[Brad]

I read somewhere that Patrick Stewart had recently gotten interested in improvisational acting and that this influenced his acting style and character definition in Picard. Although that may explain some of the changes in the show, now I cannot find any primary sources for that info. So, take it with a big grain of salt.

[chucker]

Well, in season 2, I wasn’t sure it could be called “acting” rather than “standing somewhere a camera happens to catch”, so anything is a marked improvement.

[psmith2.0]

Originally Posted by chucker We’ve also lost Picard as a diplomat. Stewart prefers to play him as an action hero now. That happened with the movies, almost thirty years ago now, so there’s probably not much to be done. Best to enjoy PIC S3 as a long-form sequel to Star Trek Nemesis.

Ouch. Even I know that's not good!

All my Trek-fan buddies despise that movie. It's the one thing they kinda seem to agree on. Is it the Rise of Skywalker of the Star Trek movies? Pointless and incoherent? Stupidly written and everything (including the kitchen sink) tossed into the mix, looking for a reason to exist?

[Brad]

Originally Posted by psmith2.0 Ouch. Even I know that's not good! All my Trek-fan buddies despise that movie. It's the one thing they kinda seem to agree on. Is it the Rise of Skywalker of the Star Trek movies? Pointless and incoherent? Stupidly written and everything (including the kitchen sink) tossed into the mix, looking for a reason to exist?

Yeah, soooo… the Nemesis production was so bad that it sent Tom Hardy, its main villain before the Nolan movies made him super famous, spiraling into a depression where he reportedly contemplated suicide. I'm not kidding! The official unofficial Star Trek wiki Memory Alpha puts it somewhat gently (link):

Shortly after completing filming on Nemesis, Hardy had a physical and mental breakdown brought about from his drug and alcohol addiction. Although this breakdown cost him his marriage, it motivated him to clean up his act. He has been clean of both drugs and alcohol since 2005.

[chucker]

Originally Posted by psmith2.0 Ouch. Even I know that's not good!

To clarify, though, I'm saying it's more closely linked both in timeline and spirit to those four movies (Generations, First Contact, Resurrection, Nemesis) than to the series. So, in terms of timeline and character development, Nemesis is the closest to where Picard starts off.

Originally Posted by psmith2.0 All my Trek-fan buddies despise that movie. It's the one thing they kinda seem to agree on. Is it the Rise of Skywalker of the Star Trek movies? Pointless and incoherent? Stupidly written and everything (including the kitchen sink) tossed into the mix, looking for a reason to exist?

I can't comment on Star Wars, and resent that comparison.

Nemesis has a lot of problems, including having Troi as an entirely pointless rape victim, or having Picard drive a dune buggy because Patrick Stewart loves dune buggies, to the whole thing being incoherent, to the director kind of being an idiot.

According to Burton and several other members of the main cast, Baird kept referring to LeVar as "Laverne" throughout production and thought the character of Geordi La Forge was an alien.

Like, no, you don't have to know as a random person that La Forge is not an alien. But when you're directing a movie where he's one of the main characters (forth in the credits!), maybe have a vague understanding of the character your film is portraying, and show some respect for the actor.

It's a bummer that this was the final TNG film (though that's not entirely the fault of this film; it was simply time for Star Trek to take a break). And now we basically get three seasons of… quasi-films. I wish they were edited differently (season 1 tries to do too much; cut out half the subplots and make it six episodes; season 2 is just dumb and way too long; season 3? Jury's out), but there's elements in the show that make me go "yeah, I missed this character". Worf, for example.

Originally Posted by Brad Yeah, soooo… the Nemesis production was so bad that it sent Tom Hardy, its main villain before the Nolan movies made him super famous, spiraling into a depression where he reportedly contemplated suicide. I'm not kidding! The official unofficial Star Trek wiki Memory Alpha puts it somewhat gently (link):

While we're bashing that film and this may be related, there's a deleted scene where Troi is raped… again. The director seems oddly bummed the scene had to be cut out. Now, yes, the camera technique seems good. But Marina Sirtis was done dirty, again.

OTOH, another scene that was deleted IMHO should've been left in. It shows Picard and Data discussing family, loss, etc. And season 1 of Picard builds on this big time.

[psmith2.0]

Originally Posted by Brad Yeah, soooo… the Nemesis production was so bad that it sent Tom Hardy, its main villain before the Nolan movies made him super famous, spiraling into a depression where he reportedly contemplated suicide. I'm not kidding! The official unofficial Star Trek wiki Memory Alpha puts it somewhat gently (link):

Sounds less like being part of a shitty movie than screwing around with drugs/booze, and having that go sideways and become all-consuming (as is often the case).

I'm guessing combining the two - said shitty movie + doing drugs - didn't help one bit. I'll quit here while I'm ahead. Perhaps he should too.

[Frank777]

Originally Posted by psmith2.0 Is it the Rise of Skywalker of the Star Trek movies? Pointless and incoherent? Stupidly written and everything (including the kitchen sink) tossed into the mix, looking for a reason to exist?

In fairness, Rise of Skywalker had to pick up and close off from the absolute mess of The Last Jedi.

Sure Kennedy et al greenlit three billion-dollar franchise movies without an overall story plan, and deserve much of the blame.

But Rian Johnson knowingly signed on to produce the middle chapter of a trilogy. Then he discarded what came before and and left no great threat or big bad for the final chapter. While none of the sequel trilogy plays particularly well, I feel Rise of Skywalker was severely hamstrung by what came before.

[Brad]

Originally Posted by Brad The Last of Us show, kind of like the game, I don't expect to revisit in the future, unless I want a refresher just before season 2 arrives. I doubt it has that much replay value, but the first time watching felt like a great experience. I feel like the same goes for a lot of movies I've loved and recommended over the years. Great to watch and enjoy the drama and suspense as it unfolds; probably never revisit it again after the story is over.

Nope. Scratch that, stupid.

I'm already watching The Last of Us now for a second time with my wife; it's her first time watching because she prefers to binge series like these over a few days instead of a few months.

In the first few episodes, there are already several reactions or lines of dialogs or very subtle foreshadowing hints that I didn't pick up on the first viewing. Having the full story in my recent memory including certain characters' backstories gives a lot more weight to a few looks and reactions and comments by certain individuals. Also, some of the heart-wrenching story beats are still nearly as intense upon second viewing. I'm looking at you, episode 3.

So, I'll revise my earlier assessment to suggest that The Last of Us probably doesn't have much replay value beyond a second viewing.