I really didn't get that. I felt that it demonstrated just how difficult peace would be, since even an attempt to learn about their culture resulted in so much death.
THE ORVILLE - S1, E6: "KRILL"
- Thread starter Skipper
- Start date
It was a simplistic expression of TV morality.
...But sold well.
...But sold well.
I must be missing something...
Well, it ain't a cure for cancer - we can agree on that.
I find this kind of light storytelling vastly easier to enjoy than a show like...oh, say...Discovery, which presents itself as carrying on some semi-mythical legacy of high-mindedness and intelligence while serving up some of the meanest and stupidest aspects of Hollywood action flick ethics and "morality" in a stew of mediocrity.
You mean morality on TV. Unless television sets now have their own morality.
I've had some fantastic moral debates with my TV. My TV generally believes that morals derive from absolute principles, wheres I'm more of a utilitarian, factoring in context. My TV accuses me of moral relativism, which I counter that contextualism is not relativism.
Is a simplistic, unchallenging show easier to enjoy than a more ambitious show? Sure. But after that upfront, very modest easy payoff, there's no further payoff for greater investment.
At this point it looks like Orville may very well end up a better show than Discovery, but as long as it sticks to the easy, simplistic answers to things, it will never be better than 'Pretty good'. Whereas if Discovery actually pulled off what it was trying to do (Which it looks like it probably won't) it would be great. I kind of respect aiming high and missing more than aiming low and hitting.
Discovery has its problems, but at least it's more than a big, honkin Member Berry.
It's not even that, sorry. Spending a lot of money on a nothingburger doesn't make Discovery ambitious - the word you want is "pretentious."
On Star Trek it seems like the only thing that survived the 20th century was Jazz music. And Dixon Hill though i'm not counting that since it's not a real thing. That's why even though I don't like the Beastie Boys I'm glad that the Abrams reboot used real 20th century pop culture.
One of the reasons why Trek was judicious in its use of pop culture references is that it is impossible to know what might still be known about a few hundred years from now. Television was an ancient form of entertainment that died out in the 21st century. That gives television programming maybe a century of history. What is going to survive as historical at that point? This was the joke in STIV in the bus scene.
Most Trek references of real sources were pre-twentieth century or early twentieth century for this reason.
Most Trek references of real sources were pre-twentieth century or early twentieth century for this reason.
I'd argue that neither "About a Girl" nor "Krill" offered easy, simplistic answers to things.
And since we will never know, it's not important.
Which is amusing because in the mid-1960s the tending-to-middle-aged writing staff of TOS didn't yet realize that within a few years at most the half-century of jazz's dominance of American popular music - already much-diminishing in the previous decade - would totally evaporate.
It's like being able to breath free air after swimming for a long time under water.
Sounds like you lost the debate.
Honestly, I both loved this episode and hated it. It's the episode which has gotten me considering dropping the Orville because I do tend to think Seth MacFarland was attempting to do a take on radical Islam as an enemy while also not really understanding how religion works in general.
I will say, though, the episode was extremely well crafted and also showed a nice little coda at the end which made it seem more than cheap action.
I will say, though, the episode was extremely well crafted and also showed a nice little coda at the end which made it seem more than cheap action.
I don't think he was taking on radical Islam so much as he was taking on any radical religion. Islam, Christianity, any one of them their extremes see their way as the ONLY way and will go to extremes to ensure everyone else gets the message. And the aims of The Union wasn't to annihilate these extremists but to better understand them to find an equitable peace, hardly analogous to anything going on today where the majority's opinion is to just destroy them all. The message also, in part, being that trying to do the right thing may end up just causing you the very trouble you're having later.
Eh, while that's a charitable reading, Seth MacFarland's history is kind of known to have a somewhat loose understanding of issues (albeit primarily judging from Family Guy). I could well be wrong but it is problematic to me apparently the entire race not only follows this one religion but it's a religion bent on destroying all other non-Krill.
Maybe I'll be proven wrong.
Maybe I'll be proven wrong.
i had the same thought about MacFarlane but it seems here he's using more "grown up" writing. He wrote "Majority Rule" and that was a very strong damn episode and not in the ballpark of what I'd expect from him. So he seems to be using deeper knowledge and writing for this show so he could be going for a deeper reading into the events of the episode. His game is more impressive to me here, and I'm *not* a fan of Family Guy or any of his other animated shows, the "Ted" movies, though his take on "Cosmos" was really good.
So, I'd give him the benefit of deeper reading here.
So, I'd give him the benefit of deeper reading here.
Out of all the episodes so far this season, this one stands out as my favorite. We gain insight on the Krill's culture. As I mention in another thread , the goofy jokes and clowning around in the church slightly bumps down my rating. For some reason this episode reminds me of , The Search For Spock , which I enjoyed as well.
