I avoided watching this for 20 (!) years, because the reviews were ambivalent. But it's really fun. It's not awesome, like the Kirk/Spock series, but it's also (thus far) not excessively moralizing like TNG.
This is the only Star Trek (for me) that captures the wonder of the original series. The writing isn't great, but that was never a thing with Star Trek. They're also a bit kinetic, say, with discovering new Warp-Civilizations.
I also really appreciate that the crew is basically white, except for one black guy that's not blackity-black.
Even the chicks are fine. The writing for the Asian chick is a bit insipid, but it accurately reflects the chick version of the 'hero's journey'.
Unfortunately, they've introduced Time Travel, so I guess a few of the episodes are going to be tedious.
https://youtu.be/PZMEvkuE-6w?si=44N5Hi5lr2RDqBPU&t=16
Obviously, in this scene Archer's supposed to be sick of it because of how much pain, stress, danger, agony, etc the whole affair's caused and how he wants nothing to do with it ever again.
Still, I think there was a subtle hint in there indicating that the writers were tired of it and wanted nothing to do with that plot element ever again. It was specifically the producers that had been insistent on the whole temporal cold war thing in the first place, and the writers had to try to force it into the plot for two years, no matter how stupid or annoying it was to begin with.
Thanks fren.