What TV show did you last watch a season of on DVD/Blu-ray?
Apr 19, 2023 7:27:13 GMT
theravenking, taylorfirst1, and 1 more like this
Post by Chalice_Of_Evil on Apr 19, 2023 7:27:13 GMT
Finished Season 1 of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds on Blu-ray.
When watching Season 2 of Star Trek: Discovery, I’d been thinking to myself I’d rather have been watching a show about Anson Mount’s Captain Pike, Ethan Peck’s now-beardless Spock (which took me a while to get used to) and Rebecca Romijn’s Number One/Una. Well, apparently others thought the same and hence this show was created (though I’d wondered if it was ever going to become a reality since it seemed to be taking its sweet time). I have to say, that while the first episode of the season showed a lot of promise...the rest of Season 1 didn’t quite deliver on what I was hoping for - which was those^ three mentioned above being at the *centre* of the show. Oh, sure, Pike and Spock got plenty of screentime/focus...but what about Una? At times it felt like she was a side character instead of one of the ‘main three’. Hell, it often felt more like The Pike, Spock & Uhura Show, which made it seem to me like a bit of a ‘bait & switch’ by the showrunners.
The whole reason I’d been looking so forward to this series was because the 'main three' had stuck out so much when we first saw them together and it was that trio who I really wanted to see. While Una did get an episode focused on her (the third one), clearly she wasn’t a priority since Uhura not only got the second episode of the season focused on her, but also got another one later into the season (meanwhile, Ortegas really got shafted this season, since everybody else seemed to get an episode focused on them except her). Fastest way to turn me off a character is to have them clearly being ‘pushed’ by the writers as someone we ‘should/MUST’ like and who's clearly their favourite. Uhura was fine at times, but other times I felt she spoke too ‘modern’/was a bit OTT with her reactions. The fact that she was also being treated like the third lead of the show when it was supposed to be Una didn't exactly endear her to me either.
A new character we were introduced to, La’an Noonien-Signh, seemed like she was going to be the one the show focused on, but that wasn’t quite the case (I had to look up the actress who played her because she looked vaguely familiar and I discovered she was in an episode of Doctor Who during the Matt Smith era of the show, but I would’ve never thought it was the same person if IMDB didn’t say it was even though I remembered the character she’d played). While she appeared a bit more ‘serious’ than the rest of the crew to begin with, I thought the actress did a good job of showing her character had more layers to her than just being someone who not only had the misfortune to share her last name with a renowned ST villain (I’m probably one of the only ST watchers who’s never seen The Wrath of Khan, but I know of his character from that), but was also a victim of the Gorn (lizard-people, who we *finally* got a good look at towards the end of the season and certainly appear to be a step up from the old versions which I have seen photos of. Too bad these Gorn didn't eat the annoying girl who only cared about herself and cost various crewmembers their lives, yet suffered no consequences for her actions. Those poor, poor doomed cadets. I *knew* they were screwed right from their very first scene). I liked seeing a ‘lighter’ side to La’an when she hung out with Una and the fun they had discovering 'Enterprise Bingo' (well...'fun' until La'an shot Una, of course). I enjoyed their friendship. I also liked the mentor/mentee relationship that was set up between La'an and Pike in the first episode (it’s a shame they didn’t really follow through with that as much as they could’ve). I was bummed when it seemed she was leaving the show in the second-last episode, but hopefully she’ll be sticking around.
Another new character who I found almost immediately likeable was Nurse Chapel (again, someone I wasn’t familiar with beforehand, having never seen the show her character originally appeared in). She had an ‘energy’ about her in the first episode that made her stand out from the rest and I got a laugh out of her injecting some person who’d been beamed aboard and then escaped from sickbay but she managed to catch up with after he’d shared a pleasant conversation in the lift with Uhura and Chapel just suddenly appeared, injecting him twice with the hypospray twice - her line/reaction amused me. It’s unfortunate that as the season went on, the writers felt they had to set up a ‘love triangle’ between her, Spock and the Vulcan he got engaged to - though considering how boring I found all the scenes with just those two, I was actually fine with Chapel & Spock since at least she wasn’t as snooze-worthy in scenes with him as T’Pring was. Having said that, I think there was more to be explored with Chapel than just her feelings for Spock (and although he maintained otherwise after they had to pretend to be lovers in one episode, it’s clear he *does* have feelings for her too). Hopefully next season it’s not just about the ‘love triangle’ and she has more to do, since she was one of the characters I liked the most this season.
I know Ortegas annoyed some with her way of talking to the Captain, but I didn’t mind her. I thought it showed that she had clearly formed such an easy-going relationship with him that he didn’t mind the things she said. And considering that pirate impression he did, he’s got NO business having a problem with how Ortegas acts around him. While this was a rare instance of Pike being cringey, it was worth it for Una’s “Please stop.” - though it appeared Rebecca Romijn was trying hard not to laugh, whereas I just felt secondhand embarrassment for Pike). Speaking of pirates, I thought the villain for that episode was decent before we learned they were actually a bad guy (which I’d unintentionally spoiled myself for), but after the 'reveal' went a bit too much into the typical/default ‘bad guy’ mode of just being snarky/sarcastic and thus not very intimidating. If this is to be a recurring villain, hopefully they tone it down a bit in the future. I did like that episode, though.
However, the episode I think I enjoyed the most (since the first one) had to be the doctor-focused episode. While the doctor himself was a character who I didn’t mind, what MADE this episode was seeing everyone become characters from a story. The clear stand-outs were Pike as a sniveling wimpy character who only cared about himself and La’an becoming a pampered princess complete with little doggie that she carried around (whilst also belting out a tune – which made me cringe almost as much as Pike’s pirate impression did). They were SO fun and I’m sure the actors had a ball. The rest were entertaining too, but to a lesser degree (though I liked seeing Una as the Huntress and the hint that something more may have been going on between her and the character who Ortegas took on the persona of). I know this episode wasn’t for everyone and that some really hated it, but that’s to be expected since comedy/humour is subjective, and what some find amusing others can find horrible and vice versa. I know there have been ‘comedic’ episodes of other shows which I haven’t enjoyed but others have liked...but I liked this one. What helped was that they didn’t try to do too much of this and it was balanced by the more ‘serious’ stuff.
As for the ‘main three’ (or who are SUPPOSED to be, anyway), pirate impression notwithstanding, Pike continues to be one of the most easily-likeable Captains in any ST show I’ve watched and may quite possibly be my favourite ST Captain thus far. I mainly attribute that to Anson Mount’s portrayal of the character (once again, I never saw the original version). He plays a Captain who can be ‘personable’, but stern when he needs to be without being a stick-in-the-mud/humourless, he’s fair/open to others’ ideas, but also takes risks. Most importantly...he's NOT A JERK. While we got enough interaction between him and Spock, I wish we’d gotten more with him and Una. I enjoyed their relationship/interaction, but felt she was underutilised in this first season of the show. Rebecca Romijn did the most she could with what she was given and although there wasn’t nearly enough of her character, Una still remained a fave of mine. I hope she’s not missing for too long at the start of Season 2, given she was whisked away by Pike’s g/f or whoever she's supposed to be (played by, to my surprise, Melanie Scrofano from Wynonna Earp - an actress I’ve met in person at a convention and whose show I was really annoyed to find only had the first two seasons released here on DVD/Blu-ray and no more even though the series continued on past that). Up until her hauling Una away, I’d quite liked Melanie Scrofano’s character and her interaction with Pike. Suffice to say this is probably going to put a dent in their relationship.
As for Spock...I was *still* getting used to him being beardless (after I’d only just gotten used to seeing a bearded Spock). Most of the time I was thinking how his beardless face reminded me of a younger Marton Csokas (who’s been in a TON of things, but will always be Borias from Xena: Warrior Princess to me). I think Spock was pretty interesting...when he wasn’t interacting one-on-one with T’Pring (when they body-switched, I really had to pay attention to tell the differences between how they acted). I much more enjoyed his interaction with all the other characters, especially La'an. I was amused during one dream sequence he had where what is apparently the ‘classic’ fight music from the old series (though I always associate it with The Simpsons) was being played as Vulcan Spock fought a human Spock.
I almost forgot to mention the character of Hemmer...which shows just how little of an impression he left on me. Like La’an, he seemed the more ‘serious’ of the crew to begin with...but unlike her, it took me a while to decide what I thought of his character. Unfortunately, he only became tolerable for me towards the end of the season (the one where they all became storybook characters was the first time I actually liked him), but by then it was too little, too late and he was killed off all in service of getting Uhura to her position on the bridge (which, btw, is still easily the most visually-appealing bridge I've seen in an ST show thus far). Someone else I almost forgot to mention is Paul Wesley's version of James T. Kirk (who appeared in the season final) - and that pretty much sums up my thoughts on his debut as the character.
Although this first season of the show didn’t turn out to be quite what I was hoping, at least it was better than Star Trek: Discovery (which I only stuck with for the first three seasons because of Michelle Yeoh. With her character of Georgiou no longer in it, I've had no reason to bother with Season 4. Plus, I just recently learned one of the only remaining likeable characters in that show - Tilly - was written out during Season 4, so now I have even less reason to continue watching it than I already did, especially since the only character left who I like on it is Saru. Wonder if they'll end up offing him in Season 5 since apparently that'll be the show's last? Knowing my luck, he probably *would* be. Meanwhile, even if Georgiou and/or Tilly return for the final season, I don't think that'll be enough to get me to watch). Season 2 of Star Trek: Picard was also rather disappointing, so compared to both those other two...this one was definitely an improvement. I just hope next season they’re a bit more ‘evenly-balanced’ with giving characters screentime/storyline focus and they remember this was a show that was advertised as being about Pike, Spock and Number One (speaking of...exactly *who* is the 'official' Number One now? I'm guessing it's Una, but for a while there Pike was still calling La'an 'Number One' even after they got Una back at the start of the season). Anyway, until then I can enjoy seeing Rebecca Romijn have a much more substantial role in the TV series The Librarians, which I’m currently rewatching the first season of on DVD.
The whole reason I’d been looking so forward to this series was because the 'main three' had stuck out so much when we first saw them together and it was that trio who I really wanted to see. While Una did get an episode focused on her (the third one), clearly she wasn’t a priority since Uhura not only got the second episode of the season focused on her, but also got another one later into the season (meanwhile, Ortegas really got shafted this season, since everybody else seemed to get an episode focused on them except her). Fastest way to turn me off a character is to have them clearly being ‘pushed’ by the writers as someone we ‘should/MUST’ like and who's clearly their favourite. Uhura was fine at times, but other times I felt she spoke too ‘modern’/was a bit OTT with her reactions. The fact that she was also being treated like the third lead of the show when it was supposed to be Una didn't exactly endear her to me either.
A new character we were introduced to, La’an Noonien-Signh, seemed like she was going to be the one the show focused on, but that wasn’t quite the case (I had to look up the actress who played her because she looked vaguely familiar and I discovered she was in an episode of Doctor Who during the Matt Smith era of the show, but I would’ve never thought it was the same person if IMDB didn’t say it was even though I remembered the character she’d played). While she appeared a bit more ‘serious’ than the rest of the crew to begin with, I thought the actress did a good job of showing her character had more layers to her than just being someone who not only had the misfortune to share her last name with a renowned ST villain (I’m probably one of the only ST watchers who’s never seen The Wrath of Khan, but I know of his character from that), but was also a victim of the Gorn (lizard-people, who we *finally* got a good look at towards the end of the season and certainly appear to be a step up from the old versions which I have seen photos of. Too bad these Gorn didn't eat the annoying girl who only cared about herself and cost various crewmembers their lives, yet suffered no consequences for her actions. Those poor, poor doomed cadets. I *knew* they were screwed right from their very first scene). I liked seeing a ‘lighter’ side to La’an when she hung out with Una and the fun they had discovering 'Enterprise Bingo' (well...'fun' until La'an shot Una, of course). I enjoyed their friendship. I also liked the mentor/mentee relationship that was set up between La'an and Pike in the first episode (it’s a shame they didn’t really follow through with that as much as they could’ve). I was bummed when it seemed she was leaving the show in the second-last episode, but hopefully she’ll be sticking around.
Another new character who I found almost immediately likeable was Nurse Chapel (again, someone I wasn’t familiar with beforehand, having never seen the show her character originally appeared in). She had an ‘energy’ about her in the first episode that made her stand out from the rest and I got a laugh out of her injecting some person who’d been beamed aboard and then escaped from sickbay but she managed to catch up with after he’d shared a pleasant conversation in the lift with Uhura and Chapel just suddenly appeared, injecting him twice with the hypospray twice - her line/reaction amused me. It’s unfortunate that as the season went on, the writers felt they had to set up a ‘love triangle’ between her, Spock and the Vulcan he got engaged to - though considering how boring I found all the scenes with just those two, I was actually fine with Chapel & Spock since at least she wasn’t as snooze-worthy in scenes with him as T’Pring was. Having said that, I think there was more to be explored with Chapel than just her feelings for Spock (and although he maintained otherwise after they had to pretend to be lovers in one episode, it’s clear he *does* have feelings for her too). Hopefully next season it’s not just about the ‘love triangle’ and she has more to do, since she was one of the characters I liked the most this season.
I know Ortegas annoyed some with her way of talking to the Captain, but I didn’t mind her. I thought it showed that she had clearly formed such an easy-going relationship with him that he didn’t mind the things she said. And considering that pirate impression he did, he’s got NO business having a problem with how Ortegas acts around him. While this was a rare instance of Pike being cringey, it was worth it for Una’s “Please stop.” - though it appeared Rebecca Romijn was trying hard not to laugh, whereas I just felt secondhand embarrassment for Pike). Speaking of pirates, I thought the villain for that episode was decent before we learned they were actually a bad guy (which I’d unintentionally spoiled myself for), but after the 'reveal' went a bit too much into the typical/default ‘bad guy’ mode of just being snarky/sarcastic and thus not very intimidating. If this is to be a recurring villain, hopefully they tone it down a bit in the future. I did like that episode, though.
However, the episode I think I enjoyed the most (since the first one) had to be the doctor-focused episode. While the doctor himself was a character who I didn’t mind, what MADE this episode was seeing everyone become characters from a story. The clear stand-outs were Pike as a sniveling wimpy character who only cared about himself and La’an becoming a pampered princess complete with little doggie that she carried around (whilst also belting out a tune – which made me cringe almost as much as Pike’s pirate impression did). They were SO fun and I’m sure the actors had a ball. The rest were entertaining too, but to a lesser degree (though I liked seeing Una as the Huntress and the hint that something more may have been going on between her and the character who Ortegas took on the persona of). I know this episode wasn’t for everyone and that some really hated it, but that’s to be expected since comedy/humour is subjective, and what some find amusing others can find horrible and vice versa. I know there have been ‘comedic’ episodes of other shows which I haven’t enjoyed but others have liked...but I liked this one. What helped was that they didn’t try to do too much of this and it was balanced by the more ‘serious’ stuff.
As for the ‘main three’ (or who are SUPPOSED to be, anyway), pirate impression notwithstanding, Pike continues to be one of the most easily-likeable Captains in any ST show I’ve watched and may quite possibly be my favourite ST Captain thus far. I mainly attribute that to Anson Mount’s portrayal of the character (once again, I never saw the original version). He plays a Captain who can be ‘personable’, but stern when he needs to be without being a stick-in-the-mud/humourless, he’s fair/open to others’ ideas, but also takes risks. Most importantly...he's NOT A JERK. While we got enough interaction between him and Spock, I wish we’d gotten more with him and Una. I enjoyed their relationship/interaction, but felt she was underutilised in this first season of the show. Rebecca Romijn did the most she could with what she was given and although there wasn’t nearly enough of her character, Una still remained a fave of mine. I hope she’s not missing for too long at the start of Season 2, given she was whisked away by Pike’s g/f or whoever she's supposed to be (played by, to my surprise, Melanie Scrofano from Wynonna Earp - an actress I’ve met in person at a convention and whose show I was really annoyed to find only had the first two seasons released here on DVD/Blu-ray and no more even though the series continued on past that). Up until her hauling Una away, I’d quite liked Melanie Scrofano’s character and her interaction with Pike. Suffice to say this is probably going to put a dent in their relationship.
As for Spock...I was *still* getting used to him being beardless (after I’d only just gotten used to seeing a bearded Spock). Most of the time I was thinking how his beardless face reminded me of a younger Marton Csokas (who’s been in a TON of things, but will always be Borias from Xena: Warrior Princess to me). I think Spock was pretty interesting...when he wasn’t interacting one-on-one with T’Pring (when they body-switched, I really had to pay attention to tell the differences between how they acted). I much more enjoyed his interaction with all the other characters, especially La'an. I was amused during one dream sequence he had where what is apparently the ‘classic’ fight music from the old series (though I always associate it with The Simpsons) was being played as Vulcan Spock fought a human Spock.
I almost forgot to mention the character of Hemmer...which shows just how little of an impression he left on me. Like La’an, he seemed the more ‘serious’ of the crew to begin with...but unlike her, it took me a while to decide what I thought of his character. Unfortunately, he only became tolerable for me towards the end of the season (the one where they all became storybook characters was the first time I actually liked him), but by then it was too little, too late and he was killed off all in service of getting Uhura to her position on the bridge (which, btw, is still easily the most visually-appealing bridge I've seen in an ST show thus far). Someone else I almost forgot to mention is Paul Wesley's version of James T. Kirk (who appeared in the season final) - and that pretty much sums up my thoughts on his debut as the character.
Although this first season of the show didn’t turn out to be quite what I was hoping, at least it was better than Star Trek: Discovery (which I only stuck with for the first three seasons because of Michelle Yeoh. With her character of Georgiou no longer in it, I've had no reason to bother with Season 4. Plus, I just recently learned one of the only remaining likeable characters in that show - Tilly - was written out during Season 4, so now I have even less reason to continue watching it than I already did, especially since the only character left who I like on it is Saru. Wonder if they'll end up offing him in Season 5 since apparently that'll be the show's last? Knowing my luck, he probably *would* be. Meanwhile, even if Georgiou and/or Tilly return for the final season, I don't think that'll be enough to get me to watch). Season 2 of Star Trek: Picard was also rather disappointing, so compared to both those other two...this one was definitely an improvement. I just hope next season they’re a bit more ‘evenly-balanced’ with giving characters screentime/storyline focus and they remember this was a show that was advertised as being about Pike, Spock and Number One (speaking of...exactly *who* is the 'official' Number One now? I'm guessing it's Una, but for a while there Pike was still calling La'an 'Number One' even after they got Una back at the start of the season). Anyway, until then I can enjoy seeing Rebecca Romijn have a much more substantial role in the TV series The Librarians, which I’m currently rewatching the first season of on DVD.