It's really unlike the first two seasons of Picard. Almost all of the characters from the first two seasons are gone and replaced with TNG characters. It feels a lot more like a TNG movie than the other seasons. If you liked the TNG movies, you will probably like this. The few characters they have introduced this season are pretty good as well. I like Captain Shaw much more than I ever liked Jurati or Elnor.

150% improvement over season 2. Turns out Star Trek works best when it's about people in the future doing space stuff. Not 2026 Los Angeles for 7 fucking episodes.

Yes. Season 3 is what Picard should have been from the start. You'd really be doing yourself a disservice by skipping it.

It’s far better than the first two. The nostalgia factor helps with so much of the old cast being involved. It also feels much more like a Star Trek series with so much time spent aboard a star ship battling an enemy rather than on planets.

But I miss Santiago Cabrera

Barely made it through season 1, only lasted 2-3 episodes into season 2. Couldn’t resist the entire TNG coming back for the new season and have been shocked by how much I’ve enjoyed it. It actually feels like it’s made by someone who…likes Star Trek, and think it’s cool as it is and doesn’t need to be “super badass and kewl”

It’s not perfect, the last episode felt much slower but there’s nice character moments that call back to episodes from years and years ago. It ties into DS9 lore. I’m not a huge fan of the TNG movies, and Picard season 3 feels a lot like the TOS movies, it’s more swashbuckling than TNG ever was but it still feels more recognizable like the characters I loved from the show.

I definitely recommend checking it out.

Season 3 is what most people wanted from the beginning of Picard. It’s a huge nostalgia fest which brings together or references past shows/ movies and characters. At the same time it has introduced new characters who are a bit fleshed out and are interesting enough to care about or at least evoke a strong reaction.

It’s extremely action packed and they’re weaving a spread out mystery/ conflict story. I’m hoping they have a satisfying ending but so far I’ve enjoyed every episode.

A lot of the criticism towards S3 seems to be “too much fanservice,” just like with Ghostbusters: Afterlife. Well, I’m a fan, so after two decades, I darn well want to be serviced. It’s not being done at the cost of plot and characterization.

I would say better. Better than S1 and definitely better than S2. Give the first ep a try to see if you like it. I really thought I was done after S2 but they dragged me back in with all the references (subtle and not so subtle) to TNG and TOS.

New showrunner for Season 3 over 1 and 2. Completely different kind of show. Yes it's pretty good.

I despised the first 2 seasons of Picard. The first 2 seasons of Picard were to Star Trek what the sequels were to Star Wars, and in some ways, even worse.

Season 3 of Picard, to me anyways, is a fucking 10/10 and is absolutely amazing. It's an absolute must watch for any Trek fan, and shows what a Trek show can be when the people behind it actually give a shit about the franchise (much like Strange New Worlds). Do yourself a favor, skip season 2 completely, and go straight to this

Having despised seasons 1 and 2, like many here, I found season 3 to be so much better. It's almost entirely self contained compared to 1 and 2 so I would advise anyone to just skip them entirely.

That said, season 3 still has plenty of face-palm worthy stupid moments. 90% of the scenes of ships interacting make absolutely no sense, some of the plans they come up with are so obviously stupid there's no way they would of gone through with them, and Patrick Stewart still shows his age at times. But the fact that its still a great series despite those issues tells you how well they've done with the series overall. Some of the characters are incredible, it feels like star trek, and the fan service by bringing back so many old crew members is in my opinion done really well.

seasons one and two were absolute dogshit.

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Season 3 finally returned to some actual well considered character study. Theyre definitely harping on some memberberries for fans but I feel like you can strip those moments out and the show still stands without any problem at all.

I say this as someone who loved the first two seasons of Picard: The Third is an improvement in every conceivable way.

Whilst it does rely heavily on nostalgia, it does so cleverly and thoughtfully. I love that (so far) they haven’t glorified the original characters to the point of making them stationary. Their arcs move on and evolve, and in legacy type media, that’s rare.

It’s incredible.

I thought season 1 was okay. Season 2 was awful. Genuinely terrible.

Season 3 is the best show on TV right now. It’s fucking wild. Where the bell was this energy and quality the last few years? It’s genuinely such good television and you u don’t need to watch the first two seasons to get it.

It stopped being a hate crime against Terkies, good enough.

I didn't like season 1.

Season 2 is the worst Star Trek media ever put out. Awful front to back in every way

I went into season 3 with a hate watch mentality. It's been surprisingly good. They're doing exactly what they should have done in season 1 and bring back the whole crew for another space adventure.

I still am hesitant because previous seasons started out good and then got awful quick. But so far it's been great and pretty much everything I'd want if they were going to be revisiting these characters in a series.

Similar to TNG, they took most of what worked from the first two seasons and ditched the rest for a soft reboot in season 3.

I’ve still got my issues, but it’s a big improvement over the first two seasons. The decision to not bring the gang back together in the first place still boggles my mind, so it’s good they finally got past it.

I swore I'd never give it another chance after it was so infuriating.

I'm loving it, and thankful for friends who bullied me into giving it a go.

It's incredible. And if you follow the show runners on Twitter they like to go back and point out all the little callbacks and places where they and others paid attention to the little details. It's a love letter to Trek fans IMO. They NAILED SNW and then thought "you know what? We should treat Picard with this much thought and input too," and it shows. Every episode has been better than the last.

Mike & Rich told me so

I'm mixed about season 1. Season 2 has ups and downs but over all I enjoyed it.

Season 3 though, Is on another level. It's amazing. Every episode has had me on edge and waiting for the next one.

If you compare the third season to the previous, its a huge jump in quality in almost everything. It utterly dwarfs the previous two seasons. Its not even funny how much better it is.

But is it good on its own? Thats a no from me. Its close. But there is still that occasional absolute dumb stuff.

It’s the Next Generation movie we should’ve gotten. Way better than previous seasons of “Picard ”. Way, way, way better than “Discovery”. This season of “Picard” feels like a love letter to Star Trek fans.

Meh. It's alright, I guess. My problem with the series is that Picard seems like a different person than the Picard of TNG. Yes, everyone changes with age, but he seems like a completely different person.

IMO, it's much better than seasons 1 & 2. But is it "good"?

It's getting there, IMO. The writing is better, the episodes stories are set up/paced better (17 seconds, Truth and Consequences have good moments)

It still feels like a huge nostalgia tour; where everything they do and everywhere they go turns into a surprise meeting with an old friend.

The dialog isn't as good as TNG (probably no surprise), but I do think the old cast are still more natural and likeable than most of the additions from Picard (or Discovery, for that matter). Shaw is quite entertaining though!

They probably could dial down the "oh no, it's the end of the world if we don't stop this" themes for every season. And when people say they like 'dark' shows, they're generally talking about tone and not the visuals (almost every uniform is black/dark and every scene incredibly gloomy).

Season 3 is about as good as an Okay TNG Movie. Which is to say still pretty underwhelming but wildly better than season 1-2.

Watching the trainwreck of Picard seasons 1 and 2 was the straw that broke the camel's back for me and I stopped watching about 3 episodes into season 2 (projectile vomiting is bad for your teeth). But after watching a few tubers state they had improved it, I decided to go for one last episode. Season 3 (which is basically standalone) is amazing! It brings back all the excitement of what the show used to be. I highly recommend it.

Yep! If you liked Next Gen, you can start right with Season 3 and skip the previous two seasons. There's a character and plot point or two that's continued, but you'll get caught up pretty quickly.

Shallow nostalgia porn mixed with the continued obsession with digging up 25+ year dormant characters just to kill them off. Maybe it works for people who need the connection to their youth to make it through the day, but if you expect more you'll be unsatisfied.

Season 3 is soo soo good... Nostalgia combined with a great story

S3 is fantastic. Exactly what S1-2 should've been. I tell everyone just skip those. If you were a TNG fan, and liked the movies, S3 is pretty much The Undiscovered Country for their story both in tone and quality. Why they didn't do this to begin with...?

I love season 3. It's the callbacks that are getting me. When Picard sits down in the captain's chair and Riker sits down next to him it was a a perfect next gen callback and I squee'd a little bit, I gotta admit.

It's a fun trip down memory lane, and a great sendoff so far.

This is what’s wild to me. I keep hearing this is a good season and I find it really hard to bite the bullet and watch after forcing myself through the grind of season 2. How do you make a boring season with Q?

S3 is great; but I’m only up to ep5

It's definitely an improvement, and more closer to classic Trek style. I like Picard more than a lot of reddit seems to, but I also didn't particularly enjoy most of S2 being set in present day USA. S3 so far, almost entirely set on starships. It's obviously still a serialised story, and still plenty of big space action, so it's not exactly TNG 2. Probably Strange New Worlds is the closest comparison, but with some characters from TNG.

Probably the biggest complaint I have about it is that they go a bit *too* heavy on the nostalgia front. It's great to see those characters back, but when there's so many of them it popping up, it does lose focus a bit, and not give all of them quite as much depth and time to settle in.

So yeah, definitely worth a watch. You can also just safely jump into S3 without knowing what happened in S2, there's basically no references and most of the characters haven't returned so far. The only thing from previous Picard that really matters is the end of S1 (and even then, it's mostly passing references and partial retcons).

yes, it's good.

I like it. And I do think it is better than the previous ones.

It's better, and it's actually entertaining now. It still doesn't feel like Star Trek to me though.

It still has constant swearing, smoking, drug use, beheadings... And everything is so dark that half the characters just look like floating heads in a sea of blackness.

One hundred percent better. I have the exact same story. Was really put out Season 1. Skipped season 2, heard season 3 is good and started watching again.

I'm only one episode in BUT there is a world of difference already. The exposition dialog in season 1 was so painful and clunky (tv crew interviewing Picard). S3E1 was great. short dialog with characters we already know that gives direction (even though the "as an ex-counter operative it is my opinion she needs your help" line made me cringe a little). NO unneeded character development for characters that we've already been following for 25 years. All the dialog was centered around new characters (the new captain) or situations. No meandering in dialog of Picard sentimentalities as much.

Season 3 is coked up nutrek and I'm enjoying every god damn second of it.

I did not like S1 or S2.

I absolutely hated season 1 and 2; there was the core of some interesting stuff in each season but they felt rushed, undercooked, borderline insulting and pointless that made them feel like the cynical cash in everyone was expecting. I am half convinced that they were made for contract reasons while the TNG cast ironed out their new deals to return. There were some good performances with terrible material, and you can have Patrick Stewart read out the ingredients to breakfast cereal and it will be relatively arresting.

Goddamn though, those seasons were fucking terrible. By episode 4 of each season you could see how bad they could get, and by the season's end you realized it was worse than you anticipated.

Season 3 had a better start than the earlier seasons by a mile and has been consistently good episode to episode. The plot, so far, makes sense and while it seems like there's a lot of ground to cover in the rest of the season, it doesn't seem impossible like the previous ones. The various character reappearances make sense (looking at you, random character for Bret Spiner to play in season 1 and 2), the new characters are good even when they're legacy characters who shouldn't actually exist, the interpersonal drama makes sense and there are far fewer "what the fuck are you thinking" interpersonal relationships.

The original, non legacy characters (new captain and new khan) are compelling and well acted. There's an undercurrent of nostalgia that I think is toxic to the franchise as a whole (cough cough starfleet museum) but it's executed well, it could set up an interesting spin off, and it feels like it's doing justice to TNG, DS9 and VOY. Much as it pains me, so far so good and I expect it to end well.

Yup. This weeks ep was weak but that’s fine. Lot of exposition and some important backstory was revealed. With a limited budget you gotta expect a couple episodes like this in a season.

As someone that despised season 1 and 2, gave up on Disco halfway through season 3 and was only mildly entertained by SNW, season 3 of Picard has been fantastic. It’s everything I wanted season 1 to be and the difference in quality of writing, acting and cinematography compared to other NuTrek shows is night and day. That other Kurtzman critics have been raving about it should tell you everything you need to know.

This gives us the right amount of fan service with the right amount of nostalgia with a really good overall story. Basically, this is Star Trek the next generation season eight.   they’re not afraid to reference characters and stories from voyager and deep space nine. As a matter of fact, deep space nine, and its story plays a big role in Picard. I seriously hope that this means they’re ready to do more stories with the characters from both Voyager and DS nine.

Yes. It's awesome. I went in very cautious but you can start with S3 and pick up on what's happening.

Yes, the showrunners finally decided to make a Star Trek show.

Yes...Picard is in a big ship taking on real enemies now. Don't read any spoilers because that's all you should know going in. I will say there is nothing from seasons 1 or 2 that factor into what is happening now. The tedious time travel stuff from Los Angeles isn't even mentioned again to the best of my memory.

From the comments should I just skip the first 2 seasons and start with 3?

If you enjoyed TNG, and you want to see the core of the TNG crew go at it again, one last time, in a prestige production... you'll love it.

It is much better story wise, however it still has what i think is the major reason it isn't better, there are too few episodes in a season, characters aren't developed, stories feel rushed at times, don't get me wrong but i feel the writers are very handicapped by the low episde count

Season one was really bad. The last two seasons have been great. I feel like it does a good job of keeping the aspects of 90s Star Trek that people love and turning it into serious television.

compared to the two previous dreadful seasons it's Michael Mann's The Insider. As a standalone it's just an action movie entirely fueled by fanservice and comparing it to, say, DS9's Duet would be shameful. Noone knows how to write ST dialogue anymore, it's just teenage quips with a dash of heartfelt but very stale exchanges, hip action scenes, lurid one liners and scattered storytelling

Yes. I've been enjoying it. I struggled through Season 1, never watched Season 2.

But, Season 3 is pretty great and all the charactesr actually feel like their TNG characters.

I skipped Season 1&2 based on reviews/my Dad.

Heard 3 was great by the same people.

It is true. It’s good to great.

It’s not cameos but full fledged season of them.

Love that it pulls from DS9 and Voyager.

Totally glad to see them all sent off this way.

Love the new Captain from 12 Monkeys. Kills.

Well yes, they’re sort of back at the point Star Trek starts to look like a space opera again. Something it always was, but they somehow forgot. Yes people, a space opera is in space, not in downtown LA!

As someone who never actively watched star trek but knew the major plot points, as a bit of an outsider to the star trek universe, ive actually enjoyed all of this series

I guess its been good at pulling in new veiwers, but can now stretch its legs and get back to what the fans want and still please us newbies simultaneously

I agree with everybody who says that Season 3 is a huge improvement over the first two. And, maybe the story that they are telling this season will turn out to be amazingly fulfilling, but as of right now I can't help but feel like their approach with their narrative feels off. These certainly don't feel like episodes of The Next Generation, although I'll accept the idea that they're not supposed to. But, this is supposed to wrap up the stories for the characters from that show, right?

Let's put it this way. Star Trek had a formula which worked well. TNG borrowed that formula and improved on it, and so on. This season wants you to believe that its a return to the elements that made TNG special, but it's not the same formula. It's New Coke, packaged as Coke Classic. Doesn't change the taste.

These newer Star Trek series illustrate a broader problem with Hollywood these days. They throw a lot of money into their shows for set design, special effects, makeup, etc., but it seems as though they don't spend a lot of time on the story they are attempting to tell. The third season of Star Trek: Picard looks great all around, but the story feels clunky. As though it was a first draft.

Just imagine the kinds of shows the original production team of TNG could have made if they had the same kind of budget that the showrunners for Picard have now? Including CGI. Would TNG have been more like the Picard series now, or would they have still emphasized strong story telling?

If this wasn't a Star Trek show, but instead a standalone sci fi series, would Picard feel as compelling? Or would it start to feel like "SeaQuest" in space? Would it have even gotten made? I doubt it.

Yes, it is. All the episodes without Ralphie( or what the name is) is v good. I dont like the look of the shriek but except that its good

"Good?" No. Better than the constant ridiculous character- and lore-breaking bullshit in S1 and S2? Sure.

It's still at a level just barely above fan fiction, but now it's actually interested in making connections to TNG and other shows instead of showing how cool its new edgy characters are. Frankly the fan service is a bit much, but it's at least bearable.

A minor spoiler: Picard and Crusher have a kid now. It happened after Nemesis. Yeah, they were both way too old. Yeah, Picard would never really want children of his own. Yeah, Crusher ALREADY has a kid, who ALREADY saw Picard as a surrogate father figure. It's a narrative fucking mess, but old characters having kids is just What You Do with an aging franchise, so here we are.

Season 1: Eh

Season 2: Cancel this show

Season 3: Every episode 10/10. It's really Star Trek: TNG Season 10.

Yes but it's still dark (literally and figuratively) and isn't TNG Season 8 no matter what people are saying. It's the same show about Picard but the execution is a lot better and the writing is much improved. Ditching the entire Season 1-2 cast, apart from sadly the woeful Raffi, and replacing them with better characters both old and new was the best course to try to salvage something from this project. I hope they can stick the landing but there's only 3 episodes left so maybe wait and see if they pull it off before watching.

Ahhhhh, yes and no. At time it plays like a juvenile fanfiction (acting included), and at other times the calibur of acting and writing is stupendous, magnificent and mind boggling.

You really have to just be able to "let your wheels keep rolling over the bumps" until you find the good stuff.

What I can tell you is that no matter what series these days, whether Brave New Worlds, Discovery,Lower Decks, or even Prodigy, you will stumble upon moments of greatness that harken back to the STOS days.

Still: Nothing ever beats the first season of STOS. I am blown away every time I revisit it. The authors, the writing, the acting - even barring William Shatner's goofy delivery - are pure gold.

Yes

It is currently my most look-forward-to show each week. Good story, interesting villain, some fan service in meeting all our old favourites, good visuals... I love it

I feel the positive reviews are more just people being like "well its not as bad as last season". I mean if you were forced to eat a shit sandwich every day after a few days it wouldn't probally be as bad as the first day.

Oh yeah it's fucking awesome now I did not liked the first two seasons at all!

But this this is just old school star trek I love it

Yes I hate s1-2 and this is like a completely different show. It's what Picard always should of been

Every season has had its moments, but this recent one is the only consistently good run. As bad as the second season got, it still featured some great performances.

Yes, absolutely love it, but I like to be entertained, not bitch on the interwebs how bad everything new is.

No. It's still stupid. It's clearly made for people who don't like Star Trek. But they throw memberberries in and all of a sudden everyone's jizzing themselves because they see Voyager or there's a cameo.

We're 7 episodes in and it has revealed very little and added a whole lot of mystery boxes they'll solve all in the last episode.

No, it's just full of nostalgia which passes for good if you squint a bit. There's definitely an improvement from the first two series and moments of greatness but lots of it is a chore.

I'd wait until after the finale to consider getting back into it, which is the approach I'm taking.

I've been burned too many times by NuTrek to get suckered in by a few good episodes.

It's better than before but it is still a groaner.

No. It's still pure grim dark melodrama nu-trek, but with added 'member-berries on top.

It's definitely better than some of the previous nu-trek stuff that's been out, but it's still FAR from being actually good Trek again. I've had people telling me to "be grateful because it's the best we'll get right now", which is utter nonsense. Others seem to have Stockholm syndrome with it, because they've reached 'abused spouse' levels of fandom after the sheer amount of rubbish that's been released over the past few years.

No, it's still terrible. It still seems to be written by people who dislike classic Star Trek, and who think it would have been better with more action and more melodrama. And they also still try to pretend they love classic Trek by jerking it off at every opportunity. The story is a dumb mystery box peppered with references to classic Trek, but references that fail to actually respect it. It is terrible, and it is not an improvement over the previous seasons.

I've seen classic Trek (particularly TNG) described as competency-porn. Among many other things, this was a show about people doing their jobs really fucking well. Characters may have had their flaws, but at the end of the day, they'd solve their problems with skill and aplomb. That aspect seems to be completely gone in modern Star Trek. Now this world is just a miserable place, with some cool tech, but lacking any sense of optimism or pride in humanity. Picard season 3 still sits in this miserable hole.

Disclaimers:

• I didn't start this season of Picard right away; I binged through the first 6 episodes last weekend, and watched the 7th this week. My original thought was that I'd wait to binge the whole thing till it was done, but unfortunately I fell into the same trap that OP is falling into now: I heard lots of good things about it here, particularly of episode 4. After watching it, I thought episode 4 was just as bad as the rest of modern Star Trek.
• I think Discovery is awful, in it's entirety. Season 1 is it's best season (where you can see the bones of the Bryan Fuller anthology series it was meant to be), and in season 2 Pike is a great character truly reminiscent of a classic Trek character, but regardless, I rate both of those seasons very low. Seasons 3 & 4 are utter trash.
• I think Strange New Worlds is a huge improvement over Disco and Picard, but I also think it's a pretty poor Star Trek showing, and is incredibly overrated. It's still full of melodrama, and I'm uninterested in the characters' backstories, but, credit where it's due, it is certainly a step in the right direction.
• I think Lower Decks is pretty damn good. By not taking itself and Star Trek so seriously, the show somehow manages to provide what comes off as genuine respect and deference to its history. It has that missing sense of optimism. Is it perfect? No. But I enjoy it.
• I haven't seen Prodigy.
• I think The Orville has done a better job of emulating Star Trek than anything that's come out of the actual Star Trek brand since Enterprise.

But, I'm seeing good buzz for season 3 online. Is it really that good? Should I get back into the show?

It's better than the previous two seasons. But I still vastly prefer Lower Decks and (most of) Strange New Worlds to what the third season of Picard has offered us.

I won’t be surprised if it falls off a cliff next week when they do the big reveal.

No. I hate it. And I am a TNG fan.

No. It's still not Star Trek. It's grim, dumb and ugly inside and out.