Star Trek Picard landed somewhere between Good and Very Good for me.
Thematically it gets an A+. They knocked it out of the park. The themes of oppression, fear, trauma, and ultimately hope were fully realized.
The character work was a little spotty, and here I'll give it a B-. They nailed Picard himself; he was a return to form after the weird departure in the movies. It was great to see Riker, Troi, and Data, too. The other main characters were mostly good and had satisfying arcs. I thought the Rios/Jurati pairing was forced and lacking chemistry; they should have left it at the one night stand and it would've been fine. The Raffi/Seven implied pairing came out of left field, but I think the characters could work together so I'll keep an open mind. The Romulan villains were competently written but were nothing special. The other side characters were a little spotty; Dr Soong was not a consistent character, and his motivations changed on a whim to suit the plot. Most of the Synths were very shallow, paper-thin characters. There were also good side characters too, though.
The world building was top notch, getting an A+. I love everything about this universe. It's so much more alive and interesting than Star Trek has ever been outside of DS9. This universe feels lived in. It has character and history. The defunct Borg cube research station was an incredible set piece. Starfleet's decline as a moral authority felt too real. I wouldn't have minded a few more Easter eggs to let us know what the Klingons, Cardassians, and the Dominion were up to, but that's a minor complaint.
The plot is really where this show falters, especially at the climax. Magic Sonic Screwdrivers, all-powerful synthetic beings from another dimension, a magic beacon to summon them being designed in less than a day after learning that they exist, a mind meld between an Android and a human (?!?!), Picard's pilot conveniently having a prior encounter with the Synths by pure coincidence despite being one of maybe 100 people who has, a super secret Romulan cabal who can easily assemble a fleet of 200 ships on command despite their home world literally exploding a decade earlier, an equally large fleet of Starships arriving at the very last second to save the day, the all-powerful Synths briefly coming into our universe and no one is worried about them returning on their own.... I could go on. It was pretty shoddy and the conclusion seemed an afterthought. It was serviceable as a vehicle for the character work, themes, and world building, but not much more than that. I give the plot a C.
Overall I enjoyed the show and I give it a solid A. I'm looking forward to season 2. I hope Garak shows up.
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