I Tried Again and Still Didn't Like It

[matthunter]

I'm 48, so I grew up watching TOS reruns as a kid and TNG as a teen. But I also grew up with Red Dwarf, which is perhaps closer to the LDS dynamic of a bunch of misfits - though the LDS crew ARE actually highly skilled, just socially awkward or rebellious. RD is, like LDS, a comedy that isn't afraid to poke fun at sci-fi tropes and mine for references - but both also have a lot of heart under the comedy. They tell serious stories, just not in a serious way.

 

[Qonundrum]

I feel that LD was tailor-made for the generation that grew up on Berman-era Trek, which just happened to be the same time period when cartoons got bizarre with Ren & Stimpy and other shows that followed. These two completely different things that we liked as kids are now together at last.
Kor

The funny thing is, as far as individuality audiences go, I couldn't stand Ren & Stimpy and most 90s cartoons. Futurama was great, Simpsons was great, early Family Guy was good (seasons 1 and 2 and maybe the Star Wars parodies that came a decade later), never got into King of the Hill - "meh" rather than "good" or "bad"... after all the 80s cartoons that I puked at, I never expected anything more recent to be good but, as with all things, there are ups and downs - and not in the way that Kryten observes Lister reacting to in all those scenes from "Red Dwarf", but I digress: Haven't seen Rick & Morty year but have been meaning to. If what @Tuskin38 said about LD not feeling like R&M is true, then it's so much the better and shows greater range by the creators - not unlike the folks who makde Simpsons and Futurama, but I digress... LD feels, to me, like "Futurama meets Trek but still feels original, is edgy but in a way that works, and is building on lore while being a tongue-in-cheek homage and parody" that manages to juggle everything so perfectly... that takes some talent...

 

[F. King Daniel]

I couldn't stand the SNW musical episode. I sat through it cos I wanted to keep up with the ongoing plotlines but I was close to using mute and subtitles. It's just not my thing.

Like with Marvel, I have zero interest in She Hulk or Ms Marvel. They're not aimed at me. Musicals aren't aimed at me, either.

Lucky for me, Star Trek in the vein of Futurama is.

 

[Athena28]

I couldn't stand the SNW musical episode. I sat through it cos I wanted to keep up with the ongoing plotlines but I was close to using mute and subtitles. It's just not my thing.

Like with Marvel, I have zero interest in She Hulk or Ms Marvel. They're not aimed at me. Musicals aren't aimed at me, either.

Lucky for me, Star Trek in the vein of Futurama is.

I stopped it. I’ll read a recap to find out what happened.

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

I'm 48, so I grew up watching TOS reruns as a kid and TNG as a teen. But I also grew up with Red Dwarf, which is perhaps closer to the LDS dynamic of a bunch of misfits - though the LDS crew ARE actually highly skilled, just socially awkward or rebellious. RD is, like LDS, a comedy that isn't afraid to poke fun at sci-fi tropes and mine for references - but both also have a lot of heart under the comedy. They tell serious stories, just not in a serious way.

I'm 55, but Chicago PBS never had RD, so I didn't get into that until my 30's. Definitely a similarity there in being sci-fi comedy, and I'd also add Futurama in there. Lower Decks is Star Trek meets Futurama all the way.

 

[flandry84]

I could only take about six episodes of Lower decks.The guy Boimler and the constant screeching...jeezus.

 

[Athena28]

I'm 55, but Chicago PBS never had RD, so I didn't get into that until my 30's. Definitely a similarity there in being sci-fi comedy, and I'd also add Futurama in there. Lower Decks is Star Trek meets Futurama all the way.

I think I’m ok with Futurama bc it’s not Trek.

 

[Starkers]

I'm almost 53 and LD is easily in my top 4 Trek shows. I don't really get the Rick and Morty comparisons. Yeah the first handful of S1 episodes aren't as good as what follows but frankly very few Trek shows hit the ground running (in fact I'd say only TOS and SNW did)

Talking of SNW my only real issue with the musical episode is that the concept's been done to death by now (and Once More with Feeling will always be the high water mark) but I still enjoyed it and I suspect I'll like it more and more with repeat viewings.

LD's biggest strength is that it has heart, but that's just one of a bunch of reasons I love it.

 

[dswynne1]

To the original poster of this thread: don't force yourself to like something, simply because everyone else does. Also, you might not like the show, but you might change your mind later. I didn't really get into ENT until years later, long after the show was canceled. Why? I bought into the hype that prequels were dumb, and that STAR TREK works best with sequels. Now, me thinking that was indeed dumb, because no one should have a herd mentality when it comes to entertainment. You do you because it is your right. That's what make popculture fun.

And btw? I thought, and still think, TMP is the best ST film, even over WOK. Pure sci-fi when compared to the later films, imo.

 

[Athena28]

To the original poster of this thread: don't force yourself to like something, simply because everyone else does. Also, you might not like the show, but you might change your mind later. I didn't really get into ENT until years later, long after the show was canceled. Why? I bought into the hype that prequels were dumb, and that STAR TREK works best with sequels. Now, me thinking that was indeed dumb, because no one should have a herd mentality when it comes to entertainment. You do you because it is your right. That's what make popculture fun.

And btw? I thought, and still think, TMP is the best ST film, even over WOK. Pure sci-fi when compared to the later films, imo.

Maybe you’re right. I’ll try it again in a few years.

 

[ananta]

I have a strange relationship with the show. I utterly hated it at first; and found Mariner possibly the most insufferable characters ever to grace a Trek series. Then I gradually warmed to it. I certainly don’t love it, and I don’t rush to watch new episodes, but I find it tolerable on the whole and even amusing at times. I will flat out refuse to watch another episode featuring Peanut Hamper though. That last one was utterly horrendous by any measure.

 

[Richard S. Ta]

It's okay to not like things. If I don't like a thing, I rarely try again. Why bother when there are other things to try?

Life is short.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

For me, it's the sunk-cost fallacy. I start off liking a show, only for it to go downhill - Game of Thrones, Lost, Heroes, The 100, For All Mankind,... It seems a hell of a wrench to stop watching when you've sunk hours into a series and live in hope that things will get better - but that hardly ever happens. After several such experiences, cutting the cord becomes much easier. These days, it's easy to catch up if things did improve after all. If a show is bad from the start, bailing is super easy, barely an inconvenience.

 

[DonIago]

Good choices there. I got suckered into GoT (though most of the show is really good), was perfectly happy with LOST, but gave up on Heroes partly due to time changes IIRC but partly because yeah, it went off the rails for me. Not familiar with the others.

 

[tomalak301]

I think the range of shows that fall under Trek is becoming so broad now that it's getting increasingly difficult to like all of it. Neither do I think there's any need for that. Just pick what you like.

I agree with this, but how does one break the need to be a completist. Maybe it’s like an addiction at this point. I’m watching because it’s Star Trek and I have to see all of it.

with that said, Lower Decks is definitely not for everyone but I do enjoy it a lot.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

One breaks the need to be a completist by asking who will judge you if you choose not to watch a show or give up watching when the quality declines? It should be no-one but yourself and the choice should be trivially easy. If someone were to judge you, they have a really strange devotion to something that is fundamentally an inconsequential diversion.

 

[Dukhat]

I'm 55, but Chicago PBS never had RD, so I didn't get into that until my 30's. Definitely a similarity there in being sci-fi comedy, and I'd also add Futurama in there. Lower Decks is Star Trek meets Futurama all the way.

I respectfully disagree. Futurama is the show that Lower Decks wants to be but completely fails at doing so.

 

[Australis]

I would say to OP, watch the last couple of eps of S1. If you don't like them, yeah, it's not for you.

 

[Phoenix219]

I started the show hate-watching / nitpicking, but by the end of the first season, it drew so much of the characterization and story arcs together, i was whooping and cheering and loving the show. Now its one of my favorite animated series, and I've gotten people that don't even watch / like Trek enjoying it. I'm a 1980s childhood TOSer, that grew up with and now dislikes TNG, and could really care less about the 24th century in general. Lower Decks and Picard S03 has given me a new appreciation for them. To each their own. (My favorite shows are TOS, SNW, ENT and LDS)

 

[Richard S. Ta]

I respectfully disagree. Futurama is the show that Lower Decks wants to be but completely fails at doing so.

I think the comparison is quite lazy. They are both animated sci-fi comedies, they share a certain aesthetic but beyond that… when you get into what the two shows are actually about there’s not much similarity.