In weekly streaming ratings/viewership updates, the most “in-demand” series last week was Paramount's Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. The Paramount+ prequel to “the original series,” starring Anson Mount as Christopher Pike, Recca Romijn as "Number One" and Ethan Peck as Spock, debuted to strong reviews and solid “this feels like old-school Star Trek” buzz on May 5. Its “most in-demand series” title, so says Parrot Analytics, implies that folks were happy enough with the pilot to keep watching the second episode. Episode three just dropped yesterday. And it’s right on time as well, as the first nine-episode season of Halo just wrapped up.
For what it’s worth, I am curious how this old-fashioned Star Trek show, complete with intergalactic exploration and somewhat stand-alone episodes, will affect the long-awaited return of Seth McFarlane’s The Orville. That Fox network hit will begin its third Hulu-bound season in early June, having last aired a new episode on April 25, 2019. Will the return of “Star Trek that feels like Star Trek” make McFarlane’s terrific sci-fi adventure comedy less valuable in the pop culture landscape? On a not quite related note, I also wonder how every streaming platform positioning itself as the home of “insert geek-centric IP here” content will create a new streaming-era normal where audiences can still subsist entirely on fantasy franchise content.
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