SPOILER ALERT: This story discusses plot — and musical! — developments in Season 2, Episode 9 of “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds,” currently streaming on Paramount+. Since premiering in 2022, “Star …
There seems to be quite a tug of war going on in the IMDb ratings. 20% of users voted the episode a 1 out of 10 stars. I mean, sure you might not like musicals. But all the talent that went into creating this show surely doesn’t warrant a 1. 🤷♂️
Once upon a time, a prominent YouTuber released an entire video rant about the fan backlash he was receiving.
He had spent years building up his channel and producing quality content of a very specific type. He had almost a million subscribers, and he was previously received very well.
Then one day he decided to spend months producing and releasing content of a closely related – but different – type. At first it was mostly received well, but it ultimately wasn’t what people wanted from his channel. And it just kept coming.
Enter the rant. The short of his argument was that he was producing quality content with high production value. And that should be good enough for his fans.
But it wasn’t. Because it wasn’t the content that they wanted.
And he kept going. So his views went down. And his subscribers went down too. And he got so frustrated that he ended up just walking away for months.
This week’s episode of Strange New Worlds was objectively good. It was well written and well performed.
But I still squirmed through it. And if I hadn’t suspected that it might be very important to the long-term plot, I probably would have just skipped it altogether. I’ll certainly skip it on any rewatch.
And that’s okay. We’re allowed to like some things and not like others. Strange New Worlds seems to be on a path du jour, and there’s nothing wrong with that.
But when people give a simple star rating, they aren’t leaving a professional review. They aren’t considering production value. They’re saying they liked it, or they hated it, or something in-between.
From IMDB instructions on leaving ratings:
Our ratings are on a scale from 1 - 10. 1 meaning the title was terrible and one of the worst titles you’ve seen and 10 meaning you think it was excellent.
That’s it.
That’s why you’re seeing those one-star reviews. And there’s nothing wrong with that.
Frankly of the 19 episodes released so far, this is the only one I can say that I really didn’t like. All in all, I think that’s a pretty good average.
I would somewhat agree with you if we were just talking about ranking Star Trek episodes specifically. If Subspace Rhapsody is among the worst Star Trek episodes you’ve ever seen, then sure, give it a 1. That makes sense on Star Trek specific review websites like jammersreviews.com.
But we’re talking about IMDb which ranks all TV shows and all movies, so the ranking scale encompasses everything you’ve ever seen on screen. And now tell me again with a straight face that a well-produced well-written well-acted episode of a franchise that we love ranks in the same 1-star category as the worst non-scripted reality trash TV you’ve ever seen.
It’s brigading to gatekeep their vision of Trek unsullied by franchise content made to appeal to other tastes. It seems many of them wish TOS were never made, or I don’t know how they can view episodes like The Naked Time or TNG’s Naked Now.
I’m highly skeptical that that many of them even hate-watched the episode.
The folks who gave it 3s to 5s seem more likely to be considered views.
There seems to be quite a tug of war going on in the IMDb ratings. 20% of users voted the episode a 1 out of 10 stars. I mean, sure you might not like musicals. But all the talent that went into creating this show surely doesn’t warrant a 1. 🤷♂️
Once upon a time, a prominent YouTuber released an entire video rant about the fan backlash he was receiving.
He had spent years building up his channel and producing quality content of a very specific type. He had almost a million subscribers, and he was previously received very well.
Then one day he decided to spend months producing and releasing content of a closely related – but different – type. At first it was mostly received well, but it ultimately wasn’t what people wanted from his channel. And it just kept coming.
Enter the rant. The short of his argument was that he was producing quality content with high production value. And that should be good enough for his fans.
But it wasn’t. Because it wasn’t the content that they wanted.
And he kept going. So his views went down. And his subscribers went down too. And he got so frustrated that he ended up just walking away for months.
This week’s episode of Strange New Worlds was objectively good. It was well written and well performed.
But I still squirmed through it. And if I hadn’t suspected that it might be very important to the long-term plot, I probably would have just skipped it altogether. I’ll certainly skip it on any rewatch.
And that’s okay. We’re allowed to like some things and not like others. Strange New Worlds seems to be on a path du jour, and there’s nothing wrong with that.
But when people give a simple star rating, they aren’t leaving a professional review. They aren’t considering production value. They’re saying they liked it, or they hated it, or something in-between.
From IMDB instructions on leaving ratings:
That’s it.
That’s why you’re seeing those one-star reviews. And there’s nothing wrong with that.
Frankly of the 19 episodes released so far, this is the only one I can say that I really didn’t like. All in all, I think that’s a pretty good average.
I would somewhat agree with you if we were just talking about ranking Star Trek episodes specifically. If Subspace Rhapsody is among the worst Star Trek episodes you’ve ever seen, then sure, give it a 1. That makes sense on Star Trek specific review websites like jammersreviews.com.
But we’re talking about IMDb which ranks all TV shows and all movies, so the ranking scale encompasses everything you’ve ever seen on screen. And now tell me again with a straight face that a well-produced well-written well-acted episode of a franchise that we love ranks in the same 1-star category as the worst non-scripted reality trash TV you’ve ever seen.
It’s brigading to gatekeep their vision of Trek unsullied by franchise content made to appeal to other tastes. It seems many of them wish TOS were never made, or I don’t know how they can view episodes like The Naked Time or TNG’s Naked Now.
I’m highly skeptical that that many of them even hate-watched the episode.
The folks who gave it 3s to 5s seem more likely to be considered views.