Blu-ray Review Star Trek: Picard – Season Two Blu-ray Review (1 Viewer)

[Josh Steinberg]

Season Two of Star Trek: Picard, while not quite hitting the level of perfection that the initial season reached, is still a worthwhile emotional journey into the heart of Jean-Luc Picard.



Star Trek: Picard (2020–2023)



Released: 23 Jan 2020
Rated: TV-MA
Runtime: 46 min




Director: N/A
Genre: Action, Adventure, Drama



Cast: Patrick Stewart, Alison Pill, Michelle Hurd
Writer(s): Kirsten Beyer, Michael Chabon, Akiva Goldsman



Plot: Follow-up series to Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987) and Star Trek: Nemesis (2002) that centers on Jean-Luc Picard in the next chapter of his life.



IMDB rating: 7.3
MetaScore: N/A





Disc Information



Studio: Paramount
Distributed By: N/A
Video Resolution: 1080P/AVC...

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[Citizen87645]

Thank you for sharing how the season resonated with you on a personal level, and offering the insight into the power of that character development and storyline.

 

[Lee Sandersen]

I enjoyed the first two seasons and look forward to the third and last one. I haven't bought the discs yet, just streamed, but it is tempting to own these discs. Streaming services are getting so unpredictable, you never know when they are going to pull something out of circulation or bump the price. Once I own the disc, I know I can watch it whenever I want.

 

[Tino]

I’m struggling to get thru the second season. Loved the first but the second has disappointed me so far. I believe I’m on the sixth episode.

Either way I’m looking forward to the third season.

 

[Neil Middlemiss]

@Josh Steinberg - Exceptional review! I was disappointed in the season's writing, and, like you, did find the season uneven, but through your lens I now want to revisit the season and focus not on the larger plot, but the character journeys, because that intimate journey will be more rewarding than the outward, plot-driven one.

Over the last year and a half, I've learned so much about mental illness as I host a podcast at work on mental well-being (part of my role leading the Disability diversity group for the company I work for), and sharing is an important part of all our journeys. Thank you for your review and for sharing. I love that the culmination of Picard's journey in this season found resonance for you. Star Trek solidified my moral compass in life. How fitting that it should continue to help and heal with its stories!

 

[Bryan^H]

Wow, what a nice review.

Way to go Josh.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Star Trek solidified my moral compass in life.

I so get that!

As a child, I was called upon to serve a more adult role in my family, and like any child in that position, I wasn’t really equipped to do so. The characters on Star Trek, and particularly TNG (since it was new at the time) offered a sort of template for how to adult - the way Picard set a tone expecting everyone’s best good faith effort, the way Riker never hesitated to take action to protect those under his charge, Data’s curiosity about the world and his aspirations to be more than the sum of his parts, Troi’s emotional awareness and sensitivity, LaForge keeping it all together, Worf caring deeply about doing the right thing for the right reason, Wesley for showing I wasn’t the only kid that was better at being with adults then other kids - taken together, all of that was of tremendous use to me.

So when this season reaches its emotional climax, where

Spoiler

Picard finally remembers the real truth of his childhood and is able to truly accept that managing his mother’s mental illness was not and should never have been his responsibility, that resonated so deeply with me. Now as a parent of young children, I cannot imagine asking of them what was asked of me. Like Picard, I forgive those people in my life that put me in that position, and like Picard, I now understand that my job as a child was to be a child, and that any failures I had at trying to fill an adult role at that young age weren’t my failures. I was already on the road to figuring that out when the show aired but having Picard back to reinforce what TNG taught me as a kid was something I never imagined would happen.

 

[Sam Favate]

Great review, Josh. I enjoyed the second season, although if pressed, I will say that the first season was better. Michael Chabon as showrunner can't be beat, and the story arcs in that season were deep and touched on the larger Star Trek mythology. I felt the second season was a great look at Picard, but didn't much touch on the series' larger myths. (Did we ever find out why Q was dying? I don't think so.) Also, setting it in our present day deprived us of spending time in the 24th (or 25th) century that we've come to love.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Did we ever find out why Q was dying? I don't think so.

I don’t believe so either. It doesn’t necessarily square with what Voyager revealed to us about the Q Continuum, but then again, Janeway’s effect on Q and the other Qs was said in that show to destabilize the continuum and place the Q in an unprecedented situation, so I suppose that is license enough for this story to be told. But I think that also ties into what I was trying to get at with the tension this season between character and plot - the character beats are all right but the scaffolding they’re hung upon can be a bit bare.

Also, setting it in our present day deprived us of spending time in the 24th (or 25th) century that we've come to love.

That’s also something I very much agree with. Despite what on paper sounds like a high stakes plot, when it came to the mechanics of the story actually felt very low stakes for me. You don’t need to be a fortune teller to recognize that Picard self-destructing the fleet in the first episode won’t hold. You don’t need to be a genius to figure out that Picard won’t stay forever trapped in an evil timeline or in the past, just like you knew in TNG that Picard wasn’t going to live out his remaining days in a Robin Hood fantasia. The question of “why is Q doing this to Picard” is more compelling than the question of “will Picard save the future” - the answer to the latter question is obvious, but the answer to the former question is the journey.

 

[Nelson Au]

Thanks for your review Josh. I agree with the others that your open minded review increases the enthusiasm for this release. I must confess that this release completely passed my notice. Which as you know is unusual.

I was not as enthusiastic about this season as it progressed, but I did find a lot of things I did like. I will pick up this season and will re-view it.

 

[Doug Pyle]

Nice review Josh and good insights shared in comments above. I only disagree a little: I thought the 2nd season was an improvement over the first. I enjoyed the first season but it didn’t really feel Trek, though it was a fun space action adventure storyline. There were some odd character transformations in season one that seemed abrupt and arbitrary (Seven - where is the backstory in her coming out, after where we had left her very different relationship with … relationships … up through the end of Voyager’s final season??). But unexplained character changes aside, the first season of Picard was a fun ride.

I thought Season 2 of Picard a refreshing return to the strengths of Trek storytelling and character development. It was well grounded in the Trek lore while exploring new spaces and times. I don’t mind the return to present day Earth (Trek has always really been about current day issues while set in the future, and most if not every iteration of Trek has its crew somehow find itself in current-day or historic timelines). It was in this season a nice way to incorporate the timeless longevity of Guinan and add further dimensions to Picard’s time-twisted relationship with her.

I was unsure about buying the 2nd season set but your review reminded me of what I really liked in this season.

 

[TJPC]

We found the second season very slow going and dull. We persevered, but almost gave up a number of times. I am a completest, so I purchased the discs, but I will be using the ff button on all flashbacks when I watch them. I do not care about the psychological underpinnings of this fictional character. This to me is contradictory to what a Star Trek show should be.

 

[FWAJMB]

Star Trek is dead to me. It all started with the second JJ movie.

 

[Rick Thompson]

Picard has always seemed a humorless stuffed shirt, allergic to anything enjoyable. It was the other characters that kept me interested in Next Generation.