I liked it. A lot.
I daresay that, IMHO, it’s the best TV Star Trek series since The Next Generation.
It’s no secret that I was never a huge fan of any series that followed TNG. I thought Deep Space Nine was okay, Voyager was meh, and Enterprise was simply bad TV, except for the Mirror Universe episodes.
Discovery, like Enterprise, was bad TV.
Picard felt like TNG had morphed into something else, as a result of the movies, which technically it had. It even referenced the Romulan supernova event from the 2009 film.
After one episode, it just feels right to me. There was enough backstory to bring us up to speed with the state of the universe and how Picard relates to it. There are some very intriguing characters, and that ending was a surprise, for a first episode. But not TOO much of a surprise, all things considered.
I recommend it, but be aware of my personal Star Trek tastes.
“Tea, Earl Grey, decaf.”