anyone. Burnam is the most intollerable captain ever, they barely develop any character at all, and if they do, it’s only to kill them immediately after and try and squeeze some easy feelings from us. Well developed characters are instead falsely killed, but ultimately protected by plot armor. As you mentioned, Stamets and Saru are the only really decent guys.
The acting is fine. The issue is the genre.
Discovery is melodrama, something previous series explicitly were not.
I can’t tell you much about acting, because I see the shows subbed. However, the writing is terrible, in any language. Not only their choice don’t make sense and there are constant plot holes, they are supposed to be seasoned Starfleet veterans, yet they act to dramatically, so emotionally, illogically and scared all the time.
And it’s not a smart “logic vulcans vs illogic humans” confrontation, it’s not a quirk of well defined characters with balance in their emotions; they are simply badly written for dramatic and sitting-on-the-edge type of narrative, which is fine I guess, but it’s a cheap way to get traction in the narrative, which doesn’t hold well for fans of the series that enjoyed the professionalism of Starfleet captains, supposedly the best of the best, capable of facing every menace.
Again, you want to do such a series, do it. But brand it as Star Trek, and you will get this kind of criticism.
Oh yeah, especially the season level writing. It’s been a recurring disappointment. It’s clear that they don’t know how to structure a 10-15 episode serial drama.