Last month I watched the final episode of TNG.
My review of TNG:
I think that for all of its flaws it's worth watching, but if you're a first time viewer I suggest going into it with the knowledge that it's quite different from today's television of serialized stories and in no way should you go in with that sort of expectation. TNG is a show of its era. From Geordi's high top fade, to Troi in a gymnast outfit the majority of the series. Most episodes in TNG offer very little to building Its universe. There are far too many gimmick episodes: holodeck episodes starring an in character Data running around as Sherlock Holmes, or episodes where the crew is in danger by some unknown thing that comes off as hokey and cheap, with a good measure of alien of the week episodes thrown in with good measure. It's very much of its times, in no way different from Law and Order and or Nightrider; episodic shows that hinge their premise on precedure, except in space.
TNG is a series with very little drama. Whatever drama there is isn't reserved for the main cast. As it is, the show comes off as an utopia where everyone agrees with each other. Interesting to think about, but doesn't make for the most interesting television. What drama there is focused entirely on the superficial - Wesley has to save the ship single handedly, again! - rather than explore the behaviors of its cast and crew.
As it is, TNG is a show of mixed priorities that rarely, if ever takes advantage of its own setting. TNG takes place on a starship that hosts civilians AND the Federation, which is decidedly different than what was presented in TOS. Instead of showing us what Keiko gets on to while Miles is doing his thing, we get crappy episodes where Geordi falls in love with computer AI. Doc Crusher's assistant was there about the entire run of the show and she didn't get a single episode dedicated to her until the end of its run. What do civilians do while living under the roof of a giant starship that's regularly attacked by aliens? We don't know, and through all of the hundreds of episodes, the writers of TNG didn't care to know.
It doesn't help that the main characters aren't terribly interesting either. We've got Geordi, the awkward nerd who's always in the background in the engineering room; Riker, the constant brown noser; Troi, the lady with feelings; Doctor Crusher, whose role is Doctor Crusher and little else; Data, the annoying Pinnochio; Welsey, boy genius. Only Worf and Picard are in any way interesting.
Eventually you like the cast, but not because they're worth liking or that they're even good characters, but because you get used them. You see, TNG's greatest asset is that it's ultimately comfort food television and nothing more. The occasional philosophical episode shows up, but it'll almost always be preceded by an episode where unknown aliens have taken over the ship and the crew have twelve hours to save the day. The result is a disjointed, inconsistent mess. People say TNG gets off its feet after season 2 but the harsh reality is that it never really does. There's always something wrong and it never fully reaches its potential.
In the end, only three seasons are worth watching: 3, 4, and 5. The rest are too flawed, too boring, and too mixed in terms of quality to ever make trudging through seven seasons of inconsistent tedium worth it in today's age of serialized TV where EVERYTHING matters. The final episode was solid, but Lower Decks was what I felt acted as a better final episode.
Despite its name and importance in television history The Next Generation feels more than a little outdated, and this goes further than mere aesthetic but more into its very structure.
TNG is a show of its times, and I honestly can't say it's worth watching more than once beyond a greatest hits boxset. Watching TNG is a great expose' on why Trek eventually started to lack in popularity: the show is fucking BORING and its sequels all cribbed from it, with DS9 establishing its own identity the most. Sometimes TNG is a good boring, but a lot of times it's "cook dinner while passively listening to the episode play without paying too much attention and not exactly missing anything" boring. It's no wonder I didn't like or understand Trek growing up, going by TNG.
Rating: 6/10
Best episode: Darmok
For what it's worth, I'm on episode 5 season 2 of DS9 and I think it's better than TNG's entire run already. The final episode of season 1 and the first three episodes of season 2 all connect. DS9 is the anti-TNG: here, everything matters, especially characters. Despite the Internet telling me DS9 takes ages to get good, I've liked every episode and enjoy every character.