The more I think about it, the more I believe CBS trek's tooting about how their shows are embracing optimism is akin to this famous catch phrase. In other words, it's something that those in charge know people want to hear but they have no idea how to actually realize.

The critical thing here is it is not enough for characters to just smile, crack jokes, and be nice to one another. Trekian optimism means watching our crew engage in intellectual debate and moral choices. Think Measure of a man or the drumhead .

And intellectual debate or moral choices are things CBS Trek has largely shied away from since the beginning of discovery season 2, ironically when they first started tooted the whole "optimism" thing. In other words, for them optimism means action shows with jokes.

And that's the key point: "action show." When was the last time where CBS Trek gave us an episode with no violence, but just characters sitting and talking about a moral dilemma or moral situation? Until we get to that point, all the bleating about optimism is meaningless.