WesternAnimation I was not expecting it to be good
Honestly, I did not watch this for a long while because the trailer kind of left a nasty taste in my mouth. As it's a trailer, I don't think it's a spoiler to say that it featured one character acting like a complete jackass, getting wasted, bullying a fellow ensign who was trying to take things more seriously and ends in her inflicting a serious stab wound on the ensign who was just minding my own business.
In Starfleet that's the sort of thing that should see you instantly court-martialled out.
So my first impression was "This is just Rick and Morty in Starfleet uniforms, taking a massive dump on the canon". I had no plans to watch it.
But there was a lot of buzz surrounding it so naturally I did have to watch it in the end. I went in with no expectations that it would be any good. In the end? I was pleasantly surprised. For whatever reason, Trek has historically always had problematic first seasons (or in this case, first quarter of a first season) before the writers and actors settle down, they find the tone they want to convey, etc. This seems to have been the case here, with the first couple of episodes being the expected Rick and Morty schtick (which is okay if you're in the mood for that, but gets old fast). But by the third episode I was starting to think, wow, this actually resembles Star Trek in places! I still think ensign Mariner's introduction was a massive misstep, but now that I know the character a bit better it does at least make sense. I'd have still have tried to find a less obnoxious way to introduce her, though.
By episode 9, I was fully invested, and by the way, episode 9 of the first season is a glorious sendup of the Trek movies! By episode 10, they introduce some actual steaks and brought back what had previously been regarded as a joke villain from TOS and turned them into an actual credible threat! By this point it was obvious that the people working on this really do care about the Trek franchise and, for its nutty tone, are definitely trying to make something that pays homage to it whilst poking fun at it in the process.
The second season was a lot more solid than the first (though Mariner's continued obnoxious grudge against Boimler over his promotion to work on the Titan under Captain Will Wiker was dragged out far longer than it should have been and I was glad to finally see the back of it. What's more, season 2's finale might be one of the best Trek series finales of any Trek series, not just this one, and it ended on an absolutely shocking cliffhanger.
It's funny how much I've become invested in these cartoon characters when after 3 seasons of Discovery I barely remember half of the characters' names. They're goofballs, but they do their best to uphold Starfleet's ideals (mostly) and are clearly having a blast doing it. It's hard not to be carried along by their enthusiasm.
WesternAnimation Goes Nowhere, Does Nothing
The explicit premise of Star Trek Lower Decks is that whilst the heroic Captain and officers beam off to some planet to an adventure, someone has to stay on the ship to fix the johns and clean up the tribble piss. The story focuses on four junior ensigns, trying to muddle through a banal life. That's the stated premise, which the show then betrays it within the first ten minutes.
Within the first episode, our main characters are already stepping out of routine to go have the same kind of big adventures as anyone else. Despite the name of the show, we are never really far from the bridge, with the main characters often getting involved with the Captain or other officers, or getting inserted into the forefront of the action. I think this is the biggest reason for why the show doesn't really work; there is certainly room for a Star Trek parody that focuses on day to day problems someone within the Star Trek universe would likely face, but this show still wants to have its alien attacks and excitement. It's like the opposite of Archer, a show that pretends to be about spy craft but is really about workplace bickering. Lower Decks, can't bring itself to stay in the workplace for more than a few minutes before running off to the next action scene.
The switcheroo wouldn't matter one iota if the show had the kind of wit to cushion it. Archer certainly did (for the first few seasons, anyway), but often in Lower Decks there isn't a joke being told at all, unless you think making a Star Trek reference is itself a joke. On top of that, the four main characters aren't distinct enough to work off of one another. They are all very competent and enthusiastic at what they do, and the conflict derives from them being enthusiastic for different things; Mariner is a rebel who loves to break rules, Boimler is a conformist who loves to stick to rules. Sam is a workaholic, and D'vani is... a slightly different workaholic? there isn't enough detail to their relationships or personalities to cause them to misalign, or create fun arguments beyond the same "should we go by the book?" one over and over.
It is all fairly inoffensive and you won't really have a bad time watching Lower Decks, but it isn't much else beyond that. Between the grim cynicism of Rick and Morty, the playful silliness of Futurama, or whatever Final Space is doing (never got around to watching it), you have Lower Decks bringing nothing to the table.
WesternAnimation YELLOW ALERT!
Ok. Where to even begin?
Star Trek: Lower Decks is a series by Mcmahan, who was the second half of Rick and Morty's creation duo, so comparisons are inevitable. Rick and Morty is basically a show about abusive relationships, metanarrative, general destruction and toxic behavior. It relies heavily on the viewer not rooting too much for the protagonists so these may be maimed and punished, and it relies on lowbrow humor in order to not glorify Rick and show him as to what he is: A toxic person.
This kind of structure can work on its own, but it meshes with an optimistic and cheerful style of Star Trek just like as a nuclear warhead detonation meshes very well with the arctic pole full of baby seals. And if Mcmahan said in interviews that he is a fan of the series and doesn't want to punch down Star Trek, I am genuinely afraid of what would happen if he hated the series (*coughlikeJJAbrahamscough*).
Now, caustic humor can be interesting, and a series such as Star Trek isn't unwelcome to humor. Many episodes such as Data's Day or Trouble with Tribbles are comedic in nature. All you need is a strong cast of interesting characters that, like Star Trek, you want to see face new situations and evolve as people.
That... doesn't happen here. At all.
The main characters are composed by the infamous duo of 'brash as*hole and wimp stick-in-the-mud'. You need an as*hole to be brash and strong so the 'wacky' so it has enough willpower to go on its own, ignore rules and make antics to be 'funny', and you need a character to oppose the first, a stickler for rules that has to be weak, or else it would stop the brash as*hole. These are Mariner and Bomiler. The very first scene Mariner appears drunk, spouts nonsense about regulations, grabs a rusty Bat'leth and accidentally cuts Boimler's leg open up in the femoral artery. He'd be dead in less than a minute, not long enough to reach the med-bay, and even if he survived she'd be sent to prison. But since this is the main 'wacky' duo, this scene has no repercussions whatsoever.
This is the intro, and it is the tone of the series. The main purpose is cheap laughs using the Star Trek canon universe as props for its gags. It feels (at least to me) as if Boimler was some kind of stand-in for the old trek fans: He loves the Federation, the ship and all what stands for it, and Mariner is always there to spout an acid remark about everything he loves, all the time, as something 'uncool', like a jock trying to ruin the fun (I think she even called him a nerd once or twice). He also spouts a lot about codes and regulations, what's supposed to be done and what isn't, but he doesn't know a lot about them, has little experience in the field and breaks under pressure. Which leads us to Mariner: She is loud, brash, hates reading, hates regulations (but remember all the codes from memory), strong, fast and has enough experience in the field to put captains to shame. She smuggles items, breaks regulations, but everyone seems to love her. Yes, all the ingredients of the dreaded Mary Sue. The secondary characters are composed by D'Vana (An orion) and Rutherford (A cyborg) which so far didn't offer any traits besides, respectively, the new arrival who loves everything in the ship (but is exempted from Mariner's acid) and wacky engineer that LOVES everything mechanic to the point of ignoring a woman kissing him. Not the best side-characters of the bunch but due their blank states they have potential.
So far the episodes shown are quite hostile to the Federation, to a point where DS 9 would go 'whoa dude, stop!'. The first episode shows that the upper brass treats everything in the lower decks (get it? Because the series is named Lower Decks!) with disdain at best and contempt at worst, D'Vana being called a 'lower decks' like a slur as soon as she arrives, the captain using Boimler as a mole to catch her daughter, Mariner (yes, you read that right) breaking the rules again. Her first in command is described as "Riker on speed" (I'm not making this up) and keeps acting 'macho'. The first planet they visit, Mariner needs to smuggle (!?) farming equipment to farmers because she says that 'these people fell through the cracks of bureaucracy'. Just... how? Why? This is farming equipment that can be made in minutes! Logic is eschewed in order to make a visible stupid point or joke (The ship has one of the worst designs I've seen. And if they just wanted to say that it's a lame ship, they could just, you know, given them a refurbished old ship? Because that's what Federation actually does?) and moments that could lead to character development are kicked in the 'badass fratboy/lame bookworm' dichotomy between Mariner and Boimler, such as when she tries to cheer him up after he is stabbed in the privates (yes). She keeps spouting that the federation doesn't need an awesome person like her, how they need 'by the book' people like Boimler, before helping his esteem out of pity by setting an staged encounter with a ferengi.
And in the end they keep tossing the names of known characters such as Kirk, Picard, Sulu and so on around as if trying to yell 'See? We know the canon! We respect the canon! We are adhering to the canon!' Why call for the canon if you won't use it? There is lot of good jokes to be had, like how anything with a pulse (and not even with a pulse in some CANONICAL cases) can hijack a federation starship, or how literally everyone around the federation had war with them once or twice, or how the human part of the federation LOVES insane super-science to the point of punching holes in reality in a weekly basis.
Honestly, it can still be salvaged, I sincerely hope it pulls its act together and tries to improve, but for that you need to get rid of the main duo, clean the act and try to do a lighthearted homage. You know, like the Orville is doing. In a much, much, much, much better way.