You talk about it evoking the feeling of Star Trek more so than the previous seasons. Which I assume means Star Trek of the TNG era.
And it doesn't. At least no more so than Discovery. It crams in a lot of reference and characters from that era, but it's still an action show set in space.
Even if the first couple of seasons of TNG don't have a lot of bangers, the spirit of the show is still there. I'm also tired of the trope that they aren't good. There's a lot in both seasons that carry through the show. Plus, The Measure of a Man is one of the best episodes of the series.
And that's the thing, when you look to TNG's best episodes, you'll come to episodes like The Measure of a Man, The Inner Light, and Darmok. Where there's either no action or the action really only exists to forward the real central conflict. Episodes which make us question what it means to be conscious, what it means to live a fulfilled life, what it means to be able to communicate with others. You get these meaningful explorations into humanity by forcing the issue through the extremes provided by science fiction.
In this season, we get told that Picard kinda, sorta regrets not being able to be a father to Jack Crusher. But we don't actually get to explore that within the show itself. We're way more concerned with surfing the gravimetric waves. Or the portal gun. Or changelings taking over the crew.
All the real conflict is physical and confrontational. The show is about saving the galaxy, not about what humanity means.
Season 3 of Picard finishes a lot of the story arcs that got left over the runtime of TNG.
Take the storyarc that was begun in TNG S04E02 "Family" and continued in ST:VII "Generations" of the legacy of the Picard family. Both in "Family" and in "Generations" the desire to leave a legacy, to continue the family, is well established. The Jack Crusher storyline continues this very arc.
The show doesn't have to explore those feelings, because they've already been explored, this is just the conclusion of a 33 year old storyline.
I agree though that it'd be awesome if it was just the old TNG, continued, but I doubt that'd run well nowadays. First, the new showrunners obviously took some time to get the feeling of Star Trek - their seasons have improved one by one.
Second, them splitting what made TNG well into multiple shows - Picard resolves the open storylines, Strange New Worlds asks more philosophical monster of the week questions, Discovery explores progressive inclusivity - feels like a deliberate choice considering the fanbase is quite wide, and everyone expects something different.
Personally I really like that it's less pure action, a little more grounded, actions have consequences, Starfleet itself is involved again, it's all going in the right direction. Definitely not there yet, but after so many years of going in the wrong direction, this is good.
Also, explored in many other episodes. Like the seventh season episode Bloodlines, fourth season episodes Suddenly Human and Final Mission, and countless others.
It is heavily tread territory. Picard offers nothing really new to it. But it wants to retread it all over again for some reason. It's not really a continuation, it's a poor rehash. It's not even resolving anything. It's reopening something that's been resolved.
Picard Season 2 was considerably worse than Season 1.
It doesn't have to be TNG, but it could at least be closer to Strange New Worlds.
Picard is way more action-oriented than TNG-era Trek. There hasn't been an episode where physical violence wasn't central to the conflict. Now, Picard's structure is different from TNG-era. It is not episodic. Every episode serves a larger storyline. That necessarily precludes any individual episode being about "a thing".
I don't think Picard Season 3 is that different direction. It's just got more window dressing. It's more a continuation of the movies than of the series.
And it doesn't. At least no more so than Discovery. It crams in a lot of reference and characters from that era, but it's still an action show set in space.
Even if the first couple of seasons of TNG don't have a lot of bangers, the spirit of the show is still there. I'm also tired of the trope that they aren't good. There's a lot in both seasons that carry through the show. Plus, The Measure of a Man is one of the best episodes of the series.
And that's the thing, when you look to TNG's best episodes, you'll come to episodes like The Measure of a Man, The Inner Light, and Darmok. Where there's either no action or the action really only exists to forward the real central conflict. Episodes which make us question what it means to be conscious, what it means to live a fulfilled life, what it means to be able to communicate with others. You get these meaningful explorations into humanity by forcing the issue through the extremes provided by science fiction.
In this season, we get told that Picard kinda, sorta regrets not being able to be a father to Jack Crusher. But we don't actually get to explore that within the show itself. We're way more concerned with surfing the gravimetric waves. Or the portal gun. Or changelings taking over the crew.
All the real conflict is physical and confrontational. The show is about saving the galaxy, not about what humanity means.