so, some final thoughts on Psycho-Pass.
Psycho-Pass thinks I'm stupid. It thinks it has to outright tell me the motivations, philosophies, and opinions of its characters. It thinks it actually has to point me in the direction of comparable literature. "Show, don't tell" is completely lost on this series to the point where I think you could actually decrease the episode count if you cut down on the talking. It's a 22 episode series that, if Urobuchi and Fukami were put on a leash by a decent editor, could have been told in about 13. Because for all the talking the characters do, very little of it actually fleshes them out. Akane feels like the only real character here, and even then it takes her 20 episodes to get to a point that would feel like nothing special in another show. But here her development feels significant because it's in contrast to the general Cool Guy archetype, a villain who seems to exist largely to spout literary references, and a bunch of background characters.
None of that dialogue addresses the themes of the show in much depth, either. Many of the the ones that would occur to any observant viewer aren't even brought up. For example, why is it not considered murder to shoot someone because the system told you to, but it is considered murder to shoot someone the system says not to but would otherwise be marked for death if he didn't have some built-in immunity? Is the Psycho-Pass system truly reliable when it fluctuates so heavily? What are the implications of locking someone up for a crime they haven't committed? All of this is glossed over for some half-formed ideas regarding individuality. There's so much the show can do here.
As much as I've criticized Psycho-Pass, it's still watchable. Some of the action scenes are suspenseful, some of the developments are interesting, parts of the show can be legitimately engaging. It's a mix of decent and bad that, at its worst, is boring. But between two absolutely stupid plot twists, a variety of contrivances, mediocre-to-bad production values, and far too much talking, it's something I really wouldn't recommend. 6/10.