Sir Patrick would probably LOVE the idea of JLP having two wives so I can see him going along with this. I'm still on team "ditch the guy and get married to each other" for Laris and Crusher tho.
I don’t think they tossed her away. If that was the intent I don’t think they would have had that opening scene. Why include her in the season at all?
I wouldn't exactly say they "tossed her away", she just wasn't relevant to the plot. Would it have been nice to see where Picard ended up after the show? Sure. Was it necessary? Not really. I think there's something to be said about leaving a detail like that up to the fans to consider. You're going disappoint Team Bev or Team Laris one way or another, so you can just ship whoever you want in your head. I'm on Team Bev myself. Laris feels much more like a right place, right time fling. She was kind of vulnerable herself having just lost Zhaban. The actual romance was super short, and now Picard finds out he has a kid and reconnects with the real love interest that he messed up 20 years ago... I feel like there's much more there. It's a nice circular story too... Picard loses Crusher, finds Laris, Laris loses Zhaban, finds Picard, Picard finds Crusher, Laris loses Picard. Ultimately sad for Laris, but at the same point she did have the opportunity to have a long, fruitful marriage... Picard and Crusher did not. They deserve it.
Orla Brady probably had a contract for appearances in all three seasons. So, Laris probably had to be there somewhere but they decided to shelve her as soon as they possibly could because "omg Crusher is back, NOSTALGIA" and "the fans will forget Laris was ever even there anyway". It speaks volumes that they didn't even bother to give Laris a final appearance at the end of the final episode nor did they bother to have Jean-Luc even mentioning her to Crusher. I'd even wager that they probably wouldn't have included her at all if Brady hadn't had it in her contract or something. One of the central points of season 3 was to undo the previous two seasons, after all.
Picard ending up with Crusher is one of the laziest plot threads in that entire season. And that's saying something.
It's nostalgia bait. Everything about season 3 is nostalgia bait. So of course they HAD to have Crusher come back and revive the entire Picard/Crusher thing in the most contrived way possible although I will give them credit for at least leaving things open at the end. It's cringey enough as it is tho.
That seems like an awkward conversation that like, humans don't tend to have, if we assume that Picard is interested in rekindling with Crusher, "Oh hey by the way, I totally just recently got into a bit of a relationship with my housekeeper, but i'm actually totally ready to ditch her so I can be with you." If we wanna talk about cringe... that's really something for Picard to privately speak to Laris about? That's an odd perspective. I really don't understand where you're coming from with that. Season 3 appeared to me to build off the previous two seasons pretty well. The only "undoing" was letting alot of the other characters go, which was really more of a necessity to introduce the TNG crew... that would have been an incredibly bloated show to have that many characters running around. And most of them were sidelined in Season 2 anyway...
There's nothing saying Crusher and Picard are a couple at the end of the series. In fact as mentioned before, it was originally going to be even more ambiguous.
Thankfully theres nothing to suggest they're a couple, they at least didn't fall into THAT trope trap (they fell into pretty much every other trope trap there is already tho) but I still don't understand why they couldn't just simply at least mention Laris somehow at the end. They set things up with her promising him to save him some seat in a bar and then never follow up on it at all. I'm by no means a huge Laris fan in any way, but it just feels super rude towards her as a character to shove her out of everything (especially considering what Jean-Luc went through in the second season to finally gather the courage to tell her how he felt) and then just leave the focus on Jean-Luc and Crusher - regardless of whether they're together or not it's painfully obvious that Laris was taken out of the picture so that Crusher could get the "relationship spotlight". I wonder how Orla Brady feels about this entire thing. (And the other PIC cast members who were kicked out to make room for the TNG crew.) If we ever get a behind the scenes thingy like the one Shatner did with the first two TNG seasons I would love to hear the real story from her and the others and not just the usual "everything was great, such an honor to work on this show" PR talk.
Did they actually focus on that though? It actually seems there is actually next to zero focus on any current relationship between Picard and Crusher. They talk about their previous relationship, which is relevant to the plot, but we really get absolutely no indication that either of them planning to pursue a romantic relationship. We see more of Crusher because Crusher is relevant to the plot. Laris really had nothing to do with anything going on. You can say that's a fault in the show if you want, but as the plot stands, Laris is irrelevant.
It isn’t a direct quote, but the author of this article over at Variety spoke with plenty of top-billing personnel and came away from it all with the decision to include the following line: Figured it was worth a highlight here.
Kurtzman isn't dumb. We may not get "Legacy" proper, but 100% we will get something Picard-Era... barring outside circumstances like P+ dying or ViaParaCBScomMount deciding the just shelve Trek altogther for awhile. It's not a matter if "if", it's "when". It won't be for a few years. If we get anything on the sooner-side, it will be a streaming movie like Section 31. A series won't happen until either SNW or SFA are done with. This is a completely unsubstantiated "gut feeling", but I feel 5 seasons is the sweet spot in the streaming prestige TV age. So... I expect SNW to hold on another two years. If they do want to want do a PIC-era show, and they decided to drop SNW after 5 seasons, production would start after S5 wraps. "Legacy", used in quotes as a stand-in for "PIC-Era Show", is at absolute minimum 3 years out, unless SFA crashes and burns in spectacular fashion... but I don't think it will. Even if it's not performing, I think P+ has too much invested to allow it to fail quickly, so we will get a few seasons regardless.
If Paramount & Co are committed to Star Trek we re in an transitional phase - Discovery is wrapping up, Picard's final season is out; Lower Decks is going into it's fifth Season and Prodigy S2 is going on Netflix. Plus, the first TV Movie (Section 31) has just been shot and they're gearing up for a new series (Starfleet Academy). I'm going to predict the post-Picard movie will want to film this year, if it is next in line. Hopefully the movie people can break the curse and get something actually made and out there! Legacy: The Series will hopefully happen under Terry Matalas. SNW won't end for a while if they are doing five seasons, since they were delayed by the strikes. Looking forward, everything about that screams "transitioning into TOS", I can fully see them attempting *something* with Paul Wesley's James T Kirk in the Captain's Chair with Ethan Peck by his side as Mr Spock, be it a TV Movie or series of sorts.
Yes, polygamy means that your are married to multiple people (the scenario usually being that it's a guy married to multiple women, not the other way around.) Polyamory means that men and women can have relationships with multiple other men and women (and those relationships don't have to be based on anything sexual.) Even someone who is married can have a relationship with another person, married or single. But there are no multiple marriages involved, unlike polygamy.
I know it's happening. I'm trying to pretend it's not. I just want so desperately to leave that horse alone.