I watched episodes 2 & 3 last night, I'll probably catch up on the others this weekend. Currently I'm kind of interested in it, kind of feel nothing towards it. The look and feel of it is more modern in the sensibilities, but just like with the Discovery opening credits, this opening credits "feels mature" while not clearly encapsulating the show... it's just pretty, abstracted graphics that belong in a picture book without a clearly identifiable musical fingerprint but that seems to be the network's thing nowadays.... and yet when you get into episode itself, it just feels like TNG updated with today's sensibilities.
I have to say, they certainly did not lose the Trek technobabble factor -- when they're scanning Daj's room for evidence, there's a lot of talk being thrown around that sounds like made-up science on the fly. It's kind of amusing in the sense of technical-sounding Doctor Seuss speak would be.
The episodes feel short to me, maybe because I've gotten used to hour-long episodes with all the cable shows I watch -- I'm watching on a stream without commercials and I was surprised both times when episodes ended.
There are some things I like, I like that they lean into Picard's idealism to the point where sometimes he leaves himself open to shady characters. He actually seems in need of a crew, just to help him counter-balance his own personal ways of looking for the best in others. He totally gets blind-sided by the one person he goes to deal with. I like there are people actually pissed off at him because of the fallout from some of his personal crusades he built off his own personal integrity that got everyone bit in the butt. I like mild callbacks to old TNG characters, especially following up on what happens when beings are removed from the Borg collective (which we all need to remember Picard was one of himself for a bit, although not as lengthy as some). And I always forget how badass the Romulans are physically in the post-TNG world cosmos, I just rewatched Star Trek (2009) last night and it's the same thing -- they look like vulcans in some way (just bulkier) but physically both genders can beat humans senseless because they are just so ramped up. I like seeing Allison Pill in something again as well. And the artificial people appearing in the retelling of I assume the sabotage were pretty creepy, it was a crazy scene.
But like I noted above... I don't really feel much. I can see all the setups for villains and heroes, and the show is put together nicely, but I am just having trouble caring much about it or the people so far. I felt this way in general with Discovery Season 1 and most Trek series in general after TNG, and even with TNG on revisits now I tend to not care as much as I did when it was airing. I can't quite put my finger on it. Is it because it all feels like they are working from a story and character template, more overtly than most series? Or that everyone has to remain controlled and reserved, except in carefully designed outbursts? Not sure how to express it. I did remember being surprised at the F-bomb I think I heard -- I mean, I was so surprised, now I'm questioning whether I heard it, but that's still somewhat cosmetic.