I never watch courtroom dramas, so all the clichés worked with me 😅

I have to say, the emotional allegory on modern society felt the most like TOS / TNG to me so IDK lol. And it's probably impossible with what, 850 hours of Star Trek over the 50+ years, to do something that hasn't already "been done" on a show. This one had a decent (IMHO) update for a civil rights sort of POV, and did a good job of showing how you can be very high minded as a society or as a person, and yet still be hypocritical and prejudiced in a specific way. I also liked that they also were willing to step outside of the "woke strait jacket" some people claim is there, and show April not being consistent re breaking rules vs when to follow them, and saying "who this person was born as is more important than what I knew and know about them", yet it wasn't the "Bad White Male" trope. We all can be blinded, we all make mistakes, and we all probably aren't completely consistent.

This was also one place where I feel like the "Federation isn't perfect / is the bad guy" is both traditionally canonical and justified well in the show. It's also IMHO well done and portrayed why and how the law existed, and also calls out that it's a historical fear, not an actual current issue. It also plays well with the "Just because one law is wrong doesn't mean you should be able to lie on an application", though they didn't address it fully.

I really.dont understand the whole make the prosecution read the law cliche, is there some rule that actors can't speak as long as a lawyer would do closing argument?