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...abusing it for cheap drama

i get it, converting a huge chunk of a fictional populace into the Enemy raises the stakes sky-high! that'd be exciting and frightening! well, at least if...

[recent star trek and netflix masters of the universe spoilers after cut]

...if it were to actually stick, or if there were to be actual consequences. instead, Star Trek Picard and now Masters of the Universe: Revolution are content to mine the trope for its scariness for an episode or two and then just snap some fingers to undo it.

all live happily ever after without any of the physical scars or even VERY PROBABLY CATASTROPHIC PSYCHIC TRAUMA such an unspeakably invasive act of personal violence would inflict. i could see arguments that it's not even realistic to have brought Jean Luc Picard back from being Locutus, but at least when they did they presented it with a certain gravitas and made it clear the experience had deeply harmed and disturbed him. that gave the whole affair some amount of dramatic payoff, even in the context of that Trek era's mostly non-serialized storytelling.

Picard is a badly written, dumb tv show (derogatory). it is known

i wasn't as offended by MotU today because it is more acceptable for it to just be the brainless cartoon it is, its remit being to briefly pluck nostalgia strings across five quick eps. (it's also a little easier to believe that magic can fix things here.) still, they do blithely abuse the trope and it reminded me of Picard (which may be getting a movie now? good lord)

now i'll be on guard to see where this get-drama-quick scheme gets trotted out next...