It's no big deal. Not every show is for everyone. I will give the producers credit for at least trying something different. And clearly there is an audience for it as it got the greenlight for a third season.
So I did finally sign up for Paramount + and just finished watching the most recent season. It certainly ended on a decidedly downbeat note which was unexpected. This season was marginally better for me. I still have a hard time getting into it, though it has a lot of Easter eggs and references to prior shows, and this seems to be the perfect show to do that. They are obviously trying to make Lower Decks the comedy in the Star Trek franchise, but too many times the jokes and funnies just seem to fall flat for me. Like the producers aren't totally willing to go all in on the humor. So overall Lower Decks still falls in last place for me among the spin-offs we have seen thus far. But I'll keep watching it. Maybe things will improve. It's not terrible, just a bit disappointing to me.
Lower Decks is one of the best things to happen to Star Trek, in my opinion. It's a show that absolutely loves the world that it plays in and recognizes the sometimes-absurdity of it all. I particularly love how it doesn't make the universe the butt of all its jokes. But even with all of that, it's still a genuine Star Trek show that tells stories that could easily be told on any of the other series. I'm usually smiling ear to ear whenever I finish watching an episode. And how many franchises have concurrent shows where one can laugh at it while the others play it straight? At the start, I was very skeptical about this show, as one would be. It was an entirely new area for the franchise to explore. But very quickly, the series blasted to the top of my Favorite Trek Series list.