When I think about "Orville" and it's style I kind of think, not of a tv show, but "Ghostbusters" and I mean the classic one. It's not a drama but a comedy adventure show that will have a few serious moments from time to time.
Jason
News Seth MacFarlane’s The Orville
- Thread starter Kai "the spy"
- Start date
When I think about "Orville" and it's style I kind of think, not of a tv show, but "Ghostbusters" and I mean the classic one. It's not a drama but a comedy adventure show that will have a few serious moments from time to time.
Jason
Yeah, that doesn't mean anything.
Are we done yet? I'm tired of people taking a good point and focusing on an example in it instead of the point. If you don't like "Frasier", insert your own example that works for you. The point still stands.
Frasier was a spinoff, and a lot of his problems, ex-wife and son in Boston, were a huge part of his character. Adding an everyman character that was no different from Cliff and Norm or a stuck-up brother who was essentially Frasier on Cheers to play off of, was like shooting fish in a barrel.
It may not work for you, which is fair. But I've found The Orville very entertaining.
I think it's kind of like how people in Trek are always messing with vulcans
Wait I loved Frasier and I was using your example. I was just trying to make a point that it’s not really fair to judge a show based on one episode and that frasier had a backstory to fill in the gaps.
With that said I guess we are done. Sorry I struck a nerve.
Yeah, it kinda reminded me of how Kirk and McCoy would try to be funny and clever around Spock who would not get it. Bortus is like a cross between Spock and Worf.
After a while they seemed just rude. Yes, Vulcans don't get your sense of humor. Are you proud of yourself?
Mercer and Bortus don't seem that far removed from Neelix who was always trying to make Tuvok smile.
At least, Mercer seemed to get that his humor was not working and that he should stop it.
What some people question about Orange" is, is it a comedy or a drama? That's not the case with Orville.
When critics and some viewers say Orville doesn't know what it wants to be, the reference is to whether it is a Star Trek parody or a (comedic) homage to Star Trek, not 'is it a drama or a comedy'. Prior to the premiere, McFarlane specifically stated that the show was not a parody and was an homage (a la Galaxy Quest).
The question of what it wants to be arose about Orange because the comedy is so sharp and the drama so strong, that either label might legitimately be applied. I don't think the same can be said of Orville yet. Doesn't mean it won't evolve into Orange (with respect to comedy or drama), it just hasn't happened in the first two episodes.
But after watching the first couple of episodes, I'd say the Orville, with all of the "man/"dude" talk and jokes about Compton, is firmly in the parody category. Now, that might change as the season wears on. We shall see. This isn't a criticism, but going forward, I'll be watching the show for what I think it actually is, based on what I'm seeing on screen rather than what Seth has told us the show is.
Imagine a RL similar situation. Someone has got a new foreign coworker and purposely and continuously makes jokes with references that the new colleague can't understand and therefore always makes him feel left out.
And then he sneers at him because he don't get the jokes.
This "someone" wouldn't be a nice person.
I really wish people wouldn't keep making grand declarations about something as subjective as humor. 90% of the jokes work for me. They don't for you. Some people find things hilarious that I just barely chuckle at, other people are completely left cold by things that make me spit out my proverbial drink.
It's one thing if there's an overwhelming consensus that the humor doesn't work, or if you're a long-time fan of the writer's previous humor and this time it's leaving you cold.
But that's not the case. Lots of people find the show's humor funny, even if there's some who are categorically against even oblique references to bodily functions (episode contains one cringe comedy bit where a person discusses colon diseases, yet some people act as if they're watching Freddy Got Fingered).
Funny example there with Scrubs. While I enjoyed the show, I almost never laughed at it. The humor of that show was this frenetic machine gunning of quips and people behaving farcically, which I find amusing but not hilarious. Yet I wouldn't dream of declaring Scrubs an unfunny show because it doesn't make ME laugh.
As an example of my sense of humor, here's a random list of TV and movies that have made me fall over laughing - Fawlty Towers, Blackadder 2-4, A Fish Called Wanda, Frasier, Better Off Ted, Parks and Rec, Community, most Apatow comedies. With regards to MacFarlane, Family Guy makes me laugh more often than not.
A more constructive discussion about The Orville would be whether the show succeeds in the balancing act between drama and comedy. If you personally don't find the drama engaging or the humor funny, then that's wholly subjective. But I think the flow of the show is less so, and personally I found the pilot was a bit awkward whereas Command Performance was really great and felt exactly like a mid-run Berman era Quark or Q-focused episode. Exciting but not too serious, the jokes work as an organic part of the story. The pilot was more like "Exposition. Cut to joke. Now some drama. Everyone stop for a joke."
Seems like a perfectly Trekian setup for a morality play.
Given that it's 2017 and if Gulliver's Travels were made today it'd get attacked for insensitivity towards little people, I predict the "MacFarlane doesn't get it" think pieces will blot out the sun.
You mean, the only child whose father was dead?
Frasier sometimes got some humor out of his attempts to explain to Cheers drop-in characters why he'd lied in Boston about his life story.
http://comicbook.com/startrek/2017/09/21/the-orville-about-a-girl-review-star-trek/
"Watching Captain Mercer and his crew debate the proper course of action feels reminiscent of watching Captain Picard do the same thing with the crew of the Enterprise. There’s even a point where the debate turns into a legal battle that almost seems inspired by the classic Next Generation episode “The Measure of a Man.”
“About a Girl” feels as if MacFarlane found a lost Next Generation script and brought it to life, adding a few of his own touches along the way. For Star Trek fans still trying to figure out how they feel about the new Fox series, this episode of The Orville is a must-watch."
"Watching Captain Mercer and his crew debate the proper course of action feels reminiscent of watching Captain Picard do the same thing with the crew of the Enterprise. There’s even a point where the debate turns into a legal battle that almost seems inspired by the classic Next Generation episode “The Measure of a Man.”
“About a Girl” feels as if MacFarlane found a lost Next Generation script and brought it to life, adding a few of his own touches along the way. For Star Trek fans still trying to figure out how they feel about the new Fox series, this episode of The Orville is a must-watch."
I knew the orville would do a wild wild west holodeck episode. Preview clip for ep 3. This is hilarious:
