Spoilers Star Trek: Picard 1x04 - "Absolute Candor"

in the end, the only thing that matters to this story is that Picard feels he needs to make up for his past mistakes and is setting out to try to do so. That he has a higher standard for himself than we have of ourselves or that the people in his universe have a higher stand for him than you think he should be held to is immaterial. I don't feel the requirement to live up to high standards of the Hippocratic Oath that a doctor does, but it's not hard for me to understand a narrative featuring a doctor needing to redeem him or herself for whatever reason the narrative might have to state they've come up short in living up to it. It's like that Doctor having been told by his hospital that they aren't going to approve a risky surgery to vow to give up medicine and never save anyone else's life again.

 

Elnor at that point was working for Picard. Picard didn't give the order to kill the man. Apparently the job entails Picard having that authority to decide who Elnor kills, not Elnor.

 

"That's the combo an idiot uses on their luggage!"

 

Exactly right. I might feel differently if they dropped it all at once, but even with Stranger Things, or others I like, Lost In Space, Glow or Mindhunter, they still reflect the necessity of having to keep your audience moving through a narrative all throughout, while introducing elements like new cast, exposition or backstory etc...

Whether it's binged or not, 4 hours is 4 hours. It's just amplified when you must spend 4 weeks as well, but conversely, had this all been dropped at once, I might actually have bailed on it by now (Were it something other than Star Trek)

It's the sole fact of namesake that's bought me in & kept me around, & that feels exploitative to me, which is why I called it entitlement in my last post. They are knowingly propping up their deliberately slow production on the brand name. If this were any other show I personally found uninteresting like Another Life, or Carnival Row, I'd have already stopped watching.

It's also not like I'm an unforgiving audience. I even liked The Umbrella Academy. I quite liked Amazon's Hanna too & The Boys wasn't too bad. If I had to rate Picard based solely on its merit, among other shows in current production. I'd say that while it has superior production quality, it's actual entertainment value is just slightly below Jack Ryan, which I just finished season 2 of, & it took longer than normal, because I found it to drag too, & had some less remarkable plot points as well.

I also have to begrudgingly admit that apart from Stewart himself, the other performances are falling quite short of all these other benchmark shows I cited. Now factor in that this show required a separate subscription, which only offered a minimal amount of content that might appeal to me, among which Discovery has also been a mild disappointment similarly, & it's really bad form in my book. I already opted for this over some other subscriptions I might select like Hulu & Disney+, with their growing lineups.

It's a dog eat dog world in this new streaming paradigm, & I'm starting to get a serious feeling that this dog won't hunt. CBS just isn't competing well imho

 

Picard did not do that though. He staked his career to save the Romulans, and they accepted it. No ships, no Fleet, no letting the imperfect be the enemy of the good. It is a Moral Mary Sue, who is blameless for all the problems caused by everyone else who launches on a quest to atone for the sins of others. Wow. I could have been even MORE saintly and devoted my whole civilian life to this, but gosh darn it, I will now, and redeem the worlds sins while Im at it.

Redemption should be based on regret for his failures that led to these problems and pains. Instead he made no mistakes, and has zero responsibility for any problems. He just was not as Saintly as he could have been, so Saint JL needs to atone for that when multiple means of making him at least partly responsible were available to the producers.

 

CBSAA is playing the long game (the season will be available for binging once it's over).

He's tremendously guilt-ridden ("I should've done more. I shouldn't have left Elinor in the lurch. I should've done more for the refugees. I shouldn't have walked away.")

It's not rational -- but then again, people don't always behave rationally.

 

Yeah, I get that, in the moment-- but it just seems like another example of Picard's deathless self-righteousness that he would inflame the Romulans' bitterness in such a premeditated way. He knows Romulans-- he knows he's provoking some very desperate people, and Elnor essentially saved his life. What did he want him to do, stab him in the leg?

I found the whole scene astonishingly obnoxious. It was as if he felt he had to get back the moral high ground after being called on his cowardice and lethargy. So he, what, calls them on their xenophobia? Pulls down the sign, swaggers into their sad cafe and demands service, to teach them about... inclusivity?

I didn't even get the sign. There didn't seem to be any non-Romulans on the entire planet. Did they make it just for him?

 

There were Terrans on the planet. We didn't see them, but we were told they were there.

As far as I can tell, it was the usual Picard maneuver to get Elnor to rescue him and therefore change his mind. JL has pulled that kind of stunt off a couple of times in his career. And it worked.

 

He just rescued him a little too good.
Thanks, I didn't think of that.

 

I kind of remember seeing a single human extra in the crowd around the time Elnor arrived, but I might be mistaken.

 

He has Irumodic Syndrome. You're assuming he's behaving rationally.

He's dying.

Life may not mean a whole lot to him right now ("Far better to die in space than live as a vegetable at my Châteaux").

He may well be seeking to choose the time, place, and manner of his death.

 

now that you say it, yes, I believe during the duel, behind Picard a group of about three or four non-Romulan extras slowly walk in the direction of the fight

 

Starfleet gave him the proverbial Middle Finger. There's no going back to that well.

 

Finally watched it.

Liked the extra information on the Romulan Nuns and their absolute candor showing that not all Romulans are the same, was not surprised to see the resentment shown to Picard, did he really expect to be welcomed with open arms.

There was no way he could have saved them all without the Federation and Starfleet, the attack on Mars was just the excuse needed by those who didnt want to save the Romulans, whether they would go so far as to cause the attack on Mars is another matter though.

Rizzo needs to get laid stat, Narek needs to go and find somewhere to hide as female spiders tend to eat their partners, it is all going to come to a head sooner rather than later, whether or not Picard will make it to the cube before that happens remains to be seen.

I could definitely see her having a fight with Elnor if not Soji.

Liked the BoP but didnt get much of a sense of threat from it really, they even remembered to have the bird on the hull but it was a bit hard to see.

Jurati is busy collecting information, possibly for Oh but we didnt actually see what they talked about so its meant to still be an unknown, Oh could be playing a different game to what we all think.

Always happy to see Seven, I look forward to seeing her reaction when/if she meets Hugh.

Another solid 8 from me.

 

Picard threw a fit and went home to mope while hundreds of millions of Romulans likely died. I like and even admire the character of Jean-Luc Picard but this is the most objectionable he's been from a behavioral standpoint since TNG Season 1, and at least then he was still a stuffy veteran of the Stargazer and not yet exposed to the crew that would change both his life and his outlook on it.

Picard in the new series let himself become what Kirk told him never to allow himself to become: a man with flag rank on his collar and too much time on his hands to find ways to feel sorry for himself.

 

Yes, that is why there was a "Romulans only" sign at that place.

 

I think from the 22nd Century on no one has been able to design an android or hologram that didn't gain sentience. They probably have to buy new appliances every few months or so after they gain sentience and run off.

Only the Trans Am Birds of Prey got the bird painted on it.

 

Isn't there scence with a "No Romulans" sign in the back? Apparently terrans have their own bar.

 

I gave this episode a 8 but after thinking about it really deserves a 6. The padding is getting ludicrous. Soji and Narek have some chemistry but it's so drawn out. Also I'm sick of seeing Narek's sister vamping it up and threatening Narek. If they do this next episode, i'm just going to stop watching. Reusing the chateau set is a bad idea. It makes the series feel cheap. Give Picard a proper quarter, La Sirena looks big enough. The actual plot isn't bad but actually could use more exposition. The Federation basically abadoned everything. Where are the Vulcans in all this? Who are these Fenric rangers? Are they like the Marquis? Are they planning a spinnoff? Wouldn't have been better if the Romulans had some success and were thankful to Picard? That would have made his guilt a lot worse. Finally the battle with Romulan BoP was terrible. too many close ups, too many fast cuts. You couldn't follow the fight. They could have used the battle to bring the characters together. Show them working as a crew.

 

Another solid episode but I want the pace to pick up a little soon. We are 4 episodes in out of 10. I think if the pace remains where it is for the whole season, I'm not going to enjoy the conclusion. Sure, I don't want Discovery-level pacing. But we spent most of this episode doing more set-up. I just hope it's gong somewhere.

Looked like I might get what I want from next week's preview.