Spoilers ALL of season 2 online NOW in French!!

OK, just checking...

 

High praise here: https://x.com/SparksF1/status/1772455265507389546?s=20

Not seen one negative or even neutral assessment yet.

 

Memes predate civilization.

The word was coined by British evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins in The Selfish Gene (1976) as a concept for discussion of evolutionary principles in explaining the spread of ideas and cultural phenomena. Examples of memes given in Dawkins' book include melodies, catchphrases, fashion, and the technology of building arches.​

~ Wikipedia

 

Concerning.

 

Why? Maybe it's just that good.

 

Or maybe the people most likely to seek out an early release are just ones who really liked season 1 and are already more likely to review it favorably.

 

There is nothing "just that good."

It makes me feel like smoke is being blown up my kilt.

 

Of course, the people who watched this and commented on it online are either French fans of the serie or star trek fans in general who went to the trouble of seeking it out in French. They are not representative of the general public, much of which isn't interested in star trek nor talks online about random TV series (widely popularTV excepted, perhaps)..

Still, those people who did react have not been disappointed, which is great for those who also are fans of the first season, like most of us here. Moreover, 2 episodes as good as "time amok" probably strikes a cord with quite a few here.

There are star trek series that got a far less positive response for their second season- in the fan bubble - than this is (so far) getting.

 

I'd be happy if the two crews had plot armor that protected them from this Picard mess. lol

 

I love S2 and everything they did with it, but if I had to turn a critical eye to it... well, it IS still a kids show so the morality is fairly black and white. But some could argue that's a selling point if they're tired of everyone being shades of gray all the time.

Also because it's a kids show there are also moments that are, for the lack of a better word, silly. Like in a Lower Decks episode, it would be explicitly played for laughs, but in Prodigy it's still funny but the characters aren't aware that it's funny.

But I'm really hard pressed to come up with any criticisms. The characters, storytelling, use of Star Trek, it's all excellent - kids show or not - which is why I am willing to say it's the best of the new shows and arguably better than (or at least equal to) TNG in my personal rankings.

If I have any overall criticisms, it would be the first 10 episodes of the series, but taken as a 40 episode story, those 10 episodes and Dal being extremely "shounen" (like Luffy from One Piece, for lack of a better comparison) are needed to show the growth of the characters and where they end up by episode 40.

Now that I think about it, I would almost argue that these 40 episodes are Babylon 5 S3+S4 tier. But maybe that IS hyperbole. lol

 

Interesting. I suppose that speaks for itself, and I'm sure it sounds cynical but I am hard pressed to say "this is perfect." I wouldn't say that about TOS, or Star Wars, or other things I'm really strong feeling about.

 

I love Lower Decks and SNW, but there are tiny nitpicks I have with each.

Admittedly, binging Prodigy S2 led to a different experience and I remember having nitpicks of S1P1 (beyond Dal being annoying), so that undoubtedly colours my reaction to the show. If I had to spread this season out over 20 weeks and had time to think about each episode for 7 days before the next one, it's possible I could find similar issues.

Maybe they'll appear when I watch it again whenever the English dub comes out, but as is, I think it really is that good. It does the Trek fan service and connections really well, it has a nice spread of episodic and serialized content where the episodic stories make sense in the context of the larger story... it really does fix both Voyager and some aspects of Picard for me and if nothing else I consider it the official ending for Voyager now.

But also it's all subjective and what I look for in Star Trek or TV could be different from what you enjoy. I'm in the minority for hating Picard S3, for example.

 

Well, I don't hate it but I don't love it either. So you might be closer to me in tastes than you think.

 

If I had to pick things I didn't like that much, it would be the fight scenes between Gwyn and Ascencia, and her general villainous villain-ness.

The Doc has at least 3 bonesisms this season

 

Yeah, that's what I mean when I say the moralism is written for children. But also I can accept that kids may not vibe with Dukat or Weyoun.

 

I have not watched season two but, in general, I’m fine with black and white morality (especially in a kid’s show). What I’m not fine with is villains who get up every morning and go “Let’s be villainous!” They’ve given Asencia enough of a reason to be single-minded and overzealous in her pursuit of what she thinks is right that I can buy that she gets up every morning and thinks “Let’s save Solum!” and then proceeds to be villainous.

 

I never understood the objection to villains being villainous. People are not always going to be kind, altruistic or empathetic. These are not automatic human traits, but cultivated through social experiences and learning and guidance from adults. If one is taught from early on to bury emotions and needs, to be extremely pragmatic, and treat other people as means to end. I think the best example I've seen in media of late is Toba Yu in the Chinese period drama "The Princess Weiyoung." He had a traumatic event early on and became deeply pragmatic, to the point of possible antisocial personality disorder. But, he could be generous to people if they served a purpose for him.

To us, that's villainous. To him, that was normal.

 

You do understand quality of a product was not a factor in why Paramount + decided to drop programming. It's a business. Meaning its almost certainly based on if large enough audience was watching it to keep it.

Since the released it, its only logical to assume not enough were.

That the amount they have to spend to air it (even if its under the same umbrella they still have to pony up money for its airing), is either not worth it for the eye balls that per their metrics subscribed for that program. Or that the fees generated from another source was the better option.

Generally I think it's likely that both options are accurate. The reason I don't think it's solely the amount they can earn from another broadcaster is that they didn't have a deal up when they announced the removal. And that to date to other Trek production has been green lite that is financed from outside of Paramount itself.

So making a decision that it makes no sense for Paramount to drop it when we are party to the actually financial aspect to the creation, and airing of the show versus new sign up s for subscriptions (or even those who list in it the surveys that Paramount Plus has done about what shows drive your viewing interest) isn't logical.

 

Excuse me.

There is absolutely no requirement in existence that programming must be released universally at one set time.

There are people even to this day that have to wait years to get a release of program that they like versus various other parts of the world.

Any broadcaster, any platform release only concern is serving their audience. Not a global one.

 

VPNs (and region-free players) make everything available to everyone. More people should use them but many don't because they think they're hard to use despite being extremely simple. They also cost just a few dollars a month and some are even free. They're completely legal, as well.

This release is unusual for not including the original audio, subtitles, nor even French subtitles which could be machine translated...

...at least on France.TV; does anyone know if the paid providers (iTunes, Canal...) have subtitles? None have the original audio, apparently.