So, I watched the first episode on my DVR last night and afterwards I land on... "Meh."
This is not a show I was "feeling" in regard to the vibe or direction it wanted to go in mostly because I'm not much a fan of MacFarlane's other work. His humor doesn't land with me and is often too crass and too broad.
After watching this pilot I think that more or less remains true but I see some glimmers of "something" here if the show can dial back the "humor" and find some sense of "reality" and "drama" to it. It's hard to totally grasp this show and the "seriousness" of situation when characters act like 21st century humans, there's a pilot who think it's okay to drink alcohol while piloting a shuttle and the black officer acting like, well, a 21st century stereotype.
I did like the little alien girl from the higher-gravity planet. she was fun, First Officer Mockingbird was good and I actually didn't mind MacFarlane that much even if his behavior was a bit "broad" but it sort of fit with everything else going on.
The visuals in the episode were beautiful, which is more than I can say for "Discovery" but the makeup on the AOTW was week and, sheesh, the costume on the robot/android character feels like something out of a fan production.
Some of the humor, for me, would have worked better if the show didn't try so hard at it. There's a scene where they're talking to the human scientist on the view screen and behind him in his window you see his dog on the couch cleaning it's crotch with its tongue. This by itself is the level of humor I expected from this show, but this was humorous enough for me. It's video-conferencing, it's something dogs do, and it's something that'd be caught on camera in a video conference. So, yeah, it kind of made me lightly chuckle. That's all that was needed. But when the call is over our navigator(s) have to call attention to it, "See the dog lick itself on the couch?" "First thing I noticed."
This is too much of a, "Did you GET THE JOKE! There was a JOKE THERE! The dog licking it's crotch is FUNNY!" moment and I felt wasn't needed. The visual alone should have been enough.
I kind of like the look of the show and the ship but, I dunno, for me I think the humor in this thing is going to do it in for me sooner than later. If it can more or less stay on track and find a "serious realism" then it could work nicely. But, I'll give the other episodes a go until it's either canceled or I tire of the show.
