While it wasn't perfect, I really liked what Season 1 aspired to be, confronting the ideals of what Star Fleet stood for with a cold reality where they abandoned those ideals, out of selfishness, cowardice and ultimately a form of tribalism. This betrayal rang quite true for me, since it reflected what we have been seeing in the West over the last years, with populism leading to often disastrous decisions, like Trumps election, Brexit, and countless smaller examples in the rest of the world.
There were definitely issues, and things I didn't like about it. Most of these issues are about execution. Writing that wasn't good enough, acting that wasn't directed well enough. But the one thing I wanted Trek to do after Next Generation and DS9, was to move the story forward, and try to stay relevant to today. Star Trek is at its best when its fiction tries to hold a mirror against our current world. That was always a strong theme, from the Cold War inspiring the conflict between Star Fleet and Klingons, to trying to tackle issues of racism and generally arguing for a humanist ideal of humanity might become.
ST: Picard turns this on its head, it argues that we have failed to live up to that ideal. It tries to show how one man alone is fighting for that ideal, when almost everyone else has forgotten it. It's a darker story, but I do believe ST: Picards -- at its core -- is at least as hopeful as the best of Stark Trek ever was.
I am a bit weary about this second season. I liked the ending of Season 1, and I felt it would have worked pretty well for a final goodbye to the character of Picard. I hope they don't mess it up with this next season.
