I really enjoyed this one. The bit where Pike keeps trying to walk out the door while the background music keeps playing is delightful.

I love everyone’s hairdo in this, such cool styles

I love Voyager’s “Alter Ego”. The social situation Marayna’s put herself in by the time of the episode is painfully relatable, and also there’s a luau fight scene!

Another factor in Picard S2 was that the characters - through whom the show is telling you what it thinks - are from a future where those problems don’t exist. That made it feel to me like a lecture from a position of privilege. I really only realized this while watching Quantum Leap (the more recent show; I’ve not yet seen the original), where the characters live in the present day and tend to deal with problems that do still exist in their own time.

A hot dish? Sounds like Minnesota