Star Trek: Prodigy Season 2 Releases Early In France

AmiMoJo writes: In a major surprise, all twenty episodes of the second season of the animated series 'Star Trek: Prodigy' have suddenly been made available in France thanks to broadcaster France Televisions.

According to TrekCentral it seems France.TV, the online streaming service for the national public broadcaster, has released the entirety of the second season all at once and without any prior warning or announcement.

This has led to questions online as to how this happened. Paramount+ unexpectedly canceled the series in June last year -- even as a second season had almost finished production and was completed shortly after. It took numerous fan campaigns and social media protests but ultimately Netflix picked up both completed seasons in October 2023. The streamer has confirmed the twenty episode second season will arrive this year but hasn't set a specific date as yet.

Today's unexpected release in France has many wondering if this a mistake, or is this the result of a specific licensing deal with that country and distributor. Either way, spoilers for the new season are already flooding online along with a lot of people calling for fans to wait for the official release and support the creators.

Whether intentional or not, it's not clear if Netflix will shift its release strategy for the new season in the wake of this.

Kids Show

[TwistedGreen]

Well it's for kids so who cares? Kids don't follow press releases. They just watch whatever is next in their Netflix feed.

Or is this one of those manbaby shows that true nerds care passionately about? Personally I've never seen it, and have no interest in it, despite being a Star Trek fan.

Re:

[93 Escort Wagon]

I think it's "news" because it's one of the shows that got cancelled and supposedly removed everywhere.

Or am I thinking of something else?

Re:

[AmiMoJo]

It's a weird one. They had almost finished work on season 2, in post-production. Then they suddenly cancelled it.

The way it works now is that the studio that produced it under licence can sell it to other networks, so they managed to get Netflix to pick it up. Really glad they did because it's great. Hopefully it does well and gets renewed.

Re:

[sg_oneill]

Its surprisingly watchable as an adult. Like, yeah its a kids show, but it seems to treat the audience as intelligent enough to follow a decent storyline, and the plot in the last season was a banger.

It *does* feel a little like its following a similar but slightly updated visual code to clone wars (I was half expecting the villain to pull out a red light sabre) but thats not necessarily a bad thing. Clone wars visual style was quite watchable.

Yeah I think its a winner. Actually between that and Lower Decks

Re:

[Baron_Yam]

Lower Decks is fun and yet takes itself seriously enough to be watchable for an adult. Watching the actors do a live action crossover with Strange New Worlds was awesome.

Strange New Worlds is the first Trek show since the original series to truly follow in the spirit of the original. It neither takes itself too seriously nor engages in excessive writing shortcuts via technobabble. I can't wait for the next season.

But Picard? I had so much hope for it, but season 1 was a bad reskin of Mass Effect. It ha

Re:

[Baron_Yam]

It's a kids' Star Trek show... Maybe tween-age. This will not stop adult Trek fans from obsessing over it.

Re:

[JoshuaZ]

The show was entertaining. It was not as good as Next Gent or DS9 as its height, and a few parts felt more Star Wars than Star Trek, but overall it is very well done. One should not skip it just because it is labeled as a kids-show. I suggest giving it at least the first few episodes.

Re:

[AmiMoJo]

Prodigy season 1 is one of the best seasons of Star Trek ever produced. While I'm not really into ranking shows, it's up there as one of the best, easily the equal of TNG and even DS9 at their best.

It boils down the essence of what it means to be Starfleet, and gives a new perspective on it. Often in Trek they talk about the principles of being a Starfleet officer, but then fail to show what they mean on a personal level, how they help someone grow into a better person, and cope with the challenges they are

Re:

[jythie]

It was also a really good solution to the 'how do you introduce people who are unfamiliar with a long running franchise?' New viewers learning as the characters do, its a great way of introducing a pretty overwhelming universe at this point.

Re:

[TwistedGreen]

Really? It's actually good? Didn't expect that. I thought they were just trying to rip off Star Wars: The Clone Wars so I immediately dismissed it.

Re: Kids Show

[LindleyF]

Clone Wars also ended up great by the end, although it took a while to find its voice.

Re:

[Brian Kendig]

Prodigy is an excellent story ... with a caveat. Just like Star Trek: Discovery, the first few episodes are difficult to watch and have turned a lot of people away from the series before it gets great.

It answers the question "what if you put a Star Wars character into a Star Trek universe?" So it opens with a hotshot kid who bends all the rules so he can escape the mining colony where he's held prisoner. And he thinks he can do everything himself, and that he's cool and awesome. He's insufferable and all th

Re: Kids Show

[LindleyF]

You miss out on a lot of fun stuff with that attitude. Prodigy is to Voyager as Lower Decks is to TNG.

Re:

[TwistedGreen]

Sign me up for the lobotomy, then! Fun fun fun!

Re:

[Junta]

I don't know about this show in particular, but often making a show "kid friendly" isn't too bad.

A lot of "this is for adults" programming is exhausting, it wants to be edgy, it wants to be dark, it wants to lean in too much on gore or tangential sex, and skips on actually having a good core story. Most exhausting of all is that these shows are over the top melodramatic. A good "kids show" has to stand without all that.

Now a bad kids show can be tortuous, but generally if they are aiming for at least 10 ye

Re:

[jythie]

Huh. Sounds pretty manbaby of you.. a sad man baby worried about if the other man babies will see them as adult enough.

Re:

[TwistedGreen]

Isn't that what Slashdot is for? Manbabies trying to impress each other?

Re: Kids Show

[LindleyF]

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=... [youtube.com]

The link

[test321]

https://www.france.tv/enfants/... [france.tv]

To watch, you'll probably need a VPN localizing you in France.

Re:

[www.sorehands.com]

Won't you need to understand French?

Re:

[test321]

For you as an adult that will help make the experience less boring, but not necessarily for your children. They'll try and make sense of what they see.

Re:

[test321]

I'll add that as it is a kids show, it probably includes visual clues (for the younger kids that watch along their older siblings even though they are too young to understand the full details) so everybody in the family can understand the overall meaning.

Re:

[burtosis]

https://www.france.tv/enfants/... [france.tv]

To watch, you'll probably need a VPN localizing you in France.

I think you mean you’ll Very Probably Need a service localizing you in France.

Re:

[BlaF]

You'll also need a universal translator device: this is a French dubbed version only, with no English track available.

Why wait?

[SuperDre]

Why wait? It IS an official release and the creators have been paid for it, otherwise that network wouldn't even be able to show it. So if you don't mind french audiodub (as I don't think it will have an english audio dub) go ahead and watch it.

Thought it said : StarTrek Parody

[thesjaakspoiler]

Bummer.
After the Picard series ended, only junk was released.

Good

[alishakihn]

Hello Neighbor [hello-neighbor.io] is an immersive and suspenseful video game that has captured the attention of players worldwide.