So I'm all caught up on Picard now. Disappointed, confused, and full of cringe is all the emotions I've experienced in my time watching these episodes.
Feels bad man.
I get the same feeling I got when I watched Discovery. Which makes sense, it's the same ---smurfing--- writers. It's got the same shallow plot lines with little to no substance of explanation.
The characters don't feel right. Picard doesn't feel right - he doesn't hold that commanding reserved presence anymore. He seems more comical, than anything. Misdirected, and breaking a lot of personality traits of his TNG version. And not from character growth over the years, but completely off his character like the writers never watched TNG.
7of9 is some sort of vigilante Han Solo type character now. There's also a Han Solo pilot. There is a Ninja Legolas with a sword...
They even added a Las Vegas style planet with neon and poorly CG'd holographic characters. It's like this show is trying to follow JJ Abrams Star War's suit.
The show is about violence and gore, and hitting you over the head with current political subject matter. It's just dumb TV now. There is very little in social commentary other than surface level racism/xenophobia.
5 episodes in, heck, even by the 3rd episode I was ready to cut it loose. So much that I went back and started re-binging TNG just to wash the bad CBS writer taste out of my mouth. I'm on season 4 right now, and still lovin' it, even after all these years the content holds up.