Since the embargo came off early Monday, many reviews are out based on the first six episode screeners.
Many are unequivocally positive to hyper enthusiastic. Some have a few quibbles in otherwise positive reviews.
In the absence of a dedicated SNW subgroup (yet…), I thought I’d drop some links to the reviews so far to get the conversation going.
Additional links can be added in comments.
Inverse https://www.inverse.com/entertainment/star-trek-strange-new-worlds-season-2-review
Slash Film https://www.slashfilm.com/1300328/star-trek-strange-new-worlds-season-2-review/
Radio Times https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/sci-fi/star-trek-strange-new-worlds-season-2-review/
Paste Magazine https://www.pastemagazine.com/tv/paramount-plus/star-trek-strange-new-worlds-season-2-review
Original Cin https://www.original-cin.ca/posts/2023/6/13/star-trek-strange-new-worlds-s2-the-underrated-power-of-the-short-story
The Movie Blog https://www.themovieblog.com/2023/06/star-trek-strange-new-worlds-season-2-builds-on-its-excellent-approach-to-trek/
CBR https://www.cbr.com/star-trek-strange-new-worlds-season-2-review/
Games Radar https://www.gamesradar.com/star-trek-strange-new-worlds-season-two-review/
I don’t get reviews for movies/show. Makes no sense to me. If I’ve not watched the movie/show, I don’t wanna get spoiled and/or influenced by some random stranger who thinks the movie is either bad or good.
I want to see the movie/show on my own and then decide if its good or not. And after that, why do I need to read reviews? I already saw the movie/show and I know if I liked it or not. No reason to read a review of it.
For me it feels more like, many people need others to tell them if they should like a movie/show or not.
I totally get video game reviews because they are expensive and usually a much higher time investment compared to a movie or “tv” show.
The person from TV guide called it a “miracle”. Several times. https://www.tvguide.com/news/star-trek-strange-new-worlds-season-2-review/?fbclid=IwAR1rfi-VsGS4mYjT9nJJGaSKcuYirDdlJp37qZDSTzkkhUWbwqUnJcCjuPo
Fair enough.
I too felt Picard season three was heavily overhyped, especially by many of the Star Trek specialty sites.
In general though, I welcome nonspoilery general early reviews, especially from less specialized professional reviewers.
In this case, I am noticing that the more mainstream reviews are the most positive and the specialized genre or franchise reviews are working for a more measured tone than with Picard.
Is it because the genre reviewers have felt the disappointment with of some of fandom with Picard, or is it because they are at heart TNG era fans? Makes one wonder.
In my own case, I can forgive much of the overly positive reviews of Picard because I really found the early episodes the strongest, with the writers doubling down on everything that most concerned me in the back half of the season. It was episode 6 where the wheels of plot and character began to come off and nostalgia was given the work of heavy lifting TNG fans through to the end.
With SNW being episodic, six episodes would seem to be enough to know if the shows continuing strongly or hitting a sophomore slump. No one yet has called slump. So it seems that those who liked season one should expect to be satisfied with season two.