News Seth MacFarlane’s The Orville

[CorporalCaptain]

Iron Man's attitude matches his situation. There's a demarcation between situations that call for sarcasm and situations that call for seriousness. Orville has no such demarcation, so the serious scenes end up having no seriousness.

Bingo. This is the biggest problem I had with it, and for me it was a problem because it rendered some of the jokes, such as the one about shifts not ending at the normal time because they're in battle, unfunny. Interestingly, it's exactly the sort of joke in that situation that might have been made on Family Guy.

Aside from that problem, I enjoyed it. The opening parts, which are always generally absolutely critical, pulled me in. This episode at least was definitely nowhere near the train wreck that the reviews might give the impression of. I've queued it up to rewatch.

The retro-TNG vibe is interesting and appealing to me, and at least they don't use percentages for their deflector strengths. The Krill ship looked like an obvious Romulan warbird homage, and I thought it was amusing that Orville's defense was flying around through all the holes, since having gaping holes was one of the things that distinguished the warbird.

P.S. I thought the penis and bathroom jokes were funny.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

I don't watch much, but man was that crass, especially for a show at 8. Not my cup of tea. Or, should I say, "balls" as the Show did, about every four minutes, it seemed. Just wasn't funny to me.

Yeah, it seems today that all you see is violence in movies and sex on tv.

 

[Skipper]

Yeah, it seems today that all you see is violence in movies and sex on tv.

Yep! But where are those good old fashioned values on which we used to rely?!?

 

[Salinga]

The critics hated it, but the casual viewer has a positive impression. A score of 7.6 at IMDB right now and the Twitter responses are 90% positive.

 

[KennyB]

I'm not sure what I thought about it. I was kind of "meh" through the whole thing. I'll continue to watch to see where it goes, but right now I have to call it ok, but forgettable.

Meh is my reaction as well. I think that has to be AS CLOSE as you can get to ripping of an IP.......the humor was OK but not as well done as Galaxy Quest.......the story was ok. The VFX were really good. Wonder if it would have been better if they had gone completely dramatic or completely comedy........it seems stuck in the middle.

 

[KennyB]

The critics hated it, but the casual viewer has a positive impression. A score of 7.6 at IMDB right now and the Twitter responses are 90% positive.

And we all know how scientifically accurate IMDb is!

 

[Mudd]

The critics hated it, but the casual viewer has a positive impression. A score of 7.6 at IMDB right now and the Twitter responses are 90% positive.

Good to hear.

I often remember what Stephen Cannell said about setting out with The A-Team to create a show that every critic in America would hate. Guess McFarlane has done it by accident.

Speaking of accidents the Indiewire review, which in general is masturbatory crap (do those folks get paid? I hope not ) contains one inadvertently worthwhile observation:

"... for fans of the franchise, who know intimately how a “Trek” series feels, it will be downright disturbing."

One can only hope.

 

[RAMA]

Originally I had the intention of some sort of "review" post but after watching TWOK and some football before Orville, I came to this conclusion:

I'd like to say there's something to review but it was so weightless, so banal that I have nothing to say. A rarity.

I am happy to report Twok holds up however.

Sanchez and Judge hit 4 home runs between them and the Cowboys dominated. What a great sports day!!

RAMA

 

[Australis]

Does that make Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home a comedy?

Yes, it does.

I thought it was meh-okay. The real problem I have... comedy, drama. It didn't know what it was. It really doesn't. I'll watch it to see where it goes. Did get a Galaxy Quest vibe as well.

It's not Red Dwarf, but then again it's not Outer Space or Hyperdrive either.

 

[KirkusOveractus]

I went in to the show, thinking it would be some form of experiment that MacFarlane was trying with comedy and being puzzled as to what I'd think, but it turns out I loved it!

It had some really good TOS nods (for those who haven't seen it yet, I won't mention them now) and the comedy was well-placed for me (it had almost a quality like a 60's action/adventure series or even the second season of TOS and updated for today).

The visuals were nicely done (yes, something is to be said for physical models for ships, and they still carry a look and depth that some CGI just does not have) and the uniforms and props were nicely done (I want to see more of their commscanners!)

It was much better than I expected. I really, really enjoyed it! Honestly, I didn't understand some of the negative reviews by people online, because I thought it was nicely done, and I'm going to stay with it!

Even made a Planetary Union T Shirt last night afterward to wear!

 

[skip bittman]

It's a comfy pair of slippers in TV form but Seth MacFarlane doesn't really have the charisma or chops to be the lead, shame he didn't take a back seat and cast a better actor. I bet he knows it but couldn't resist the wish fulfillment and unleashed his inner fanboy. But he's pretty awful on camera and would've been better deployed voicing a character or doing a cameo.

 

[Romulan_spy]

I really enjoyed the pilot episode. It made me laugh several times. I laughed the most during the scene where they ask the Krill about the captain's divorce and he sides with the ex-wife. I also liked the final scene where we learn that it is the ex-wife that pushed for Seth's character to get a new command. Very touching. It shows that the ex-wife is not so bad after all. I suspect that the two will get back together. The episode also had some nice action and scifi moments. There were also lots of nice winks to Star Trek like the holo deck scene. The visuals and aesthetics are great. It is a future I would love to live in. The show is a blend of Galaxy Quest, TOS/TNG and Seth's blue collar humor. It is also so good to have a light hearted, fun Star Trek-like show on TV again.

I would agree that the humor sometimes pulls you out of the show because the jokes are too contemporary. If the show toned down the in-your-face jokes but kept the fun, light hearted parts, and focused on cool scifi concepts, I think we would have a definite winner.

 

[Sophie74656]

Yes, it does.

I thought it was meh-okay. The real problem I have... comedy, drama. It didn't know what it was. It really doesn't. I'll watch it to see where it goes.

It's not Red Dwarf, but then again it's not Outer Space or Hyperdrive either.

It's ok if it's both, dramedys can be very good.

 

[Mudd]

Yeah, the main viewer scene was great. And Ed's fussing over the Krill's framing even made actual plot sense.

 

[Draculasaurus]

I liked it.
It wasn't perfect but it felt good.

 

[Marc]

AND - a penis joke in the first 6 minutes. I'm not a fan of Seth McFarlane so IO was expecting his level of sophomoric humor but the plot(?)

having it within the first 6 mins get the joke over and done with never to be touched again.

 

[Mudd]

"He's drawn penises on lots of things."

 

[CorporalCaptain]

"He's drawn penises on lots of things."

Yeah, that was hilarious.

 

[Tosk]

Holy cow, that was a lot weaker than I expected. The comedy was woeful, and the rest was...just okay? Not terrible, just a bit meh. And why were some of the effects great and some really cheesy?

I'll definitely give it a few more eps to be sure, but it's hard to predict a long life for this one. The whole thing just felt shamelessly like MacFarlane really wishing he could have been in TNG.

 

[Mudd]

Yeah, that was hilarious.

I like the deadpan a lot.