Discovery and "The Orville" Comparisons

[Firebird]

and there is no evidence that it's attracting many new viewers.

I think that sin falls mainly on the shoulders of CBS for putting Discovery on a new streaming service in the US, rather than partnering with Netflix, which would give more potential for new viewers here. Aside from DSC, there doesn't seem to be a whole hell of a lot on All Access to entice the non-Trekkie to go out of the their way to subscribe for.

 

[fireproof78]

If it was "Star Trek Orville" and Discovery wouldn't exist I'm convinced the majority of fans would complain that it's the same shit all over again, we've seen that, what's the point, we've been waiting 15 years for that, WTF? etc.

Absolutely correct.

 

[BillJ]

Discovery took one chance, which was changing the way things look. Other than that it panders to the existing fan base and offers little to new viewers...

And there is very little new for longtime fans of the franchise.

 

[fireproof78]

And there is very little new for longtime fans of the franchise.

Depends on the fan, at least in my experience. YMMV and all that.

 

[GeekUSACarl]

If it was "Star Trek Orville" and Discovery wouldn't exist I'm convinced the majority of fans would complain that it's the same shit all over again, we've seen that, what's the point, we've been waiting 15 years for that, WTF? etc.

on top of that, it would be star trek with glory hole and dry humping jokes.

id certainly complain at that point. no ine really wants to see that in star trek

 

[BillJ]

no ine really wants to see that in star trek

I'd have no issue with it. The less seriously Star Trek takes itself the happier I would be. I've gotten to the point where I simply don't find any kind of joy in the characters of the Star Trek universe. It is all very dry and very serious.

 

[fireproof78]

Which, is kind of funny, because GR became very dry and serious about his vision towards the end, and how humanity "had to be."

It's amazing to watch the series unfold and evolve.

 

[Mudd]

Absolutely correct.

If it were called "Star Trek" fans would complain. That is axiomatic.

 

[Mudd]

I'd have no issue with it. The less seriously Star Trek takes itself the happier I would be. I've gotten to the point where I simply don't find any kind of joy in the characters of the Star Trek universe. It is all very dry and very serious.

Yep.

 

[OpenMaw]

It does get me that some people are saying Orville is just a gag show. Honestly, the amount of humor, in terms of density per scene or per episode, is actually surprisingly quite low. Most of the time you know what it reminds me of? Firefly. It's the same kind of situational dialogue/character humor most of the time, which fits into a drama just as well as a straight up comedy. Even the more crass gags like Yaphit growing a phallic shape to hit on Claire, it's not a Family Guy style skit, it's two the two characters interacting and progressing their relationships.

 

[fireproof78]

It does get me that some people are saying Orville is just a gag show. Honestly, the amount of humor, in terms of density per scene or per episode, is actually surprisingly quite low. Most of the time you know what it reminds me of? Firefly. It's the same kind of situational dialogue/character humor most of the time, which fits into a drama just as well as a straight up comedy. Even the more crass gags like Yaphit growing a phallic shape to hit on Claire, it's not a Family Guy style skit, it's two the two characters interacting and progressing their relationships.

Hey! We can't have that reasonable analysis here.

 

[GeekUSACarl]

It does get me that some people are saying Orville is just a gag show. Honestly, the amount of humor, in terms of density per scene or per episode, is actually surprisingly quite low. Most of the time you know what it reminds me of? Firefly. It's the same kind of situational dialogue/character humor most of the time, which fits into a drama just as well as a straight up comedy. Even the more crass gags like Yaphit growing a phallic shape to hit on Claire, it's not a Family Guy style skit, it's two the two characters interacting and progressing their relationships.

so far to me most of it seems to revolve around gags... and the events revolve around lewd jokes.

yes immature dry humping and boner jokes do take away from the attempt at drama and add a color to the show. is it gag after gag? no but the show wouldnt survive without the comedy.

 

[MakeshiftPython]

There is no evidence that it's attracting many new viewers.

Neither is there evidence that it's not attracting many new viewers.

It does get me that some people are saying Orville is just a gag show. Honestly, the amount of humor, in terms of density per scene or per episode, is actually surprisingly quite low. Most of the time you know what it reminds me of? Firefly. It's the same kind of situational dialogue/character humor most of the time, which fits into a drama just as well as a straight up comedy. Even the more crass gags like Yaphit growing a phallic shape to hit on Claire, it's not a Family Guy style skit, it's two the two characters interacting and progressing their relationships.

I thought FIREFLY was funnier. THE ORVILLE is just not tickling my sense of humor, but I've never been a fan of MacFarlane's brand of humor.

 

[OpenMaw]

so far to me most of it seems to revolve around gags... and the events revolve around lewd jokes.

The number of gags per episode has dropped off to just a handful. Some of the episodes spend most of their run time on fairly serious dramatic stories with just a joke or a one-liner here and there. Whether you find it funny or not, well, that's definitely a matter of YMMV.

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Most of the show, is like this. You have one, maybe two one liners in the entire scene that are intended to be comedic. The rest is about the actual story/plot and is played entirely straight. "Dude, you're being a dick, shut up." Is the only straight "comedic" moment, and it does at least on some level match what the audience is feeling about the prosecutor.

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Here's a scene you could literally pluck right out of TOS or TNG without any changes at all, except for maybe one sentence where the language is slightly colliqual and colorful. Hell, even the way Captain Mercer turns away at the end gives me Captain Kirk vibes.

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Another example. Aside of the "Bang that chick on the kitchen sink." "I don't ever do it near the food." exchange the entire scene is played straight, and is related directly to the serious plot elements being developed.

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Here's one where there's literally no comedy at all. Really. It's being played completely straight. Most of the episode is. The idea of the planet is treated as absurd by our heroes, but they don't take the dangers as anything but serious... And it's pretty close to classic Trek stories like A Piece of the Action and "First Contact." In terms of the way things play.

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This scene, we have three fairly quick jokes, all fairly nice winks at tropes of Star Trek. Then we have a fairly serious, straight forward battle scene with a classic Trek style maneuver to out think the badguy, and it's followed up with a very nice bit of humor. Just a nice little fist bump.

I thought FIREFLY was funnier. THE ORVILLE is just not tickling my sense of humor, but I've never been a fan of MacFarlane's brand of humor.

Well i'll certainly agree with you that Firefly was a funnier, but i'm simply saying that's the kind of humor Orville is succeeding at the most. Back-and-forth between it's characters, and less the overt gags, which they have mostly dropped off entirely.

 

[GeekUSACarl]

we can micro analyze one scene after another. but when you drop glory hole jokes or show a lob faking a boner for a hand shake or show a stereotypical divorcee argument or stuff like that it does color what youre doing in a fairly drastic way.

a lot of those scenes you can probably sub in a lot of shows. i could do the same thing with friends. but taking these things as whole, you cant shake it.

when the whole reason you landed your ass in trouble is cause you dry humped a statue on a planet when your number one rule was to stay cool and not be noticed, the rest of your drama is kinda skewed by that, cause the rest of the time im watching i remember the only reason you got in trouble was dry humping a statue.

thats just what low brow humor does. its very effective.

 

[fireproof78]

Maybe if we stop trying to shoehorn Orville in to a category there might be more common ground.

 

[MakeshiftPython]

we can micro analyze one scene after another. but when you drop glory hole jokes or show a lob faking a boner for a hand shake or show a stereotypical divorcee argument or stuff like that it does color what youre doing in a fairly drastic way.

a lot of those scenes you can probably sub in a lot of shows. i could do the same thing with friends. but taking these things as whole, you cant shake it.

when the whole reason you landed your ass in trouble is cause you dry humped a statue on a planet when your number one rule was to stay cool and not be noticed, the rest of your drama is kinda skewed by that, cause the rest of the time im watching i remember the only reason you got in trouble was dry humping a statue.

thats just what low brow humor does. its very effective.

Funny that fans of The Orville wanna take it as seriously as Trek by hand waving away the juvenile jokes "okay sure, but it has some serious stuff tho!"

 

[BillJ]

Funny that fans of The Orville wanna take it as seriously as Trek by hand waving away the juvenile jokes "okay sure, but it has some serious stuff tho!"

The audacity of people trying to accurately define something instead of just accepting some folks "IT'S JUST FAMILY GUY IN SPACE!!!"

How seriously some people take Star Trek makes me sad.

 

[OpenMaw]

Maybe if we stop trying to shoehorn Orville in to a category there might be more common ground.

I'm just pointing out that the comedic aspect of Orville is greatly exaggerated. It's a thimble out of a bucket.

 

[GeekUSACarl]

The audacity of people trying to accurately define something instead of just accepting some folks "IT'S JUST FAMILY GUY IN SPACE!!!"

How seriously some people take Star Trek makes me sad.

there are certainly people who take trek too seriously but there is a point to be made about the orville. you cant wave off gloryhole jokes. if there were glory hole jokes in star trek it would turn most fans off and rightfully so. you just expect some things from trek, and others from SM. Nothing wrong with that. but once you add jokes like that, and a crew that seems to get themselves into trouble by being idiots and only forest gumps their way out, there is no way that show will be taken as seriously, no matter how much you say "well it was only so little of the episode"

now im not critisising. i like it this way. i like that trek is serious and this is silly.

I'm just pointing out that the comedic aspect of Orville is greatly exaggerated. It's a thimble out of a bucket.

that "thimble" is kind of a defining aesthetic of that show.