Why not both.
As released. Every good show will have runaway meme potential that will spoil something for you. Plus you get to join-in on the chat forum chatter in-between episodes. That can be half the fun.
Exhibit A: Moopsy.
Agreed, you need that sweet water cooler talk to enjoy a show to its fullest.
You wait till mid way through so you can binge getting into it, but then you get forced to pace out the rest of the episodes so they are still fresh when you watch them and you appreciate them more.
For science.
I watch them as they come out because there are jackasses on the internet who spoil plots and characters.
Gasp, say it isn’t so!?!?
Either option works if you pirate it to avoid giving Larry Ellison’s son money.
Sad truth is if Star Trek doesnt make money
We don’t get more trek
it’s just like when Toys R Us went under, all the comments in chats and message boards were pissed that it went out of business (aside from the scummy buyouts) because they had so much fun going there and running around looking at the toys, then when they got older took their kids to run around, look at toys but not buy anything. MFer the reason they went out of business is because you never bought anything!
Bro - they went out of business because A) amazon stole their consumer base and B) Mitt Romney’s vultures did a leveraged buyout where they made Toys R Us pay all of the debt service while he looted anything not bolted down and sold all of the real estate to themselves then leased it back to TRU at inflated no-bid prices.
The ole private equity bustout. Just like red lobster 👌
a leveraged buyout
Yeah, and if they had a healthy, growing cash flow via solid sales over a span of several decades then they would have been the ones buying out competitors.
amazon stole their consumer base
Are you also going to blame mom & pop shops for failing to price-match when walmart moves in a block away?
I have paramount plus exclusively for trek.
At home we call it “Trek+” for exactly this reason.
There’s absolutely nothing else on the platform. It’s all utter rubbish I have zero interest in watching.
SNW is the closest thing to Trek. I did enjoy Lower Decks. But otherwise… I’m OK with that. New Trek is pretty awful.
What is it you don’t like about New Trek?
It’s just action sci-fi with a thin veneer of star trek universe on top. What made Trek so good was how it could present a moral dilemma that required the human spirit and willingness to sacrifice for the greater good to overcome. It also had cool aliens and tech and shit, which new trek does fairly well. But really the thing that gets me is how bad the writers are. They’re inconsistent. They push endless fan service. They pander. They focus on action too much. They take the easy way out when it’s clear someone in the writers room attempted to sneak in a satisfying narrative only for a suit to ruin it for everyone. FFS Lower Decks had better stories than SNW because they were able to sneak them in under the guise of it being farcical (and lower budget meant less suit involvement).
Flashy technology to macguffin the solution to a problem isn’t satisfying to watch. Plot-armor-mooted-heroism against all odds to solve a problem isn’t interesting. The ensemble cast of Mary Sues doesn’t make for good drama. The thinly veiled fanservice fueled corporate cash grab is insulting.
Came here to ask if it was worth watching as someone who considers Next Gen and DS9 (and Voyager to a lesser extent) to be peak Trek. I think you’ve answered my question!
Oddly I can recommend Lower Decks. It’s not star trek, but it’s a star trek themed farce.
I tried a couple episodes of Lower Decks but I wasn’t taken. Maybe I should just skip to S2.
This is the first complaint I’ve seen about any of the new Star Trek shows that didn’t use the word “Woke” as a pejorative term. I’m impressed and appreciative of your well-thought-out take on it.
You actually do have some decent points, but I’m still an unabashed fan of the new stuff, especially Discovery/SNW.
It IS different, in all of the ways you describe, but every new trek has been a stylistic departure from the previous ones in some way, shape , or form, and I’ve been taking the plot armor Mary sue-ing as one piece of that. (Something DS9 also has to a degree, but they definitely held to the “difficult moral choices” aspect in spite of it).
Thanks for your opinion and insight.
I’ve seen a lot of valid criticism lobbed at DSC. Commenter above hit pretty much all the points. It’s just bad writing. The themes are good, production is top notch, the action is OK (every Trek show is different, this one has more action, fine). But once you get over the novelty of the first season, it gets bad real fast, and only gets worse.
Thanks for not just downvoting like everyone else. People take this stuff too personally.
Even in spite of my complaints, I’ll still watch it with the family. I’m just bummed out that the qualities that made Star Trek so endearing are watered down or lost to the changing tastes of a new generation of media consumers and the insufferable corporate assholes who just don’t get it.
Please do watch the show directly.
If you must download a copy for personal use and peace of mind afterwards, that’s your choice.
But do let them make money, let them get the viewership they require, so they keep making more quality Trek. Otherwise, everyone will suffer.
It’s not star trek. It’s all sci-fi flavored action with no moral dilemma or demonstration that the human spirit can evolve. Let it die.
edit: and shameless pandering to fans - looking at you Picard
The literal first episode of the series would disagree with you.
It’s had a few good episodes. That’s why I said SNW is the best of the bunch. But it’s still a low ratio of good to bad. The current crop of executives, producers and writers need to go. The only way for that to happen is a hard reset on the finances.
It’s like when your grandmother is in hospice care on chemo. Sure, they can extend her life for a few months with drugs and invasive treatments. But what about the quality of her life? She’s bedridden in a soulless understaffed hospital that’s sole purpose is to suck every last insurance dollar out of her. Her family doesn’t want to see her in that state so she’s ignored and lonely and losing her mind.
That’s star trek right now. Let it die.
edit: then to further the analogy, we can reboot grandma again later with a better healthcare system
Oh, look!! A troll!!!
Not a troll. A real person with an opinion that new star trek doesn’t scratch that itch.
So don’t watch it then.
¿Por qué no los dos?
BOTH!
Bad choicre. How much longer are we gonna be able to watch 'em live? GET IT IN NOW!
On the day it’s released, you begin with S1E1 and binge that, pacing it out somewhat so that you end your binging marathon caught up to the most recent season, with 2 episodes left to air. You only have the horrible week long wait between episodes for the final two episodes of the season, but you’ve acclimated your body to waiting on trek, and thus the withdrawals during the off season aren’t as severe.
