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News Seth MacFarlane’s The Orville

Perhaps that's exactly why she was offered and/or took the role? Gods forbid someone be judged by the merits of their performance and not their appearance, whoever they are.

Yeah, you're right. It was a sexist thing of me to say and I shouldn't have indulged the thought. Apologies.
 
Listen. This is slightly objectifying of me. But. I don't think I'll ever understand the logic behind hiring someone as mind-numbingly gorgeous as Halston Sage and then covering her up in gaudy alien makeup.
In all honesty, I actually prefer how she looks in the show. But then, I prefer darker hair over blondes. As for the alien make up, hers is just Star Trek esque forehead bumps but otherwise completely human.
 
If anything, I don't like her make-up because it's so generically forehead of the week. But perhaps that's the point?

That being said, and this is probably purely coincidental, but her character background reminds me of Star Trek: New Frontier's Zak Kebron and the make-up around her brow and eyes reminds me of Soleta as seen on the cover of Fire on High.
 
The trailer looks fairly painful for me, I think only a couple of the "gags" worked (particularly the viewscreen gag) but it breaks any... "reality" the show could have. It's a comical universe, not a serious/real one. Where two ships, facing off against one another and ready to battle can have a moment of "levity" in it because a captain is annoyed with the way his opponent is framed on the viewscreen.

I mean, the very first scene in the trailer is not a good indication of how this series will go, with the vibe there has to be a "gag" at every opportunity. Serious scene with the character getting his command? Well let's make this not feel like a real world and suggest he's a fuck-up but we have no other choice, and, oh(!) let's do a marble/mint gag!

Let's have an extended gag about urination with an alien! Sure our main character is supposed to be a serious explorer meeting his crew for the first time but who in the military *doesn't* talk about urination during an Attention interaction? Oh, let's have this goofy, revolutionary, device and then have two characters joke about the practicality of the device based on the test experiment!

Just. *sigh* There's stuff here that has promise, the look, what, on the surface, looks like the premise is (sci-fi exploration show) much of it has the look and feel like TNG had, which I think is awesome. And I know MacFarlane'is a Trek/TNG fan so there's a lot to be hopeful there. But, killing this for me is the comedic stuff and this being comedic universe and not a "real" one. One of the things I liked about Trek was that humanity had "grown out of its infancy." The "no human conflict" thing the writers had on them I thought wasn't a bad thing, forcing them to have outside conflict. Sure, that's all a bit extreme, limiting, and if not used right leads to boring character interaction but it's what I enjoyed about it. That humanity had grown up and started working together. (A vibe we need now more than anything else.)

But here? Apparently humanity has evolved into a farce. Yeah, divorces can still exist and there can be awkward post-divorce relationships (particularly if the two divorcees are forced to work together) but we have to be "comedic" with it by having a military captain running away from his post and down the corridors like a child who just saw ghost. Sigh. :facepalm, rubs brow:

I've set the DVR to record. I'm willing to give this a *chance.* The surface-level stuff I'm seeing is promising and I hope that this isn't one comedic Vaudeville act or joke after another, particularly MacFarlanes type of humor, but it's hard to really get past some of that "comedic" content in the trailer(s). Hell, one trailer I saw had a black character bolt up and go "Boom! That's what you get!" (or something like that) after landing a weapons shot. Because, see, he's black. So naturally he acts like a stereotype of a 21st century black person watching a UFC show.

Yeah, this guy is in the military and piloting a spacecraft but, heh, let's have him drinking a beer, almost crash into another ship, and then when that other ship evades the collision it'll shoot past with a horn sound and the Doppler effect. Because these aren't starships, this is a car passing on the highway that's in the wrong lane and just evaded a head-on collision with a semi-truck.

:rubs brow again:

We'll see. I'm not overly optimistic. MacFarlane's humor is going to wreck it for me.

This to me looks like it's going to be a poor "Ferengi Episode" from DS9 except only all of the time.
 
The ad I saw for this looked promising. I think Seth MacFarlane is a funny guy just so many of his projects are mired in shock value humor. He's capable of writing a great parody and I know he loves Star Trek.
 
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See there's all of that greatness....

Then we get to the stupid humor that breaks the "reality" of the show.
 
Is this not supposed to be just a comedy show? Looks like it could work well as a comedy show, but if it's trying to be 'serious, with jokes', not sure it will work.
 
I've set the DVR to record. I'm willing to give this a *chance.* The surface-level stuff I'm seeing is promising and I hope that this isn't one comedic Vaudeville act or joke after another, particularly MacFarlanes type of humor, but it's hard to really get past some of that "comedic" content in the trailer(s).
Like I've already said two or three times, McFarlane said in an interview that the show isn't going to just be one joke after another, and that the emphasis won't be on the comedic aspects. The trailers have just over emphasized the jokes.
 
Like I've already said two or three times, McFarlane said in an interview that the show isn't going to just be one joke after another, and that the emphasis won't be on the comedic aspects. The trailers have just over emphasized the jokes.

Even if that the case, the jokes don't work for me and just make the whole idea of the show silly. (Like the weapons officer acting like a 21st century stereotype watching a basketball game) The reaction to the "aging device" or whatever. Yeah those may be rare moments but they're still moments that, for me, makes the show look/feel silly and not in "reality." I mean the who premise of why the give him the ship is silly within itself. "Hey, you're a fuck-up but, I guess, we need someone. Here's the keys to this fancy ship!"

For me it'll be hard to take it seriously when there's so much goofy in it.

I've got the DVR set to record. I'll give it a try. It's a season pass so I may watch 2-3 episodes, it it's better than I think and somehow makes this all work then I'll eat my words. But, as it is, I'm not optimistic.
 
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