I just finished it. I'm lukewarm about it. It's better than Discovery, mostly because Picard is a far superior character to Burnham (not to mention Stewart a far superior actor) and it's less flashy spectacle, but it still has Alex Kurtzman's fingerprints on it and even a couple of J.J. Abrams'. Naturally, a number of TNG cameos (most to come) isn't enough character fan service. There has to also be a new character who has a connection to one. It also seems like the season is going to be about someone with special fighting abilities, which feels lazy, overused and not like Star Trek to me.
I was a bit intrigued at points in the episode, but also intermittently bored. It's slow for the first half hour, which is perfectly fine for a first episode, but then goes too fast in the final 10 minutes. For example, in the space of 3 minutes near the end, Picard becomes convinced of something major that he couldn't have imagined just before, and does so without exhibiting any doubt or questioning how it could possibly be. Slow down there. That's some bad writing, IMO.
The one thing that I liked the most is that Picard feels like Picard. He's not really the cranky, disillusioned old man (ala Luke Skywalker) that I feared. I still don't like that Starfleet has lost its way, but at least Picard hasn't and is standing up for the old principles. The show seems to be getting the title character right (probably thanks to Stewart making sure of it) and that's the most important thing.
Anyways, it's a decent start to the series... not that good, not that bad.
