Overall, I thought it was fine. I think it got hit a little harshly by critics. It's not terrible (read: unwatchable), but it's pretty firmly my least favorite Star Trek series.
Without actually looking through the full episode lists, and just going off what I remember of each season, here are my gut ratings:
S1: 3/10
S2: 5/10
S3: 4/10
S4: 8/10
Overall: 5/10
Going a bit more into my thoughts in each...
Season 1 - 3/10
Pros:
- First new Trek in a while.
- Neat graphics.
- Great cast. (Especially Doug Jones as Saru).
Cons:
- Prequel-itis...
- New graphics don't match the TOS era.
- We already know, roughly, how things will pan out.
- Retcons.
- Unintelligible Klingons (and unreadable subtitles).
- Discovery is ugly.
Season 2 - 5/10
Pros:
- Interesting season-long mystery, with payoff for multiple story beats.
- Introduces Anson Mount as Captain Pike, leading to the spinoff of Strange New Worlds.
Cons:
- More prequel-itis...
- Puts legacy characters in peril, when the audience knows they canonically must survive. Saps any tension.
- Galaxy-level threat must obviously be defeated, since we know there's life in the future canon.
- Burnham time suit well beyond reasonable tech level for the era.
- Control drone fleet tech unreasonable for the era.
- Predestination/Bootstrap paradox.
- Discount Borg.
Season 3 - 4/10
Pros:
- Finally out of prequel territory.
- Cool future tech.
- Interesting mystery of The Burn.
- Great character development.
Cons:
- Unsatisfying conclusion to The Burn mystery.
- Tired of seeing The Federation in shambles.
- Seriously, the source of The Burn was stupid.
- Discovery would be able to solve so, sooo many problems in this era.
- Did I mention the sad kid causing The Burn?
Season 4 - 8/10
Pros:
- More character development.
- Federation starting to get back on its feet.
- Interesting mystery around the "Dark Matter Anomaly" (DMA)
- We get to see The Federation deal with a truly alien first contact. Species 10-C was amazing.
Cons:
- Once again, an existential threat. Very exhausting.
Conclusion
I think Discovery suffered from one main issue, in multiple way: season-based plots. Since every season had a single main plot, any issues with the plot ruin the whole season. We don't get standalone great episodes like in the old series, which you could watch at random. You kinda need to watch the whole season. Furthermore, since each season had to have a big plot, every season is dealing with a huge issue. It's exhausting being in an existential crisis the entire time. That's the feeling we have in our real world right now. That's the reason I watch Star Trek; it's a glimpse at how the future might be brighter. Discovery never felt like a promising future. It felt like we are going to be struggling for our lives for the next millennium and more.
So, I still enjoyed it as a piece of media, and a part of the Star Trek canon, but it's not a show I see myself watching again and again like the rest of the franchise.
I'd say it started at a 6 or 7, and grew to a strong 8 over its runtime. Most of the characters have always been beautifully nuanced, but the stakes of its plots have always been unnecessarily inflated, and the endings for each story arc are of very mixed quality. After the jump to the 31st century, the storylines became much more Star Trek-ian, and the show started to display more of its own identity separate from classic Trek and action movie tropes, and that pushed it into properly great territory.
7/10 I think its get hated on very unfairly, though it has significant structural issues that keep it from being the best of star trek. Even still, anyone who says that it didn't have the heart of star trek is wrong I think, if it wasn't still there in some essential way we wouldn't have gotten the rest of new star trek.
Also anyone who says the futuristic starship designs in discovery aren't awesome are just wrong, sorry.
Well, Discovery is the only Trek I gave up on. Forced myself through S1 & S2, but eventually decided it was not worth my time. SNW gave me back my hope on good New Trek though.
Didn't care for the story, the characters or the futuristic looks even though it was supposed to be a prequel to TOS.
Score 2 out of 10 maybe?
If you enjoy DIS, by all means, have fun. It just doesn't work for me.
3 - Michael Burnham is so annoying self centered and needy. If they'd moved to being a more ensemble cast sooner and not had it seem like they thought the universe revolved around her then it could have got a solid 6.
5/10: Season one made me think we were getting some kind of Trek / Sliders mashup where they are lost AF in the multiverse and in theory closed all possible prequel issues right then and there. Nothing they could have done would match the show I thought we were in for.
