It had a big problem from the start by being pigeon holed into existing lore. You've established a universe, just like you would have had in any other series. In science fiction, you can literally go anywhere in the future. Why is Star Trek stuck in the same three hundred year span?
The Klingon war was meh. Outside of grafting Voq onto Tyler pretty brutally, there was nothing new here. We love Klingons, but at the same time, they had been done to death.
The mirror Lorca reveal was another "come on" moment. Jason Isaacs is a well known, decent actor. Why did we have to make him a one dimensional moustache twirling villain instead of perhaps exploring some PTSD with some depth? Same with Georgiou. She didn't have to die in the premiere, they could've had the experience break her & go down a path like that.
The second season was probably the best, except for the need to have Michael be part of Spock's family and making him such an integral piece. I know we don't get SNW if we don't do this, but if you are not stuck in this point in time, you could still have her be mentored or adopted by a Vulcan, like Tuvok.
As the series went on, the powers that be seemed to try to pile on the progressive storylines, which in theory is not bad. But Adira was so poorly written, basically to be Stamets & Tilly's scene partner. Their relationship with Gray was painfully boring & again Gray becoming trans (I guess), it didn't need fan fare, but again, it was so painfully boring, it just wasn't earned at all.
By the fifth season, you get Rayner and you are just begging for him to be the captain. They are all one big happy family and he looks like the frustrated Archie Bunker. You don't know anything about any of the bridge crew to make you care and half of them get replaced mid-season.
Discovery really needed to knock it out of the park being the first Star Trek series in a decade, but it never got on track.
