News Seth MacFarlane’s The Orville

Besides, it's not really a difficult secret to keep. Most Moclans probably don't want to know if they were born female because of the social stigma associated with that, so they don't go looking into the matter, and even if someone were to present them with evidence of the issue, they'd probably go out of their way to avoid looking at it.

Especially when you compare that to Discovery, which after two episodes has failed to sell me on any of its characters or even make most of them stand out.

 

Spending too much time focusing on Klingons with their collective mouths full.

 

That could make a humorous "Who Watches the Watchers" parody where Seth is thought to be a diety, and in order to save his hide, he plays it up, then gets the hell out of there. Meanwhile, the society evolves into a religious culture worshiping "The Seth".

 

Or something more along the lines of A Piece of the Action where Orville visits a planet previously visited by humans, and one of the prior crew left behind their copy of Twilight or Fifty Shades of Grey which has now become that society's Bible.

 

Wouldn't that be a fresh kind of Hell.

 

Good thing we had those subtitles, because I'm not sure we could understand them if we actually knew how to speak Klingon.

 

Without already having a "prime directive" in place that would certainly open the door for an episode dealing with the need for one.

 

So am I the only one who hasn't seen Discovery?

 

Nope.

 

I'm mildly curious but not going to pay for another service. I don't have cable and since hulu didn't show the first episode I guess I won't see any of it

 

I finally got caught up on The Orville this morning, and I really enjoyed episodes 2 and 3.
The whole zoo thing in episode 2 was pretty fun, I especially like the trade they made for Mercer and.... crap I can't remember the XO's name.
The stuff with Alara was pretty good too, and gave us some nice character stuff for her and the doctor.
Episode 3 was actually better than I expected, almost all of the reviews I saw of the showed talked about how bad it was so I was expecting a complete disaster. It might not have been the most amazing examination of gender issues, but I still thought it was good. The ending really surprised me.

 

I think that was the problem -- a bunch of reviewers who are into all social/political things genitalia, made the mistake of watching episode three ("About a Girl") and were of course offended (which is easy for them).

Previews of the next episode:
youtube.com/watch?v=r3qF_4fky30 (really just tiny clips)
youtube.com/watch?v=U9OxRsB3QQU (this is the main one)

 

Nope 2, well until this weekend where I plan to watch the both episodes with my sister (she is the ideal sci-fi fan, and has never missed a Star Trek series -> for my part, only Voyager managed to seduce me at point to watch all seasons!).
And now, it seems that I'm hooked to "The Orville"!

 

Or consider that Kirk didn't know anything about his best friend's planet, Vulcan, when it came to arranged marriage and such.

 

Which plays more like a people you just met, instead of someone you've been allies with for two centuries.

 

I had a similar thought during one of my last posts. It was just as if I was debating the finer aspects of an actual Star Trek show, which is something I don't do much with other shows. I think there is definitely something to this show that can be appreciated similar to Star Trek, even if it's been an awkward start at times, imho

 

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.

 

I think Yaphit the blob is my favorite character. Star Trek should have added a gelatinous crew member ages ago.

 

^^Cough...Odo.