The setup—three nerdy high-school freshmen hire a homeless man to protect them against a school bully—sounds unpromising but not hopeless. It’s the slipshod and joyless execution that makes the whole affair so grim. Rogen is like a high-school English student trying to get away with plagiarizing his own book report. The central trio is directly cribbed from Superbad, released only seven months ago. Wade (Nate Hartley) is the Michael Cera, the shy, skinny kid with a painful crush on an out-of-his-league girl. Ryan (Troy Gentile) is the Jonah Hill, the fat loudmouth. And Emmit (David Dorfman) is the Christopher Mintz-Plasse, the guy so desperately geeky that even the dork set shuns him. Tortured by a sadistic upperclassman, Filkins (Alex Frost), the three decide to pool their allowances and hire a bodyguard.

Contemporary visual effects (and a Paramount+ budget) have given the Enterprise a facelift. Its hull is now studded with hundreds of teensy, warmly glowing windows, its bridge is more sleek and interactive, its sickbay more Apple-store-chic, and its crew cabins far, far more lux than you remember. – Glen Weldon, NPR

​​Gooding wisely doesn’t set out to adopt any of Nichols’ mannerisms. Her Uhura is a young, wildly overachieving young woman who isn’t yet convinced that she’s destined for a career in Starfleet. It’s true that in the first five episodes made available to press, Uhura often seems like the kind of uber-wunderkind that historically dogs the franchise, and while the character does risk going Full Wesley™, the net effect is to convince us that this Uhura might not become the Uhura viewers know. If she can do anything, as she does here, then who knows if she’s still fated to end up rocking that signature earpiece? – Glen Weldon, NPR

This obliviousness is an ongoing problem in Apatow’s films, which invite the criticism by presenting themselves as moral fables: The seriousness of his characters’ mistakes often seems to exceed the penance they pay. In other words, they get off the hook too easy. Remember the scene in Superbad where Mintz-Plasse’s character, McLovin, shot at a flaming police car with the two rogue cops who had just totaled it? There was something so disturbing and frightening about that moment, an all-out fulfillment of a teenage boy’s fantasy of lawless destruction, that I thought the movie might take an unexpectedly dark turn. Instead, it soon became clear that McLovin’s adventure was exactly what he perceived it to be: a really rad night on the town. Here, both Drillbit’s crimes (lying, theft) and the boys’ (indifference to their friend’s living conditions) are absolved too quickly in an implausible and fraudulent happy ending.

But franchise newcomer Christina Chong’s La’an Noonien-Singh also gets to shine in the debut. Let’s face it: The idea behind the character sounded pretty dumb when she was announced. A descendant of Khan Noonien-Singh, as in The Wrath of Khan, working on the Enterprise? But Chong is great here, hinting at her genetically tangled past and also showing the guys a thing or two when they’re planet-side on their away mission. – Scott Collura, IGN Movies

We’ve returned to the color-TV-just-happened costume palette, which means Mount dresses in heinous long-sleeve yellow and the occasional green wraparound tunic. I do love that tunic, but the production design is generally a bit shiny-bland. I miss the chunky warmth of the ’90s Trek bridges, a gray-brown all-sofa-everywhere austerity precisely evoked on Seth MacFarlane’s The Orville (which returns this summer on Hulu). – Darren Franich, Entertainment Weekly

By and large, this approach works. While it lacks “Discovery’s” ambition, “Strange New Worlds” also avoids that show’s struggles with serialization and scope, as each episode limits its focus to the story at hand. The result is as straightforward and direct as the show’s leading man, and nearly as likable. There’s no strain here, and while the more episodic style may be old-fashioned, it’s refreshing to watch something that isn’t pretending to be a 10-hour movie. – Zack Handlen, Variety

Funny, inspiring, and kind of amazing, Strange New Worlds is, so far, the best new Trek in years. – Scott Collura, IGN Movies

Although “Strange New Worlds” is a direct expansion of known Trek lore, the showrunners seem to have finally dropped the foolish twin pop philosophies of “We’re doing this for the fans” and “We’re reinventing everything.” They found an old recipe, and it still tastes good. – Witney Seibold, Slashfilm

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Stepping into the lead role is Anson Mount, who first portrayed Pike in season 2 of Star Trek: Discovery. His storyline was integral to that season, culminating in a discovery that his character will fall victim to a fatal future event — a story detail directly linking Discovery (and now Strange New Worlds) to the “The Menagerie.” Showrunner Akiva Goldsman has confirmed the series will follow the classic episode structure of TOS, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise.

According to Star Trek canon, Captain Christopher Pike helmed the USS Enterprise 10 years before James T. Kirk (William Shatner) took over. Pike was played by Jeffrey Hunter in the unused Star Trek pilot episode, Sean Kenney in original series episode “The Menagerie,” and Bruce Greenwood in JJ Abram’s 2009 Star Trek feature film. It’s been over five decades since the original crew boldly went where no one had gone before and now, Paramount+ original series Star Trek: Strange New Worlds will explore Pike’s early adventures.

It’s not mere nostalgia that’s powering Strange New Worlds’ warp core, it’s also the simplicity of its premise: The Enterprise Before Kirk. – Glen Weldon, NPR

It also gives the filmmakers a chance to really immerse audiences in this universe, through some truly breathtaking production design. Employing environments either on board the Enterprise or elsewhere, Jonathan Lee grounds the drama, which in turn lends gravitas to everything else. As this series progresses and a number of escalating anomalies continue to plague this intrepid crew, that sense of reality only grows stronger. – Martin Carr, We Got This Covered

Helmsman Ortegas (Melissa Navia) summons the brash swagger of the original Trek, while Chief Engineer Hemmer (Bruce Horak) honors the tradition of prickly-yet-lovable know-it-alls. – Darren Franich, Entertainment Weekly

So whereas the Discoveries and Picards of the world are focused on season-long Big Bad main arcs, Strange New Worlds is focusing on new stories each week, but also telling its characters’ stories over the long haul. Those are the season-long arcs, and man, does it really work in the first five. – Scott Collura, IGN Movies

Smart, addictive and flat out fun, Strange New Worlds is the best Star Trek series since The Next Generation and acts as a faithful love letter to the original. Old fan or new, this is a trek you’ll certainly want to take. – Terry Terrones, Paste Magazine

It doesn’t particularly care about the version of the Enterprise or its crew you may or may not be holding in your head, and heart. It simply wants to tell Trek stories the way they used to be told — one space battle, one diplomatic summit, one alien virus, one spatial anomaly, one transporter accident at a time. – Glen Weldon, NPR

In that vein, enough can’t be said about how effortlessly charming Anson Mount is as Pike. Conveying compassion, humor and resolve in equal measures, the “Hell on Wheels” star has always had great presence, but this role truly feels like — to borrow a phrase from 1982’s “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan” — his first, best destiny. More importantly, given that a tragic fate is very much in store for poor Pike, it makes the journey toward that end so much more heartrending. – Zaki Hasan, San Francisco Chronicle

​​Mr. Spock, who could be brusque and off-putting in Star Trek: Discovery, has evolved into the more enjoyable and astute version of the character viewers came to love in The Original Series. Actor Ethan Peck has developed the role into the fascinating, logical, and reliable man viewers have been hoping for. When Spock says lines like, “I’m a Vulcan, I’m too honest by nature” and “I find the best way to diffuse tension is to apply rigorous logic,” it feels like something Mr. Spock would say, and Peck is phenomenal. Captain Pike’s Number One, first officer Una Chin-Riley (Rebecca Romijn) shines as well, particularly when we learn more about her in the third episode. – Terry Terrones, Paste Magazine

Stepping into the vaguely dad-shaped space left by Greenwood in Paramount+’s “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds,” Anson Mount offers up something surprisingly rare on TV these days: a charming, straightforward good guy. His affable presence is maybe not the best reason to produce yet another “Star Trek” prequel series — but it’s not the worst, either. – Zack Handlen, Variety

While Star Trek: Strange New Worlds must stick to canon and Pike’s fate, the show offers a contemporary vibe as fans get to visit new worlds and cultures. Given the point in the Star Trek timeline when Kirk takes over the Enterprise and when Pike gets disfigured, we should be able to get a few seasons of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. There’s so much potential here and I can’t wait to see what develops. – Danielle Solzman, Solzy at the Movies

I could go on to detail the process by which Drillbit infiltrates the school posing as a substitute teacher, romances a fellow faculty member (Leslie Mann), and comes to realize that he needs the boys as much as they need him. But let me just freeze the frame for a second: Homeless Army vet, living alone in tent, conspires to deceive and steal from children. This is a comedy? It’s not that a would-be funny movie—even one aimed at preteens, as this is—shouldn’t be allowed to deal in unsavory characters or depressing social realities. But Drillbit Taylor seems oblivious to the fact that homelessness is depressing or burglary unsavory. Drillbit’s marginalized social status—he grabs unclaimed food off cafe tables and leaves a smell behind wherever he goes—passes for a character quirk. Even after the kids learn their mentor is homeless, they seem unconcerned with finding out how and why he gets by. They just keep showing up at his tent in the woods for more judo lessons.

While existing within that canon, “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds” leverages audience familiarity in a manner that’s welcoming rather than suffocating. As the title implies, this is a loving throwback to the spirit of exploration and derring-do so intrinsic to the brand over the past six decades (right down to Mount reciting a version of the “Space, the final frontier” narration that both Shatner and Stewart had a go at in previous incarnations), while pointing toward a future full of possibilities. – Zaki Hasan, San Francisco Chronicle

Mount’s Pike is one of the finest additions of the Paramount+ “Trek” era, sensitive and soulful where Kirk is swashbuckling. Mount has created a character who’s just as expressive when he isn’t talking as when he is. – Christian Blauvelt, IndieWire

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After one of those loony-job-interview montages that (along with makeover montages and getting-in-shape montages) must be produced in bulk and stocked in studio warehouses, the boys choose Bob “Drillbit” Taylor (Wilson), an AWOL Army vet who passes himself off as a black-ops expert. He pretends to train the boys in martial arts and mind control, all the while scheming with his homeless buddies to rob the boys’ homes and pawn their parents’ stuff.

Though I didn’t love Superbad (except for the brilliant Michael Cera), its profane put-downs sound like Noel Coward next to the lame sallies offered in Drillbit. Rogen can be an ingenious writer of individual lines, but he has yet to develop a sense of story structure. Drillbit Taylor is slackly paced and rife with questionable logic. (What’s the older bully doing in a freshman English class?) As for Owen Wilson, I’m not going to be too hard on him for dusting off his golden-boy shtick yet again for this limp frolic. Last year, I wrote a piece musing on the Wilson brothers’ midcareer slump. Learning a few months later of Owen’s troubles, I regretted having added to the pile. But reading a summary of Owen’s next project, Marley & Me (an adaptation of the best-selling book about a “couple that adopts a dog to give parenthood a trial run, then finds the mischievous pooch more than they bargained for”), makes me want to mail him a copy of Siddhartha and send him on a vision quest. Did this smart, handsome, talented man really go to hell and back just to make a romantic comedy with a dog?

The production values on “Strange New Worlds” are the most lush of any of the Paramount+ shows: the reimagined Enterprise feels somehow totally contemporary yet informed by the pop art ’60s version. This isn’t a vision of the Enterprise designed to supplant the ’60s Enterprise, which is rather what the new ship in the J.J. Abrams movies felt like, when you could actually see it through all those lens flares. This one feels like it complements the original version, like this show could lead right into “The Original Series.” – Christian Blauvelt, IndieWire

In Drillbit Taylor (Paramount Pictures), produced by Judd Apatow, co-written by Seth Rogen and Kristofor Brown, and starring Owen Wilson, the career trajectories of three comic talents converge to dispiriting effect. It’s Apatow’s fourth project in the madly prolific year since his megahit Knocked Up, Rogen’s second outing as a writer since the critically well-received Superbad, and the last movie Owen Wilson made before his suicide attempt. I’m not suggesting that there was a connection between those two events for Wilson, but if you were already considering ending it all, having the Drillbit Taylor script by your bedside wouldn’t help.

Rebecca Romijn and Ethan Peck were introduced as Number One, first officer Una Chin-Riley and science officer Spock in Discovery and reprise their roles in Strange New Worlds. Joining them are Celia Rose Gooding as Caden Nyota Uhura, Babs Olusanmokun as Dr. M’Benga, Jess Bush as Nurse Christine Chapel, Christina Chong as La’an Noonien-Singh, Melissa Navia as Lt. Erica Ortegas, and Bruce Horak as chief engineer Hemmer.

Pike is a leader in the truest sense of the word. Thoughtful, intelligent, decisive, and with the right touch of humor, Anson Mount deftly portrays a commander you’d put your life on the line for. Over the course of the season, Pike evolves into a deep, immensely likable and engaging character. His crew is also full of men and women with multidimensional layers. – Terry Terrones, Paste Magazine