I don't think they're phoning it in so much as they've become incessantly negative. Every review is "why this sucks." The vast majority of entertainment isn't great. Little of it is very good. But a lot of it is passably good. I enjoyed Picard and, though I'm only 3/4ths through season one of Discovery, I'm liking it, too. No, it isn't perfect, but I wouldn't call people who enjoy those lacking in intelligence as Red Letter Media does in the video. When someone critiquing art says "if you don't agree with me, you're stupid," I immediately begin to discredit their opinion.
*Puts on cardboard Jay mask* Unless it's Wes Anderson movies, then those are absolute perfection. And if you aren't watching nothing but Wes Anderson movies, you should kill yourself.
They do make a point about the optimism being sucked out of star trek. It's gone from boldly going where no man has gone before to warhammer 40k levels of grimdark. DS9 did a pretty good job of inserting grey areas in the trek universe but people on the whole were still optimistic and respectful to each other. "Shut the fuck up" and "he was an idiot" were phrases I didn't think I would hear in Trek.
Ideal scenario? Picard Season 2, Episode 1: FADE IN. The La Sirena streaks through space at warp speed. PICARD (V.O.) "Personal diary, Jean-Luc Picard. I've asked Captain Rios to take us to the Velbar System so we can investigate the destruction of the U.S.S. Farrell, which suffered a mysterious warp core breach, killing 400 crew members and completely vaporizing my dear friend Wesley Crusher..."
And it was boring. This was one Plinkett where it was just meh. Shame because I was looking forward too it.
Here's a video I saw that might be interesting but kept forgetting to post. I'm not a huge fan of the floating holo-controls or the floating holo-screens. Not because of what FF was yapping about up thread but because I just don't like them. I don't want to see through my holo-monitor and I want my ship controls to be more tactile. This video however is what Picard should have done. Of course this may have been budget intense to do this but I think it would actually be a good use of holodeck controls.
The way to kill him is obvious. He became a Traveler, right? And the Traveler is like Tinkerbelle, believing in him recharges his strength. Well, there you go, Wesley transwarps, and drains his strength, and he's like "beliiieeeve in meeee", and Picard crosses his arms, turns his back, and goes "NO! HUMFH!", and Wesley turns into empty clothes.
You know why Roger Ebert was the most respected and beloved critic in his field? Because he invented the "you're stupid for watching and liking (insert show/movie). You are", argument. The day he invented it, he immediately got a medal, and a trophy, and a ticker tape parade. Youtube it, you'll totally find it. Honest. It's the kind of thing all respected and beloved critics would emulate and aspire to. And philosophers! All great thinkers are blown away by such airtight pieces of reasoning. And from the moment he invented it, everyone else who uses it gains automatic awe and respect. It stuns the opponent into silence, and there's just no counter to it at all. Everyone on the sidelines to the argument says "oooohh! He did the Ebert thing!", in a hushed whisper. You know what makes it even more intimidating? Adding "so there!", at the end. That really clinches it. It's a crusher. I highly recommend all critics of modern Trek, especially Picard use this argument. And ONLY this argument. Really wear it out. It never gets old. It's sturdy.
I like the RLM guys, but when it comes to Trek or Star Wars they do nothing but bitch and complain incessantly. The new Star Trek shows are flawed, but I really enjoy Discovery and I thought Picard was a wasted opportunity. Still, neither show was as bad as they make it out to be. Rich Evans reminds me of one of those classic Trek nerds who bashed TNG when it premiered for not being "his" Star Trek.
Actually it spends four minutes arguing against something that isn't seen to be the case, and then has a minute of him sharing his own ideas which would have been as cringy as Riker's joystick moment in Insurrection. He spends a bunch of that video complaining that 24th century holograms are way better quality than those displays. In doing so however he conveniently ignores that the show itself acknowledges that. Holographic technology is so good by the dawn of the 25th century that this random smugglers ship has holodecks as crew quarters and a full holographic crew. I'm not a fan of the floating transparent displays Minority Report aesthetic because it is overused in modern SciFi, but with Trek level technology many of the problems with them aren't actually problems. Lack of tactile interface? Says who? I imagine that all those buttons and dials actually do give full on tactile feedback. It could even be giving support to the wrists so there isn't any strain. It was already implied that LCARs interfaces could have tactile feedback, so it's got precedent. His ideas seem like those of someone who has a tricked out gaming chair that looks like it belongs in a sports car. Floating consoles? Well that's already what the displays are that he is railing against. Adding unnecessary cases and bulk to them is skeuomorphic UI design that is already dated and cheap looking in 2020.
Ironic that this is labelled as a lack of attention when it's made super clear that mirroring that image was an intentional choice so they could have the great shot of Picard with the Locutus photo overlaid on him.
