The Orville

[politicallefty]

Who watches it? I know some of you do, but I couldn't find an official topic for the show here.

I loved the first the season, but felt that the current season got off to a bit of a slow start. I have to say it's been getting a lot better. Obviously the production values are much higher this season, but I mean the overall the writing has seriously improved. The show seems to do best when it focuses on the plot rather than some of the forced humour in some of the episodes. I think the down to Earth dialogue is part of what makes the show work well. They're regular people, talking like regular people and doing what regular people do.

With that said, the most recent episode: WOW. Oh. My. God. Right? If you haven't seen it, stop reading. (Seriously.) This past episode just blew everything out of the water. I've been reading reviews left and right since I watched it and this episode brings me back to the best of the Star Trek two-parters. If it isn't plainly obvious that Seth MacFarlane is a huge TNG fan, I don't know what show you've been watching. And if you didn't like this episode, you're watching the wrong genre. I think this episode definitely had a strong The Best of Both Worlds vibe with the cliffhanger ending. It built from something more mundane into what appears to be an existential crisis. I hope the payout is strong, because I almost always enjoy the first part of a two-parter.

[politicallefty]

Haha, it's a sci-fi show with sci-fi oriented fans. We're the type that'll nitpick everything.

why did the Kaylons all have eyes when Isaac very clearly explained earlier in the series that he only has eyes so humans feel more comfortable around him?

I had the same thought at first. I'm sure there's an underlying reason. Isaac is still blue, Kaylon Primary is red, and the rest appear to be orange. I have a feeling this will be explained.

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Maybe it's like the Borg in that a harmless organic does not warrant action until it poses a threat.


It seems to me like Isaac was reprogrammed in some way upon reactivation. Obviously, one can draw conclusions from there. I'm very much looking forward to the next episode, probably more so than any so far. I do think these are the kinds of episodes the show needs to run if it's going to be truly successful.

Fwiw, these are the tentative episode titles for the final five episodes of the season (after this week):

S2E10 - Blood Patriots
S2E11 - Lasting Impressions
S2E12 - Sanctuary
S2E13 - Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow
S2E14 - The Road Not Taken

I wouldn't rule out some seriously massive implications.

[politicallefty]

they certainly need one or two like this per season, you couldn't do something this "big" every week though, that would get tiring for the fans.  But they can't fall in the "villain of the week" rut so many shows fall into, especially long running SciFi type shows.

Yeah, I agree. In TNG, the two-parters were some of the strongest episodes of each season. I'm actually kind of surprised they didn't save this kind of episode for a season finale cliffhanger. I wasn't just referring to this episode though. I thought the Moclan episode from the week before was really good too, very powerful storytelling, albeit not subtle in its point. It was a bit of misdirection if you think about it. You had the sense of growing tension between the disparate values between Earth culture and Moclan culture.

My only issue was that I thought the season got off to a slow start, namely the first two episodes. I don't think this show would do well to follow a pure serialized model. I think the TNG model works better for this show: "villain of the week"/"spatial anomaly of the week", a few strong character development episodes "ship in a bottle", and maybe two strong two-parters that deal with overarching themes or existential crises.

I like the show. The episode with Kelly and the multidimensional orbit planet was one of the best.

Sometimes I think the social messages of the show are bit too hamfisted but TV sci-fi is always like that I believe.

On the first point, yeah, that was a great ending for the first season. It had the pure Trekkian spirit of optimism and exploration, while also dealing with the profound implications of their actions. I think along with About a Girl and Majority Rule, the best of the first season.

[politicallefty]

Haha, I actually forgot about this topic and I was the one who created it.

I've been really impressed actually. They got off to a slow start this season, but it feels like the show is really finding its comfort zone. I swear if they cancel this, I'm never watching another new FOX show again.

(I haven't watched tonight's episode yet.)

Dolly Parton plot point was fantastic

that part was fun, but I hope that was the last Moclan episode for awhile.

Agreed. I think it's been obvious that an episode like that was coming and it was very good, but yeah, time to move onto other species and other issues. If you didn't notice, btw, Marina Sirtis (Deanna Troi from TNG) played the teacher in that episode and Jonathan Frakes (Will Riker from TNG) directed it. I think it's clear that this show wants to heavily emulate '90s Trek in so many ways (also the best Trek in my view).

[politicallefty]

Good news! Fox renewed the show for season 3.

[politicallefty]

It's crazy how long it's been.

We're rewatching the entire series again before we watch the new season.


The first season has some REALLY bad episodes.  The Doctor's kids are so funking annoying!

I'm not saying it's a bad episode like the filler ones you're rewatching it just seems so tonally out of place. Like for another example Ed is barely in it and he doesn't say any jokes or do anything funny or Seth MacFarlane-esque for the scenes he is.

Without giving out big spoilers, the episode revolves around Issac and how the crew (especially a new character who I get the impression will be part of the main cast now) react to him now and are unwilling to forgive him.

I think from a comedy standpoint, season 2 sort of buffed away some of the rough edges of season 1. This is just the beginning of season 3, so it's hard to say where things are going. (I never even updated the topic to mention that it moved from FOX to Hulu, although I do definitely consider that a good thing.) I do think the intent with this season, as well as the last, is for something closer to hard sci-fi and less with the in-your-face slapstick. That's probably a better recipe for a longer lasting series, provided they keep the main characters true to the first two seasons (though with plenty of room for future development, of course).

[politicallefty]

Watch the first two or two and a half episodes and lost interest sometime ago. Started watching again and I am completely hot. Power watching deep into second season now and it's the best show I've seen in a long time. Dictating this wild the one episode where the doctor, Claire, is talking with the commander, Kelly Grayson, that she is developing feelings for the Android, Isaac. So cool

So if you're in season 1 be aware that it's pretty hit or miss. You can tell which episodes were rushed and written as filler. Season 2 almost everyone agrees is better, it's much more serious and has some very interesting twists.

Almost finished with season 2. I actually like season one a lot other than the first couple episodes.

I actually have to agree with that, apart from the Kaylon two-parter and the last two episodes of season 2. Season 1 definitely did have some rough edges on the comedy aspect, but was otherwise pretty strong. I did think season 2 was a tad too Bortus-heavy.

I forgot to mention in my previous post that I was reminded of Norm Macdonald's passing in the first episode this season. I think they said before that he had finished all of his work for this season. I've really enjoyed Yaphit as a character in the show, a completely different species and one of the most able members of the crew. RIP Norm.

If the show gets another season, they certainly can't keep Yaphit, but they can evolve his character if they wanted to. They've already explained how his species reproduces through mitosis, which could be an interesting twist. No one could ever replace Norm Macdonald. Therefore, it only makes sense that Yaphit will split into two new people.

[politicallefty]

Latest episode was quite exceptional (and clearly showing off a higher budget). Even though the episode was written quite awhile ago, it did have some majorly topical elements.

Spoiler alert! Click Show to show the content.

Show

You do have to sort of suspend belief a bit to have a foreign delegation show up for a major treaty signing on the night of an election. The episode doesn't really work without that particularly plot element though. Otherwise, definitely a great episode.

[politicallefty]

I see that some people are still mistaking this show for a comedy, parody, or whatever.

That was The Orville's concept back in Season 1 which by now probably counts as a case of "Early Installment Weirdness" (https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/EarlyInstallmentWeirdness). In other words, I think you can stop looking for "jokes".

It's obvious that the series has become a fully fledged TNG clone and that was perhaps MacFarlane's plan from the start. And it's a good TNG clone, actually. Better than Voyager anyway IMO.

I've thought that from the start. Seth MacFarlane definitely wants to be a starship captain. There's still a lot of levity, but it's better enmeshed with the characters and plots. If there's one thing I've noticed, it's that most sci-fi of this type tends to take a couple seasons to really start hitting it's stride with great episodes. I think this show is firing on all cylinders right now.

The latest episode was really quite something. Before streaming, it would have definitely been a two-parter. Either way, it was bold and not afraid to push. I have to give serious credit to Seth's acting chops for this episode too. That cameo was also something else too.

[politicallefty]

Well, this week's WHAM episode was quite something. I was right about the Kaylon, Krill, and Moclan storylines coming to a dramatic culmination - just not quite in the way that I had anticipated. They found a far more Star Trek-ian solution for it (the main battle itself certainly also had some shades of Star Wars to it though).

One episode still to go, although it is unclear how and with what they're possibly gonna top it at this point.

I definitely agree that that had to come to a reckoning point, but I have to say I was expecting it in the season finale (which I have yet to watch). It really has been an extraordinary season. Some people say season 3 was when TNG really started hitting the mark. Shows like these can mature so well. (When I watched season 4 of ENT, I was really left wanting more. I think it really started hitting its stride there, but unfortunately it was too late.)  I'll be very disappointed if they don't renew this for another season.

[politicallefty]

It was definitely an enjoyable episode. I absolutely loved the throwback to the first season (I think that episode was one of the best, if not the best, episodes of the first season). I was almost expecting something bigger to happen with that particular storyline. It definitely reminded me of at least a few Star Trek episodes, though going even further with that latter scene in their version of the holodeck.

[politicallefty]

Btw, it's on Disney+ now too. If you guys want to help get this show another season, watch it there too and watch reruns whenever you can.