A note on third-party reviews:

Historically, we have not allowed external reviews of individual episodes on the Old Site, as we felt they didn't really contribute anything that wasn't covered by our own discussion threads.

Now that we've migrated and have a smaller community, we might be more flexible on this for a little while.

(Advance review round-up posts like this one have always been okay, I'm just taking advantage of the opportunity to mention this.)

I can't trust most reviews after Picard. It's a symptom of the larger problem with reviews these days that I just don't trust most names anymore.

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.

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.

Loved season 1. Best first season of any star Trek series. Looks like this season is more of the same.

I'm so hyped for season 2! Season 1 was outstanding so I'm cool with more of that.

Alan Sepinwall, generally regarded as the dean of modern-era television critics, has his review up: https://www.rollingstone.com/tv-movies/tv-movie-reviews/star-trek-strange-new-worlds-season-2-review-anson-mount-ethan-peck-1234766233/

He likes it a lot, but says that he still misses the days of the long seasons and also notes that Wesley's guest performances as Kirk still haven't quite settled yet.

Great! I'm not going to read any of these, but an excited for the new season.

Season 1 was a case of absolutely zero expectations given my lukewarm reaction to much of recent Trek series, so SNW smashed it for me. I hope I'm not going into Season 2 over hyped...!

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

USA Today released a review too https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/tv/2023/06/14/star-trek-strange-new-worlds-season-2-review-the-trek-we-deserve/70312667007/