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Sci-Fi

CBS Offers a Free Month of All Access So You Can Binge-Watch 'Picard' (engadget.com) 123

An anonymous reader shares a report: If you've been meaning to check out "Star Trek: Picard" or "The Good Fight," but already perhaps have one streaming subscription too many, you can check out CBS All Access for free until April 23rd in the US. Jean-Luc Picard himself (okay, Partick Stewart) revealed ViacomCBS would make it around the time of the show's finale.
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CBS Offers a Free Month of All Access So You Can Binge-Watch 'Picard'

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  • I'm going to be needing a six foot high replicator. Or the equivalent.

    • by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 26, 2020 @10:49AM (#59873540)
      That's not nearly big enough to reproduce a Borg cube piloted by Seven of Nine, which pops out of a transwarp conduit six inches above a planet's atmosphere, is attacked by a giant flower that attaches to the corner of the cube, causes the cube to plummet to the surface of the planet, lands perfectly like a D6, and doesn't collapse upon itself under the presumed 1G of the planet.

      Picard, of course, walks right into this kilometer-high cube and is met within ten seconds by a bunch of his pals. No wonder CBS can't sell this. They're not going to be able to give the series away after people watch a single episode of it.
      • by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 26, 2020 @10:56AM (#59873564)
        I quit watching after that butterball not-an-actress killed Maddox, poisoned herself, and she survived but Maddox didn't. SHE CANNOT ACT. She isn't attractive either, so there is nothing redeeming. At least with the "no character development muahahaha supervillain sister" the chick is smoking hot--like pull my hair controlling hot. I hope the supervillain Romulan sister kills blond butterball chick.
        • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

          by Anonymous Coward
          Not going to happen. Kurtzman feels that since they are women they are minorities and should be protected. Plus, the sexy Romulan and Agnes have both seen "the vision" now and have not smashed their faces in with rocks and clawed out their eyeballs. They're more likely to turn into galpals, patrolling the universe in search for more Datas and Lores to kill. And those stupid pantomime robots that kill everyone on Mars before igniting Mars's 30% propane atmosphere with lasers. They will be side by side, their
        • by Jhon ( 241832 )

          I quit watching after that butterball not-an-actress killed Maddox, poisoned herself, and she survived but Maddox didn't. .

          I hear you -- but I'm still watching.

          STORY TIME!

          I have a family member who's on the tail end of Alzheimer's. It's been a painful journey of watching bits and pieces of your love one slowly disappear -- maybe come back once or twice or maybe if three times then slip away forever while other bits and pieces fall away. You learn to enjoy what's left of your loved one -- treasure what's there, when it's there. Enjoy the "good parts" and make them as comfortable as possible through the bad parts.

          Watching the

  • Partrick? Binge watch a weekly time slot? Wheres Cmdr Taco, wtf.
    Thank you for the CBS has a month free trial notification.
    • Re: wha? (Score:4, Interesting)

      by NagrothAgain ( 4130865 ) on Thursday March 26, 2020 @10:52AM (#59873554)
      CBS has had a "1st month free" promotion for at least 2 years now. It still requires a credit card, they're still loaded with ads, and you'll find that they generally only have a handful of episodes for a show available "on demand" so good luck binge watching anything.
      • Comment removed based on user account deletion
      • You can pick the ad free tier for free trials. The trial encompasses all of CBS streaming (which isn't much). The best part is, if you use empty prepaid debit cards you can endlessly make free trial accounts.
      • >"CBS has had a "1st month free" promotion for at least 2 years now. It still requires a credit card, they're still loaded with ads"

        Thank you for that info. That is really all I wanted from the comments.

        1) I won't submit to giving a credit card for a "trial."
        2) I won't submit to ads, ever, period.
        3) If it doesn't work on my TV, or under Linux+Firefox, it is "broken" and not an option.

        You answered the first two, the third was confirmed by: this comment: https://entertainment.slashdot... [slashdot.org] which doesn't

      • I binge-watched Discovery last year under the free promotion. Both seasons were there.

        I happily paid for it for Picard and am looking forward to another season of both.

        Also looking forward to the other show they've announced and am hoping that Jeri Ryan gets a show with her driving her Borg cube around righting wrongs and kicking ass.

  • by UnknownSoldier ( 67820 ) on Thursday March 26, 2020 @10:14AM (#59873466)

    Don't waste your time with Star Trek: Retard ^H^H^H^H^H^H Picard. It does so so [youtube.com] much [youtube.com] dumb [youtube.com] shit [youtube.com] -- it's unbelievably how crap the writing is for a flagship Star Trek. Even Star Trek: Enterprise was better -- that's how bad Picard is -- which is saying a lot.

    You know it's bad when Picard is a sidekick in his own show!

    **Facepalm**

    • by bill_mcgonigle ( 4333 ) * on Thursday March 26, 2020 @10:16AM (#59873470) Homepage Journal

      Agreed, Mike and Rich are the only reasonable way to follow /Picard/.

    • by gweihir ( 88907 )

      Unfortunately, I have to agree with you. A pity and a great wasted opportunity.

      • "Unfortunately, I have to agree with you. A pity and a great wasted opportunity."

        'I was old, I needed the money.'
        Patrick Stewart

        • Sadly, all too true.

          He never wanted to play Picard again [cinemablend.com] as he admits:

          I had absolutely no intention of returning to Star Trek. [I was] very proud of the seven seasons of Next Generation and of the four movies that were made. But... I had resisted numerous invitations to bring it all back to life again. So when this offer came from CBS, I agreed to attend the meeting. But for one reason only -- I had great respect for the people who were calling me in to see them about reviving Jean Luc and Star Trek. And I

    • Can you please maybe summarize instead of linking to more than 4 hours worth of review videos? You piqued my interest as I was contemplating to start watching the show, but I'm not willing to skim through 4 hours of video (could be a waste of time as well) to see what's all this "dumb shit" about...
      • Summary: "I'm smarter/cooler/better than all the people who worked on Star Trek: Picard".

        Same with the YouTube videos.

        You're welcome.

      • I'll chime in. It starts out decent but then a few episodes get pretty bad. One major plot point is trying to track down an individual. When he is finally found halfway into the series he is killed within minutes and barely has any lines. We also get a Romulan who resembles the elf Elrond and carries a sword as a weapon. After this it gets better with more action on the abandoned Borg cube. Going to watch the final episode tonight.

      • by dsanfte ( 443781 )

        Whiny nerds who thought the Simpsons comic book nerd guy was a role model.

      • by lgw ( 121541 ) on Thursday March 26, 2020 @11:02AM (#59873584) Journal

        The whole series is elderly Picard being yelled at by women, and meekly taking it. One nasty admiral actually yells "shut the fuck up!" at him. It's full of profanity, gore, plot holes, and a re-imagined Federation that's full of poverty and racism. Star Trek, it ain't.

        • He was yelled at for asking to command a ship and crew after being long retired, not for simply being a man.

          • by lgw ( 121541 )

            There's the in-character reason, and then there's the reason it was written. Yes, there's an in-character reason each time, but it happens consistently enough to be a theme, so it's clear the writers enjoy it.

            • by nomadic ( 141991 )

              Yes it's all a feminist conspiracy to emasculate you.

          • Usually when someone makes a request that I am not willing to fullfill. I just say No. I don't even yell it.
        • I think this post probably captures my biggest problems: this isn't the Federation we grew up with. A little is a plot point: the Federation had turned sharply xenophobic as a result of a sort of terrorist attack. At the same time, the view of how life is even aside from the fear and loathing doesn't sound at all compatible with how the Federation had been represented otherwise.

          Up to this point Benjamin Sisko was the darkest character in the franchise with some personal problems due to the death of his wife

          • by lgw ( 121541 ) on Thursday March 26, 2020 @12:01PM (#59873792) Journal

            Well, the key is to realize that the "Kelvin Timeline", STD and this stuff, is the mirror universe, so of course everyone is evil. I mean, Spock has a beard; it could not be more clear.

          • To be fair, there were much darker characters than Sisko in DS9, though maybe not in the main cast -- take Dukat for example. Enterprise also dealt with substance abuse, when T'Pol got hooked on that weird rock that shielded the ship from weird gravity fields. Thouhgh I haven't seen Picard, so I don't really know how it compares.

          • > Up to this point Benjamin Sisko was the darkest character in the franchise

            Elim Garak would like to have a word with you outside ... once you are finished shopping. /s

        • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

          Maybe I was watching a different Star Trek Picard. In the show I saw Picard is, as ever, the best of Star Fleet. Driven by moral conviction when others are succumbing to fear and prejudice.

          It's interesting to see Picard when he isn't a captain, when people are more likely to disagree with him. He's in an environment that isn't the Enterprise of old, not staffed by the best of humanity, and he brings his values to it.

          It's s very enjoyable show, with some familiar faces and some interesting new ones. The only

      • The thing that bugs me the most about the show is people are constantly telling Picard to go fuck him self for x, y, z reasons and I'm constantly finding that I agree with those people.
         
        Just entertaining enough to keep watching, but if there were other shows I was watching and needed to drop on this is at the top of the list.

      • Here's my take (Score:4, Interesting)

        by Okian Warrior ( 537106 ) on Thursday March 26, 2020 @11:58AM (#59873780) Homepage Journal

        Can you please maybe summarize instead of linking to more than 4 hours worth of review videos? You piqued my interest as I was contemplating to start watching the show, but I'm not willing to skim through 4 hours of video (could be a waste of time as well) to see what's all this "dumb shit" about...

        My overall one-line review of Picard is this: "Let's take a bunch of the canon from ST and have a bonfire!"

        Lots of hooks in the series could be used as springboards for further development - Hugh (borg member), Icheb (young borg member from Voyager series), which are used in this series for trivial reasons and then killed off.

        An entire race of authoritarian, militaristic, empire builders who are sworn enemies of the federation magically integrate with federation society after their star blows up. Two of them are quite happy being servants (!) of Captain Picard, and quite loyal despite being ex-secret police on their homeworld. (Also, being an incredibly woke statement about letting refugees into the US.)

        Android/AI development was banned after the Mars incident, but it was the one thing that could have saved Riker's and Troi's son. Medically. Because their son had a rare silicon-based virus. And the cure was simple and well-known, but no one could do it because AI matrices were banned. Which ban apparently also applied to all other civilizations that Riker and Troi could have gone to. And they couldn't have done it themselves or hired a criminal to do it - even to save their son. And no other doctor in the Federation (think Bones or Bashir or the Doctor hologram) would have risked their career and done it anyway to save a life. (How convoluted do you need to be in order to get trivial emotional involvement?)

        Picard wallowing in never-ending self-pity over his failure to save more of the Romulans.

        A star ship captain a) ordered to kill two "first contact" aliens, b) actually doing it c) committing suicide because of it, and d) not finding any way around it such as: broadcasting to the entire federation that he had been ordered to do so. Ridiculous levels of corruption in the federation that has not been discovered over 15 years.

        In summary: Picard was not my favorite character in the ST universe, but I understand that he was a career diplomat and there were other characters that I could root for. In the new series it's really hard to identify with him, or admire him, or even understand him some of the time.

        To contrast the train-wreck that is Picard, I thought that Christopher Pike in the Discovery series was very well done. A strong, charismatic leader that easily commands loyalty. Fun to watch and easy to root for.

        Also, I thought at first that Spock in the Discovery series would be a disaster, but it really holds together and was very well done.

        In summary, Discovery is a pretty good Trek series, while Picard is a dreary soap opera.

      • Comment removed (Score:4, Interesting)

        by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Thursday March 26, 2020 @12:25PM (#59873874)
        Comment removed based on user account deletion
        • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

          I guess you forgot the events of Reunification. The Romulans are not just cartoon evil villains, and the Federation were working towards not just peace but rejoining with Vulcan.

          The reason those two were living with Picard and helping him with the vineyard was to show that not all Romulans were ungrateful for what he tried to do and what he did do for them.

          • Comment removed based on user account deletion
            • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

              What about Oh? She was ready to do anything to kill the synthetics but in the end was persuaded that they were not going to fulfil the prophecy. Narek changed his mind similarly too, not entirely but to the point where he wasn't genocidal any more. Star Fleet got over its fear of synthetic life too.

              I mean that's pretty optimistic isn't it? Picard manages to avert a genocide by putting his own life on the line and showing that synths aren't what the Romulans think they are, and that Star Fleet isn't a lost c

        • by leonbev ( 111395 )

          The moody urban hipster starship captain listening to vinyl records 400 years from now was cringeworthy as well!

      • by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

        Can you please maybe summarize instead of linking to more than 4 hours worth of review videos? You piqued my interest as I was contemplating to start watching the show, but I'm not willing to skim through 4 hours of video (could be a waste of time as well) to see what's all this "dumb shit" about...

        At that point you might as well just watch Picard. The first episode is on YouTube so you only waste about 50 mintues of your time (45 minutes of Picard, 5 minutes of unskippable YouTube ads).

        If it piques your in

      • The Critical Drinker excellent summary [youtube.com] is 15 minutes:

        TL:DW;
        1. The Story
        2. The Characters
        3. Picard himself
        4. This isn't Star Trek
        5. Sheer Fucking Hubris

        I agree 100% with Critical Drinker's analysis. Paraphrasing:

        Star Trek's focus was always about episodic narrative. DS9 and Voyage focused on longer story arcs but for the most part you could enjoy just a single episode as each episode was something new to look forward to.

        STP has a shit, long drawn out main story arc. Its themes have all been told before --

    • It's not Star Trek. It's Shit Trek.

      • It doesn't feel like Star Trek at all to me. It doesn't feel like you are on the ship (or station regarding DS9), kind of like how the Abrams movies felt like I was in a factory not on a ship the whole movie (which they were filmed in a power plant, so not far off). Nothing about it resembles Star Trek at all.
    • by jellomizer ( 103300 ) on Thursday March 26, 2020 @10:51AM (#59873548)

      Why should I base my opinion on some random YouTube reviewer. To determine if I would like or dislike a show.

      Trek has always been a commentary of the times.
      TOS the Late 60's New technology is being presented a cold war with a seemingly equal opponent. A rise in Liberal Politics and Equality
      TNG the late 1980's We are getting use to this new technology cold war is ending. We are benefiting from the Liberal Politics of the time the US is a massive superpower.
      DS9 1990's We are seeing a lot of this technology not panning out as well as we hoped, post Cold War, we are seeing various threats sparking up. Rise in religious extremism, and the effect of actions from the cold war are becoming apparent.
      Voy Late 1990's A period of a strong economy, and a renewed push towards technology (The Tech Boom)
      Ent Early 2000's There was an optimistic push towards the future, until 9/11 then we realize all these small powers are a bigger problem than we thought.

      Picard 2020's A lot of countries are isolating themselves from the world, and finding way to abandon those who are in need, because they are others. A rise in ractionary and religious activity. As from the 9/11 era we have learned to fear these people as dangerous.

      There is a lot of complaints that Picard is too different then TNG. However the world had changed that much sense TNG has aired.
       

      • by UnknownSoldier ( 67820 ) on Thursday March 26, 2020 @11:26AM (#59873674)

        > Why should I base my opinion on some random YouTube reviewer

        LOL. RedLetterMedia is NOT just "some random YouTuber".

        1. They aren't hacks like CinemaSins. RLM has a history of discussing pacing, character development, themes, what is innovative, what isn't by listing similarities to other movies, what they liked, what they didn't, etc. across a WIDE range of movies -- good and bad. Their "re:View" episodes tend to focus on older crappy movies while their Half-in-the-Bag focuses more on mainstream stuff.

        2. They are famous for the quality of their analysis. Their Mr Plinkett's Star Wars: The Phantom Menace Review [youtube.com] showed that they truly understand the medium at a far greater level then paid movie reviewer shills. Plus, Mike is a HUGE Star Trek nerd -- the running gag is that almost every episode he starts talking about Star Trek.

        > Trek has always been a commentary of the times

        That is very true.

        However, that is NOT the issue with STP -- one of the biggest issue being it has turned into "dumb action schlock".

        • RedLetterMedia IS a random youtuber. I'm supposed to be impressed with him because internet rubes find him interesting? That's like saying McDonald's is the world's best restaurant because they sold billions of hamburgers.

          • Quantity != Quality.

            If you had actually watched RedLetterMedia reviews of your favorite movies you would understand why they aren't just some random YouTubers.

            > I'm supposed to be impressed with him

            RedLetterMedia consists of THREE people: Rich, Mike, and Jay. Who are you referring to??

            They AREN'T one guy ranting, like MauLer, how shit Star Wars is -- who ironically has a great reviews of:

            * A Critique of Star Wars: The Last Jedi - Part 1 [youtube.com]

            and Game of Thrones

            * S8E3 [youtube.com]
            * S8E4 [youtube.com]
            * S8E5 [youtube.com]

            • What purpose if there to watch someone else review my favorite movies? I know I like them. If others feel differently that's perfectly alright.

        • There were a LOT of Flaws in Red Letter Media review on Picard. A lot of selected forgetting of facts to back their argument.
          One of the points is how in Star Trek Picard, Picard is now comfortable and good with children. Season 1 of TNG he was very uncomfortable with children, however over the seasons he becomes more accustomed and better with children. It stands to figure that his time on the Enterprise-D had made him far more comfortable with children, then nearly 30 years later he would just get better

          • > I tend to watch the reviews after I have watched the show.

            I also found that to be generally the best way to watch reviewers as well. Form my own opinion and THEN see what else I missed -- along with "Was it just me or did scene / character / plot really suck?"

            However, sometimes things are SO shit they aren't even worth watching nor pirating: Star Trek: Picard, Ghostbusters (2016), etc.

            > There isn't really a perfect show

            I don't think anyone is expecting that. We just want a certain bar of quality t

    • I like it (Score:2, Insightful)

      by glitch! ( 57276 )

      I don't really care what some reviewer thinks. I like it.

      I think the writing is fresh. I like watching new episodes where I really don't know what happens next.

      My vote: The writers and actors did a good job. Recommended.

      • Comment removed based on user account deletion
      • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

        Agree 100%.

        ...and FWIW, all my friends posting on the socials agree. Picard's the best Star Trek in decades.

        So yeah there are some continuity issues. So what? To expect perfect continuity across 50+ years, eight TV series and a dozen movies is ridiculous.

        Trek changes with the times.
        • Yep, agree completely. I watch Star Trek because it fuels my imagination. If you don't like it, don't watch it. You could always go watch your Marvel universe crap instead.
        • best Star Trek in decades

          if you only look at the last two decades you have Discovery, Enterprise, and Kelvin universe movies. Against Enterprise it's debatable, but the others that's not saying much.

          If they haven't already your friends should check out The Orville which is moving from Fox to Hulu. It captures the STNG vibe and has many ST alumni cameos, as well with Johnathon Franks even directing two of the episodes so far.

          It mostly weekly episodic with some over arching season long story lines. It also ex

        • by nomadic ( 141991 )

          Picard is excellent.

    • by Ecuador ( 740021 ) on Thursday March 26, 2020 @11:09AM (#59873608) Homepage

      That's not very helpful to people who can't watch hours of reviews (from the people who brought you the excellent Episode 1 review though).
      And Enterprise was actually getting good by the time it was cancelled.

      My take having seen all but the last episode:

      As a huge fan of TNG and the Picard character (along with Data and Q as my favourites) it is kind of a let-down. And it has ups and downs, it starts ok, goes really bad, gets back to ok. My main points:
      - It looks nothing like the Star Trek I love, it's a bit like a different universe altogether. Sure Starfleet and thus the Federation being not Starfleet is an actual plot point, but it also seems like things like physics have changed (crazy animation when on warp speed, like some sort of hyperspace).
      - Patrick Steward is way too old for this shit. Respect him and keep the Picard character similar to what he was instead of having him run around in silly action sequences, including one with an eyepatch no less! And have that lady stop calling him "J.L.", that's so out of character.
      - Best moments when we get to see familiar faces, mostly of the Borg persuasion.
      - You can feel there are so many lost opportunities while you watch it.
      I probably don't hate it as much as the first season of discovery, that Michael character was definitely worse than the dark-haired Romulan Legolas & company we get on Picard. If you are a star trek fan, you have or you will watch it, because there's not much new trek going on. If you are not a Star Trek fan, watch something like the Expanse instead, much better sci-fi.

      • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

        Warp speed looking different is canon. Don't criticise it for not being canon if you don't know what canon is.

        In the TOS era warp speed looked different and they used a different scale. The Enterprise was capable of at least warp 14.

        By the TNG era it had changed. New effect, new scale with 10 as the maximum. Well, 10 was supposed to be infinite speed, it was never clear how that was supposed to work. In one particularly bad Voyager episode they actually reached warp 10.

        Anyway, Voyager was capable of warp 9.

    • by mykepredko ( 40154 ) on Thursday March 26, 2020 @11:11AM (#59873620) Homepage

      I've watched it simply because it's free here in Canada to people with Crave. I would have been some mad if I had to pay to watch it.

      It's not totally terrible - the costumes and props are very realistic (my homage to "Ed Wood") and I liked hearing Picard told to "Shut the fuck up".

      More seriously, the series would be a lot more watchable if it was reduced to 3-4 (or even 6) episodes from the current ten. I didn't need to see whole episodes worth of time showing:
      - What life is like on a derelict Borg cube
      - What life is like on a Romulan relocation/refuge planet
      - What life is like on Picard's farm ('way too much time spent here)
      - What retired life is like for Riker and Troi
      - The politics of Starfleet after Picard becomes disillusioned with it
      - How technology has changed since TNG (I feel like a lot gets lost with the need to show off floating starship controls)

      Most of the new characters are "Meh" at best, although I do like Michelle Hurd's "Raffi".

      Why did they have to put in the plot line that Picard has an incurable brain something? Now that I see that there's going to be a second season - does this mean that the new season will be his quest for a cure.

      Personally, I've never been a big fan of Michael Chabon's writing - I always wonder how many people who say he's great have actually read his books.

      The only reason to watch Picard is if you are stuck in the house because there's a raging epidemic going on - oh, wait.

      • I like the relaxed pace.

        As for the brain problem, the whole plot of the show is based around synthetic beings. I think the show's opening credits showing Picard having pieces return to his body or face is a huge bit of foreshadowing.
      • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

        Picard's brain problem was from the TNG era, and if they had ignored it then it would have been a big plot hole.

        Spoiler alert. In the end it mirrored Data's sacrifice nicely. They also gave Data a proper send-off while still leaving the door open for Brent Spiner to play more roles as either a human or as B4.

    • by Kjella ( 173770 ) on Thursday March 26, 2020 @11:45AM (#59873742) Homepage

      You know it's bad when Picard is a sidekick in his own show!

      The guy is almost 80 years old, if he walked back out on the bridge of the Enterprise again in an admiral's uniform as the big boss of everything it'd just be ridiculous. At that age he's either retired or riding a desk, not commanding a spaceship. He can't be in combat, not all the plot armor in the world would make that seem plausible. It would look like when Yoda went all ninja in Star Wars and it was... not good. You can always disagree on the plot, but Picard's role here is to set things in motion and to bridge old and new storylines. He's doing both well, I guess that's why you think it needs more of him. But really the show has enough Picard, what it needs is for the other characters to step it up and become more interesting.

      • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

        Even back in TNG Picard was mostly not an action hero. Standard protocol was for the captain not to be on away missions like Kirk was. His role was usually to inspire and motivate other people to do their best and live up to the highest standards of the Federation. When he got involved directly it was usually in an ambassadorial role.

    • I hadnt been watching, but if Slashdot disapproves of it this strongly Im definitely going to have to check it out.

  • by ackerrj ( 1136479 ) on Thursday March 26, 2020 @10:18AM (#59873476)
    Free, but STILL REQUIRES A CREDIT CARD. So, dont forget to cancel.
  • by leonbev ( 111395 ) on Thursday March 26, 2020 @11:04AM (#59873586) Journal

    I figured that I'd use/abuse this free trial period to binge watch the first season of Star Trek Picard and then cancel it, but honestly isn't really not as good as I was expecting it to be.

    Just like Star Trek: Discovery, it feels more like a CBS primetime drama than a science fiction show. After watching the first five episodes of Picard, I felt like I was watching "CSI: Future Space Land". Honestly, The Orville feels more like classic Star Trek/Star Trek TNG than either of these CBS "Star Trek" shows do.

    I certainly couldn't imagine paying for this, that's for sure.

    • by hey! ( 33014 )

      The promise of a pop culture franchise is an inherently empty one: an endlessly repeatable experience.

      The same experience over and over again is not the same as having that experience the first time. I watched the Orville for a season, and was amused, but ultimately bored simply because it was the same old thing.

      ST:Picard is an attempt at exploring Star Trek themes in a streaming format; one which leans more heavily on season-long story arcs which have stakes for the characters.

      The main problem I have with

    • _The Orville_ has 70% hit, 30% miss, but it is still at least twice as good as STD and STP. I've come to the conclusion that the Burnham character in STD is just a disastrous amalgamation of Star Trek personalities that it is impossible to act it convincingly in any manner. Picard's character in STP is just such a pantywaist clone of the original character it is ridiculous. It rings more like a "the universe is the priest and I'm watching his universal confessional". It's such a sharp turn in personalit
    • Agreed. I think if they tried to recreate TNG, it would be a complete failure. They knew they had to go in another direction. I think the overall plot could still work, but there were so many moments that just felt... imposterish. Like Picard had lost the core of what made him Picard.

      Orville is a love letter to TNG and you can tell the people running it are true fans. It's really excellent if you can get through a few episodes to warm yourself up to the veneer of Seth MacFarlane's humor.

      • by hawk ( 1151 )

        Orville is not so much any of the spinoffs, but *actual* Star Trek. (OK, the first few episodes of the first season of the first spinoff were still Star Trekish).

        The premise seems to be, "Suppose not just Captain Kirk, but the entire clue were incompetent . . ."

        hawk

      • by Kjella ( 173770 ) on Thursday March 26, 2020 @12:14PM (#59873830) Homepage

        I think the overall plot could still work, but there were so many moments that just felt... imposterish. Like Picard had lost the core of what made him Picard.

        He wanted [cinemablend.com] that:

        I asked to meet them all again and at the second meeting, I had specific terms and conditions that I said would allow me to think about reviving this world. Much of it was about what the world would be that you were going back to. I referenced X-Men and particularly the final movie that Hugh Jackman and myself did, Logan, as [to] what I had in mind. Logan was nothing like any of the other X-Men movies that had come before. It was very, very different. The world had changed. And so, I challenged Alex Kurtzman and Akiva Goldsman to come up with ideas for a completely different world than the one that we had known 17 or 18 years earlier.

        This is not TNG's Picard. This is not TNG's Starfleet. But Star Trek has done darker stuff too like DS9 and done it well. Compared to the timeline reboot this is at least a lot smoother.

  • DRM (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Mononymous ( 6156676 ) on Thursday March 26, 2020 @11:11AM (#59873616)

    I know Netflix works in Firefox on Linux, and I've heard that Disney+ doesn't.
    How about CBS All Access? There's no point in giving them a credit card number if I can't watch.

    • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

      by ajboyle ( 547708 )
      All of the above work in Linux on Chrome. Disney+ didn't work for the first week or so, but they fixed it. All of the major streaming platforms work for me. (I'm on Fedora 31.)
      • >"All of the above work in Linux on Chrome. "

        If it doesn't work under Firefox, I consider it "broken" and won't bother pursuing it.

    • by theCoder ( 23772 )

      Just a point of information (not an advertisement), Amazon Prime video does work with Firefox on Linux, at least on x86 (IIRC, it uses an encrypted media extension for DRM).

  • Good grief I've seen so much damnable bitching about this show it makes my eyes itch.

    Fuck the haters. I'm enjoying it. Will you as well? Who knows! I don't care! But you definitely shouldn't take anyone else's word for it.
    • There were kids who said they liked Jar-Jar too.

      Sorry, I'm already fully informed of it being a turd train wreck after watching the trailer.
      If it being a re-use of the same "i.p." wasn't a big enough warning sign the size of the moon from three miles away already.

  • >"Jean-Luc Picard himself (okay, Partick Stewart) revealed ViacomCBS would make it around the time of the show's finale." In other words, ViacomCBS is just trying to boost the finale's ratings.
  • Seriously: It's dead, Jim. Leave it be!

    Star Trek died somewhere between the end of VOY and ENT. Star Wars died with Episode 1.
    Hell, Stargate died at the end of SG1, then died again at the end of Andromeda. And thank fuck they haven't revived Babylon 5 yet!

    Just come up with something *actually new* for a change, you pathetic leeches! We used to do that in the last millennium, you know?

  • I will binge watch it when they release the season three finale.
  • From everything I've heard, that's still way too steep a price just to watch Picard.
  • You will need a month since the plot moves so slowly. It should be titled "Star Trek: Molasses."

  • He can't act. Watch his work one after another. Like Jim Carry, he plays himself. Yes, he *can* act with a good part, selected specifically for him. But he doesn't He rides the wave of his voice + a pompous delivery.
  • Seriously, why would we want to watch CBS?

Understanding is always the understanding of a smaller problem in relation to a bigger problem. -- P.D. Ouspensky

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