I'm gonna back what
@Flexo was saying about Discovery but expand on it alittle.
Industry wants a woke cast full of women and PoCs? Fine. I actually don't give a shit, and that was the
whole fucking point of the original cast of TOS anyway.
Can these people act? It appears so, they seem lively and emotive in interviews. Cast is pretty good-looking too. I know that's vain, but point is, these seem to be professional actors.
Then they get in front of the camera and its like.... fucking robots on methadone. Everyone either acts like they're dead on the inside, acts like a shithead, or acts like they have severe ADHD and they've gone way off their meds.
So where did this all go wrong? I don't know for certain, but I'll bet you just about
anything that its the fucking hack behind the camera. Or maybe some producer on set sticking their nose where it doesn't belong. Point is, you've got what appears to be a decent set of actors, yet they're directed like freaking muppets when they get on screen. Voyager had this issue to some extent, Enterprise had it worse, JJ Trek had it
bad (I think there's an interview out there where Chris Pine literally says the director sucked at his job and I'm pretty sure Simon Peg wasn't happy either) and now its really come to a head with Discovery.
I don't even think The Orville is all that great but I can see why people are basically fellating it compared to Discovery; because the characters on the show actually feel like fucking characters. Comedy characters yes, but still characters. You get a feel for these people. The last few generations of Trek have been getting progressively worse with characterization to the point where I'm just watching in horror at the sheer waste of talent on display sometimes. They can make a good Woke Trek if they want to, because Star Trek has always been about social issues. The people in charge just don't give a shit.