SNW season 2 now has more appearances on the Nielsen Top 10 than 'Picard' season 3.
This is good news for assuring that SNW’s 3rd season production will move ahead after the strike.
Greenlighting a couple of extra episodes and a 4th season would make strategic sense, but I’m just not willing to give Paramount the benefit of the doubt on that.
Can anyone tell me if this series is more akin to "classic" Star Trek or still a "new" series, i.e. more focused on action and less on moral dilemma or politics?
It's mostly episodic like the original series and 90s Trek but it has some season long story arcs. But it's modern in its style of telling. It's funny without resorting to being MCU quippy. And the science is closer to modern science fiction rather than TOS' parallel worlds pattern.
That said, it has a mix of action and moral dilemma and politics. There are "needs of the many" stories that don't have clear right or wrong, the psychological impact from the horrors of war stories, even a courtroom episode that rivaled the best ones from TOS and TNG. But there are also flashy fan servicey episodes that are just fun.
I suggest giving the first episode a go. It sets the mood for the rest of the first two seasons. Each episode brings something different, but I think the first episode really speaks to what the series is trying to be.
it's just like TNG and TOS but with literally no episodes that aren't straight bangers. I've seen the whole first season and some of the second and it's a hard choice between this and DS9 as best trek ever. watch the first episode and see what you think. you'll like it
I've been a Star Trek fan since I was in primary school, back when TNG originally aired. (my favourite is DS9) I love Strange New Worlds. It has reignited my love for Star Trek, even more than Lower Decks already did.
And I can't say this often enough: I have a friend who grew up with TOS when that originally aired. And he never really liked any Star Trek that was produced after 1969. But he too loves Strange New Worlds. It's a great amalgam of TOS (by being episodic and not taking everything too seriously), 90s Trek (by tackling important societal issues here and there, and being really serious when it needs to), and modern Trek (the production quality and the storytelling).
Also, the entire cast is super talented. Personally, I'd say that Christina Chong is the breakout star because she's always giving everything, even if she's just there for a quick reaction shot. But it's hard to pick because they are all so good.
The only thing that bugs me is that they barely have the time to do something with all of their characters (with only 10 episodes per season) but keep adding new characters to the ensemble.
tl;dr - yeah, it's a great classic Star Trek show mixed with modern elements
What frustrates me most about "new Trek" is that the characters don't drive the story. Instead they have constant action, artificial tension, and over-the-top stakes. I love the characters on Discovery, but they're not allowed to exist as themselves. OTOH SNW is primarily character-driven, as good Trek always has been.
How about watching it and judging it for yourself? YMMV.
It’s not a 90s Trek show, in that it leans more to recapturing a TOS vibe. But it’s its own thing, and that’s where it’s strengths lie.
There are a great variety and range of styles of episodes, which it can do simply because it is episodic. Most of all though, it is driven by character arcs and character development.
Season 1, IMO, has the same flaws as discovery with more coherent writing. The plot jumps from point to point, the characters are underdeveloped, etc. It doesn't have any "this is not only extremely stupid but feels like the writers didn't actually bother watching star trek" moments, but it still isn't good.
Season 2 feels like a true modern tale on Trek. They manage to truly respect the old lore while bringing in new moral dilemmas. The characters are more developed and taken in interesting directions. They managed to sneak in a line that gives a decent explanation as to why things don't 100 percent match up in canon. There's also one episode that I would put up there as an all time great across every series.
So I would say slog through Season 1 for the joy of watching Season 2
I'd rather have tightly-written shows with 3 seasons than meandering shows that don't know how/where they're going to end with producers who are incompetent at steering things (cough Kurtzman & DIS)
I imagine it probably helps that the Paramount app has permission to know seemingly everything happening on viewers phones. Might help tune the scripts or something. As assume that's what the 14 required permissions are for.
@ISometimesAdmin@StillPaisleyCat@MajorHavoc can anyone suggest the best place to buy both SNW seasons, in terms of showing support for the show, even though I’ll prolly never watch where I buy?
I hardly watch any TV & normally pirate anything I watch (don’t want to plug into a streaming service for one show). I definitely want to pay for SNW though, it’s wrong that I love it so much and don’t at least give “the machine” that tiny bit of feedback.
Already have. Watched half the first season, then noped out of it.
Netflix shows get a lot of high audience ratings because they are dropped all at once or in half-season blocks. They are counting on binge watch behaviour. This can be misleading against weekly releases. Basically, it means Netflix shows will almost always dominate on a weekly count of minutes watched.
Nielsen isn’t giving total minutes watched per show per year stats, but those who buy the full data or have other metrics are looking at that instead.
A few Netflix shows, like Stranger Things, stay on top even after the equivalent time of a weekly release, but most don’t. This means Netflix has to be dropping new content constantly and has driven the content arms-race on streamers.
However, there’s accumulating evidence that weekly drops hold subscribers better. This is why HBO Max, Disney and Paramount stick with that. When their shows can break in a weekly count against the latest Netflix drops, they’re doing incredibly well.