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News Seth MacFarlane’s The Orville

Kai "the spy" said:
Give it some time. Maybe it will just be mediocre for two seasons and then suddenly become awesome. It's been known to happen.
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That thought has actually crossed my mind a few times, some shows just take a while to really find their voice.
 
But since this is Fox we're talking about, it won't get the chance unless its a ratings boom. Considering the plethora of poor press leading up to its premiere, I doubt that's going to happen.
 
Hmm. In the history of the Fox network, how many of its hour-longs have been "ratings booms?"
 
I think Fringe had good ratings, too, although I'm still surprised it lasted as long as it did.
 
M said:
I disagree, his episodes “Mortal Coil” and “Living Witness” are two of my favorite episodes from that series. The latter is often cited as one of the best episodes of the whole series.
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Never got the love for "Living Witness". I missed it first-run, then heard how great it was for years, finally saw it and was like "meh". :shrug:

Emh said:
Vox's review is the first one that leaves me genuinely concerned, partially because most of the other reviews are from sources I'm unfamiliar with, and because I've read and respected Caroline Framke's opinion for many years.

The whole review is disappointing to read, but this particular paragraph is a really bad sign:

"As has now been reported, an upcoming episode of The Orville takes on a “very special episode” structure to debate the merits or lack thereof regarding — stay with me now — an alien baby getting sexual reassignment surgery.

Without getting into the specifics of the story, I can at least tell you that the way this episode plays out makes it one of the most transparent and least necessary takes on the vast complexities of gender. The episode, written by MacFarlane, clearly thinks it’s shedding light and nuance on a fraught topic; it’s unclear if MacFarlane, a straight cis white guy, consulted anyone other than himself on said topic. But I would be shocked to discover that was the case, since the episode just ends up reciting bullet points too simplistic even for the transgender Wikipedia entry, and letting characters exchange the same basic arguments in scene after excruciating scene."​

I still plan to watch the show and hope it'll be Eureka-esque (light-hearted fun sci-fi show), but I'm going in with low expectations. Unless it's especially bad, I'll keep watching beyond the three episodes reviewers were allowed to watch to see if the show improves.
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Can't be any less nuanced than "The Outcast". Trek gets credit for being "smart" but much of it is really shallow.
 
BillJ said:
Can't be any less nuanced than "The Outcast". Trek gets credit for being "smart" but much of it is really shallow.
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Honestly, I haven't seen "The Outcast" in many, many years and certainly not since I've become better aware about transgender issues. I wonder how I would take it now.
 
Emh said:
Honestly, I haven't seen "The Outcast" in many, many years and certainly not since I've become better aware about transgender issues. I wonder how I would take it now.
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Personally not a favorite of mine, so I tend to avoid it. I don't even think I revisited it when I bought season five on Blu-ray.
 
I actually watched The Outcast back in the winter for the first time in over a decade. Worf for some reason turns into a bigot in the middle of an episode just so he can claim that a relationship between a human and J'Naii is an abomination, but avoids the issue when Dr. Crusher and Counselor Troi try to engage him in conversation over it. But later he decides to help Riker mount a rescue mission because of Klingon honour. IMO, this is a problem with making everyone so squeaky clean and without conflict, in order to create drama you need the characters to suddenly act out of character for the sake of drama. Not to mention, the episode really demonstrates just how unimaginative Star Trek can be about its aliens sometimes. a race with only one gender is so exotic and unusual, when really there must be plenty of races out there with either one gender or even many more than two. Hell, if you accept what's in the novels, the Andorians, a founding race of the Federation has four genders.
 
BillJ said:
Never got the love for "Living Witness". I missed it first-run, then heard how great it was for years, finally saw it and was like "meh". :shrug:



Can't be any less nuanced than "The Outcast". Trek gets credit for being "smart" but much of it is really shallow.
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Yeah, I realized yesterday that some of these reviews read as if someone were seeing TNG for the first time presented as a new show. Given the imitative nature of Orville that makes sense.
 
The Wormhole said:
Hell, if you accept what's in the novels, the Andorians, a founding race of the Federation has four genders.
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I think Enterprise kinda blew a hole in that. Shran and his Lieutenant seemed to act like every other hetero couple in Star Trek.
 
Me too! Love the fact that they built a physical miniature with SM citing the same exact concerns I've always secretly harbored about the emergence and excessive use of CG.
 
I keep seeing the ads, and thinking the aesthetic feels like Galaxyquest. This feels like a show that by all rights should be a comedy but the creators keep insisting it's not.
 
JirinPanthosa said:
I keep seeing the ads, and thinking the aesthetic feels like Galaxyquest. This feels like a show that by all rights should be a comedy but the creators keep insisting it's not.
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Not just the creators, all the reviews of the first three episodes as well.
 
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