What I’m Watching: Star Trek: Picard

Star Trek: Picard: Season 2, Episode 7 “Monsters” (B+)

I wasn’t so into the literal monster that haunted a young Picard’s nightmares, but fortunately that storyline is now over and Picard is back, and the rest of this episode was pretty terrific. I was absolutely thrilled to see James Callis cast as the Starfleet therapist working with Picard in his unconscious state who later revealed himself to be his abusive father. I’m a big fan of Callis’ from “Battlestar Galactica,” as I’m sure any science fiction fan is, and he also had a similarly key role at the end of “12 Monkeys” that made tremendous use of his talents. Tallinn managed to get him out of there, which was good, showing Picard her Romulan ears before they parted ways, and then he went straight to Guinan for help summoning Q. While that didn’t work, we did get to see another great actor, who also had a part like this in “12 Monkeys,” Jay Karnes from “The Shield,” as an overly chatty patron who turned out to be an FBI agent. I’m not sure what the charges are for this traveler from the future and his alien accomplice, but their arrests are not a productive development. While Raffi and Seven debate their approaches to this time period and race to stop the Borg Queen from her apparent mission to assimilate humanity before it can defend itself, Rios gave Teresa and her son the answers they thought they were seeking, astounding them by assuring that he was from Chile but he worked in outer space. Seven’s not going to like that.

What I’m Watching: The Walking Dead

The Walking Dead: Season 8, Episode 3 “Monsters” (C+)

I’ve come to a point where I just don’t care what happens to any of these characters. Any of them could die and I don’t think I’d care, even someone like Maggie who’s been around since the beginning. I also feel like there are so many landscapes and buildings that look exactly the same that it’s hard to keep track of where the good guys are, where the bad guys are, and why it is that they seem to be getting continually ambushed after having the upper hand. There are just two people who don’t want to kill everyone they meet, and Jesus is literally fighting with his allies about it while Rick isn’t bothering to argue when less understanding forces like Darryl are around and ready to shoot first. Morgan has lost it completely, expressing an uncontrollable desire for blood while others like Tara simply say that they don’t see the good in keeping people alive. Maggie nearly turned Gregory away at the gates, which would have been a fitting punishment for his traitorous actions, but then she let him in and had to argue just moments later that it wasn’t smart for Jesus to invite in all the prisoners. I don’t believe that there’s going to be a time anytime soon that will be post-Negan since this show is so endlessly cyclical and we haven’t even seen the big bad in a while. Or, worse, they’ll become Negan, because like a dead man said, “Yeah, I’m Negan, I had to be to make it this far.”