Star Trek: The Kelvin Timeline
Star Trek lay dormant for some time after Enterprise. The next attempt to revive the franchise came in the form of a reboot movie trilogy.
A light sprinkling of time travel creates an alternate reality in which the era of The Original Series unfolds a bit differently, allowing for new and different adventures featuring the same characters portrayed by younger actors. This premise is used to reinterpret the characters and their relationships, and while the focus is still on some characters more than others the overall setup is much more of an ensemble piece than before. Uhura in particular has her role expanded considerably.
Since these are films instead of seasons of a show, they do tend to focus on exciting and climactic events and provide a bit less opportunity to spend time with the world and its characters, and only the central leads really have arcs. But the results are still quite enjoyable.
Episodic or serial?
Episodic. The first film introduces the characters and the premise of the reboot, but none of the films really lean on any particular plot events of earlier ones.
Idealistic or cynical?
Idealistic. As with most of the films, they are a bit action-heavy and tend to feature ruthless villains, but don’t generally require the heroes to compromise their principles.
Worth watching?
Yeah. The first film is a lot of fun and the third one is quite good.
Anything else that should be watched first?
Nope! As a reboot that was designed to bring in new fans, these films are approachable with no prior knowledge. It wouldn’t hurt to have seen some of The Original Series or its films, but it’s by no means necessary.
What should be watched after this?
This reboot of the franchise didn’t really take, so these films have no direct followup. No other shows or films are set in this continuity. So just go forward to the next series: Discovery.