The show just keeps stepping it up. This was a joyous adventure full of fun and making full use of the characters. Ethan Peck is bringing so many good things to his portrayal of Spock. Pike's pirate excursion was delightful and I'm becoming genuinely heartbroken for how Chapel's feelings are being thrown around.
The real star here turned out to be Jesse James Keitel who absolutely slayed it, creating a character that I am super eager to see return. Slightly less impressive was the pirate Remy who felt like he was there only for joke purposes. Still fun though, especially as we got to see Pike in armoured apron.
And wow, that ending twist! I didn't even realise how much I wanted that until it happened.
Keep doing what you're doing, Strange New Worlds. This is so much fun. I just wish we were getting more Hemmer.
One thing I really appreciate about this show is the way that scenes dig in. So many shows will let a scene get interesting and then cut away to something else. Mindhunter lets them continue and the results are mesmerising.
We're at a point here where a number of different plot threads have begun jockeying for attention, all gripping, but the show gives all of them room to breathe.
I thought this one was great fun. The actors here really made the characters work with their comedic timing, and the animation was just beautiful throughout. I have to also give credit to how great the backgrounds and environments were, overflowing with detail (definitely got a The Last of Us vibe at times). The climate change message wasn't exactly subtle, but that doesn't mean it's not needed.
I also love cats, so this worked for me.
This was glorious. The stunning stylised 3D art reminded me of the sort of thing seen in Telltale games (and, oddly enough, old LucasArts adventures like Full Throttle), but obviously much more detailed. And so colourful! Visually this just ticked all the right boxes for me. The story itself was exciting and felt pretty unique (farmers with mechs battling giant insect aliens) and allowed for defined characters to come through despite the short run time.
That was surely one of the Star Trekkiest episodes that ever Star Trekked. I could easily picture this being a TNG story. Hard hitting, tough, highly watchable. Pike's hair continues to impress.
An absolutely wonderful beginning. All the spirit of classic Trek, characters that are vibrant, a sense of fun and adventure, and it brings up relevant modern issues like Trek always has. I can't wait to see where we go from here. Anson Mount and Ethan Peck are just brilliant in their roles as we already knew, but the new cast seem to fit immediately too. Celia Rose Gooding in particular captured the vibe of Uhura very well, even though we saw so little of her. And that was a nice little surprise with the Lieutenant at the end.
Woah, this already dark show just became insanely dark. What the hell is up with Brian?
Incredibly compelling stuff that forced me to question a lot. Started off fun with Holden attempting to teach children, and ended with a pretty bad taste in my mouth. A lot of resentment going round here. Also, damn you Patrick and Debbie.
That sure fizzled out at the end. Dramatic and exciting in parts, but I'm not sure that any of it made a bit of sense. Remember when these guys used to solve crimes?
That was pretty great. Visually very strong, I especially liked the space craft designs. I assume the character work was all done with mo-cap which is still something that never feels quite natural, but the performances helped. In particular, Greta's face was an incredible piece of work, extremely lifelike - meanwhile, the other characters suffered from the uncanny valley effect. However, the performance for Suzy was all a bit offputting in an unnatural way.
I enjoyed the story quite a bit, pretty scary stuff once the reveal comes so it's probably for the best that Thom's memory is erased.
Exquisite visuals and decent animation (mostly for the creatures, less so for the people). I had no idea this was based on a Peter F. Hamilton short story. The voice acting let it down for me, the extreme Essex accents didn't seem quite natural to my ears. The beastie fight made up for it, that was pretty exciting to watch. However, the crude dialogue throughout this short really got in the way of things, too - I think one character swore with every single sentence and that lent a juvenile air to everything.
Just because you can include adult content doesn't mean you have to.
Pleasantly surprised by this. Of course, having David Fincher's name attached generally ensure a certain level of quality, but I went into this expecting a traditional dark story about stopping a serial killer along the lines of Se7en or Zodiac. I'm delighted to find that it's something quite different, with a strong focus on the educational side of criminal psychology.
Television is getting closer and closer to film quality in terms of visuals, and this is joining the ranks of Stranger Things and Star Trek: Discovery in terms of cinematography.
Holden is an interesting and appealing characters immediately. He's such an outsider, almost oblivious to how out-of-place he is. He also seems somewhat fearless and more than slightly obsessive about his work, so right now it's hard to figure him out. I just know that I like him.
I'm also sensing a potential for some humourous moments with the pairing up of Ford and Tench, who obviously have very different perspectives on what they're doing. This could almost be compared to a modern retelling of The X-Files, just with horrific murders in place of supernatural events.
That was 45 minutes of pure Star Wars joy. I can't fault a single thing about it. Excellent character work, deep lore exploration and stunning visuals. Glorious.
I didn't follow this very well, and yet I feel like I'm super into it.
Yep, I've forgotten this one already.
It's kind of insulting that the show, often derided for its use of the reset button and lack of consequences, makes an episode in which the characters literally forget it ever happens. I also find it ridiculous that Voyager doesn't have any kind of basic security cameras or way of verifying that Kellin was ever on board. I get that there's a virus to destroy all traces of her presence, but it's a massive oversight.
Also, I thought we were told that transporter technology won't work on her species? Whatever. I wasn't paying that much attention - there was paint drying on the wall next to me.
This episode is rightly lauded as one of the best of the entire franchise. It's emotional, powerful and thoughtful and exemplifies exactly what the show is about. But, and I am frustrated with myself for saying this, I don't really love it all that much. This could be a product of having seen it a bit too often, or having it always rammed down my throat as BEST TREK EVAH!1!!
I get it, it IS quite wonderful, but I've always found it to highlight The Next Generation's inherent weakness, and that is that the episodic nature of the show. This is an episode that absolutely demanded to have repercussions for Picard as a character, and there are absolutely none. It should have utterly changed him as a person. The fact that this is such a self-contained episode makes it lose its power somewhat for me. Much in the same way that Worf is completely fine following 'Ethics' or that Riker falls in love but has forgotten all about it after 'The Outcast', TNG tells fantastic stories that you can dip in and out of at any time but so rarely rewards the viewer for watching.
Went in knowing next to nothing about this, and pretty much loved it. Engaging story with good characters, and a flawless performance from Jennifer Lawrence.
A frustratingly slow opening. It sets up a mystery but really takes its time and feels like it has a few too many characters right now. Nobody seems very friendly, either. I hope it gets more interesting and we'll actually be given answers.
This did not go in the direction I was expecting! I'm not a fan of anime or the art style used here, but for this story it worked very well and the two main characters were developed well in the short time allowed.
Really enjoyed this one, here's my random thoughts...
Took a while to get going, but the second half was fantastic. Visually very impressive. The family don't actually seem all that warm to each other, at least in regards to the father. I'm never really a fan of flashbacks to periodically fill out the backstory (eg., Lost), but it looks like that's the way this will do things. Obviously there's lots to John and Maureen's marriage to be explored this way.
The ending and subsequent introduction of Dr. Smith was brilliant.
This is absolutely brutal for television made in 1991, and even today I was unprepared for it.
There was enough here to hook me in to continue watching. It suffers from the tired YA tropes and some truly awful exposition in the dialogue, but I like the characters and most of the actors seem decent. Not easy to understand much of what was going on but it settled down. There's a lot of room for improvement, but it already feels head and shoulders above the other Netflix teenage fantasy shows.
I found that I couldn't take the name Pekka seriously.
[7.5/10] Laris. Laris is my favourite character. "Cheeky feckers!"
We are being given a slow burn mystery and I'm all up for it. Outside of the flashback to the Mars disaster that started the episode, there wasn't a single action scene for 40 odd minutes here; instead we were treated to conversations and a clash of personalities across the characters. Patrick Stewart is terrific but so are the actors facing off against him. This is diving into some deep back story from the show's history of Data, artificial intelligence, Romulans and the Borg.
At times the tecnhobabble went a bit too far, but doesn't that make for classic Star Trek? I'm also glad to see that the tradition of high ranking Starfleet personnel being total assholes is still intact.
I wonder if Picard's mysterious illness is the potential neurological disorder that we first learned of back in the TNG finale (in that timeline he contracted Irumodic Syndrome).
Pretty mediocre and super short with very little purpose behind it, but the narration by Maurice LaMarche is top notch and helps make this funnier than it actually is. It's a shame that it was over before it actually got anywhere. I did like the visual style quite a lot.
Certainly a compelling episode with a strong core, but it's flawed in that it's impossible to like Alixus in any way (despite the strong performance of the actress) or feel any sympathy for her decisions. Her behaviour is reprehensible, and the ending in which the community actually expresses some degree of gratitude for what she did just leaves a bad taste in my mouth. She's a cult leader who doles out punishment, is directly responsible for people's deaths and has everyone wrapped around her finger and thrives on it - in that respect, she's a realistic character. The ending just goes a bit too far towards trying to justify it.
Definitely an episode that gets me invested and quite angry, but can't be considered a classic due to the writing just going a bit in the wrong direction. The community of survivors should be furious. However, Sisko is absolutely AWESOME here.
I seem to have questions about the scene with June and Moira in the subway: why did they let themselves get separated like that? Why didn't one of them say "oh, I'm with my aunt / she's with me" ? Why didn't Moira call her over?
Absolutely beautiful. At the time, Trek was able to do stories that other shows couldn't (in today's TV landscape that's far less true) and this is a prime example. It works so well because Hallie Todd's adorable child-like performance, and Brent Spiner being able to play off that so well. Picard gets a great scene standing up to the Admiral, too.
Certainly made me cry, and laugh a lot at Riker's brief scene.
Major's selfies were absolute gold.
The lack of Blaine was heavily felt here, but it's great to see Clive get the character development we've been waiting for.
There's the occasional good episode in here, but this first season borders on unwatchable at times and shows no hint of the ambition and storytelling that would come later. Very basic plots, and the characters are simplistic.
The voice actors all do good jobs though, and while the animation isn't as good as it will later get the visuals are still strong. The Clone characters are the most interesting even at this stage, but they aren't quite being given enough to do.
At the end of the day it's a kids show and a lot of this is forgivable with that mindset.