3 episodes into The Orville season 2. I've heard the second episode was actually from season 1.
The 3rd episode featured a meeting of doctors as it guest starred both Phlox and the EMH.
I love the humor, although MacFarlane said this season would have less of it. I hope not too much less though. It's what sets it apart from serious sci-fi shows.
Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
I thought episode 3 was great. I know a lot of people were turned off by the comedy elements of the show early on. I admit, at the beginning, I felt like they weren't getting quite the right balance. A lot of the jokes felt kind of forced into the show. But this week's episode had a B-story that was played for laughs that was literally only two scenes. Otherwise, the whole thing may as well have been a Trek episode.
I think anyone who's a fan of '90s-era Trek who wrote off The Orville because it had to much Seth MacFarlane-style humor in it should check out this episode and see how they feel about it. I don't know what the humor level will be like in the rest of the season, but this episode really highlights how well the show can handle its dramatic aspects.
Plus, in addition to Picardo and Billingsley, it's got Catherine O'Hara and Patrick Warburton as guest stars.
Posted by MinutiaeMan (Member # 444) on :
I’m definitely enjoying it. I’m just worried that the more they dial back the humor, the more it’s going to be a Star Trek rip-off instead of a fun homage. It already feels like Voyager but with more humor... (seriously, tell me the opening credit flybys and establishing scenes don’t feel exactly like Voyager).
The Orville is a deliberately retro-style show. I like the characters, and the stories are generally enjoyable, but I don’t think I’m getting anything new out of it, or anything I can’t get by watching some good old TNG or TOS.
But I still very much appreciate the effort to create a purely optimistic-themed story in the vein of Star Trek. Hopefully The Orville’s success will inspire Kurtzman and his writers to consider more optimistic storylines too...
Posted by Guardian 2000 (Member # 743) on :
The show's humor is the only escape route it has from being taken seriously, at which point it would fail because of the contrived problems and obvious but unpursued solutions.
For instance, the visit to high-grav Xaleya (sp?) featured shuttles going down with two crew and a single anti-grav spacesuit. The shuttle itself had a standoff anti-grav field that kept gravity comfortable within and outside the rear door.
Naturally a problem developed with the suit, so instead of moving the shuttle (like, park on him) or extending the field, the other unsuited person just had to stand helplessly.
It's bad writing.
Posted by Hobbes (Member # 138) on :
Been enjoying the last few episodes. Yeah, less of the season 1 humor but still not taking itself too seriously.
Posted by Hobbes (Member # 138) on :
I feel like I'm the only one here watching this show. The recent 2-parter is definitely worth watching.
Posted by MinutiaeMan (Member # 444) on :
I’m watching it.
The two parter was quite good, and I really like the “surprise” about Isaac, though as with many classic cliffhangers, the resolution was a bit rushed and not quite up to my hopes/expectations. Maybe it’s because the second part called attention to the big plot hole but never satisfactorily explained why the crew was kept alive. “Help us kill everyone on Earth and we’ll wait a couple days to kill you” is a really weak justification IMO.
Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
Yeah, and, as long as we're spoiling the episode (but, just in case, here's the warning that I'm about to spoil the ending, so stop reading if you haven't watched it yet), it was pretty obvious even within the first episode that it was going to end with Isaac turning out to care about the crew after all and going against his people to save the day.
Posted by Guardian 2000 (Member # 743) on :
I'm watching, still, but conflicted about it. The first part of the two-parter was edge-of-your-seat, Best of Both Worlds stuff.
The second part? Meh. No surprises, lots of trope-y stuff.
BoBW Pt.2 was at least a bit surprising, at the time, and other two-part edge-of-your-seat Treks have, broadly speaking, tried to avoid pat answers to the problem posed by the first part. With the exception of the Avis Ex Machina, if you will, and the peaceful departure of same, it was fairly pat stuff from the recycle bin.
I feel like Macfarlane is giving too much slack to Braga and Bormanis . . . they're doing some of their laziest, sloppiest, most phoned-in work right now, and although it’s still mostly better than Discovery's writing that’s hardly high praise.
Posted by Guardian 2000 (Member # 743) on :
The main thing I'm getting out of this right now is that a proper DS9 remaster would be utterly faptastic. The shots of the ship dropping down to Isaac's world, not to mention the pew-pew of the second part, were amazeballs.
Posted by Hobbes (Member # 138) on :
Really the only justification for keeping the crew alive was to have cooperation from the captain who the Kaylons needed.
The ending felt a little rushed. Almost like it could have used a part 3.
Even with the humor cut down Gordon's Top Gun reference was awesome.
Posted by Fabrux (Member # 71) on :
What I'm wondering is if Gordon intentionally let Orrin blow himself up? Seems like he could've just as easily put the blood bomb in the airlock and ejected it instead of wasting a shuttle.
Posted by Guardian 2000 (Member # 743) on :
This last one took "Booby Trap"/Minuet ideas to greater heights.
Posted by MinutiaeMan (Member # 444) on :
Okay, I didn’t realize there was anyone out there who thought Voyager’s “Fair Haven” was a good episode...
Posted by Hobbes (Member # 138) on :
This week's episode has Troi guest starring. I've lost count of how many Trek alums have been involved with this series on and off camera.
To me makes it more Star Trek than what's passing for Star Trek: SJW Edition.
My only real complaint is more on Fox for putting in so many breaks. My guess is since there's only 11 episodes they had to stretch it out to April sweeps. I'm still waiting to hear if it'll get a 3rd season.
Posted by Hobbes (Member # 138) on :
Read this morning that The Orville was renewed for a 3rd season. Which is good, because it's about the only thing I watch on Fox nowadays.
Posted by MinutiaeMan (Member # 444) on :
I’m very confused. Since when does Fox actually renew quality sci-fi shows?
Posted by Hobbes (Member # 138) on :
Disney?
I don't know. Although Dollhouse and Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles had 2 seasons. Almost Human could have used a second season.
Posted by MinutiaeMan (Member # 444) on :
I missed this story when it came out last month. It basically reads like “how a space battle would be envisioned if the Flare guys were in charge.”
No wonder it looked so good!
Posted by Hobbes (Member # 138) on :
A lot of people seem pissed that the series moved to Hulu. I ditched Comcast cable years ago and just have had Netflix and Hulu which is way cheaper than cable.
Posted by MinutiaeMan (Member # 444) on :
I have very mixed feelings about the move, myself. The story and production reasons make sense. I haven’t had cable TV for 10 years, I’ve gotten most of my shows through iTunes. (Cheaper to buy just the shows I watch outright.) But now every network has delusions of grandeur and wants to build their own streaming empire, and each streaming service has basically one show that I want to watch, and little more.
CBS has Star Trek. But aside from Discovery (and soon Picard), I don’t watch anything else on All Access ($10/mo). I don’t even need it for past Trek because I own it on disc and ripped to my computer for streaming in my home.
Hulu ($12/mo) will have The Orville. I’ve never had Hulu, and that’s the only show I’m really interested in that it carries.
Amazon Prime ($9/mo) has The Expanse now. I don’t have Prime because I don’t trust Amazon to sell me reliable stuff and I don’t like the idea of being tied to a single retailer for buying everything. And I don’t buy that much stuff anyway.
Disney+ ($7/mo) seems the best of the new propositions because of its absolutely massive back catalog. And The Mandalorian looks good.
Apple TV+ ($5/mo) has my interest, I’ve enjoyed the first few episodes of See and will start For All Mankind tonight. I’d almost certainly have checked it out anyway, but also got a free year with my new iPhone.
I still have Netflix ($13/mo) out of inertia, but I don’t watch much of their original content, I originally got it for watching old shows. Many of the old shows are being taken off due to licensing. I’ll probably cancel Netflix in the next few months.
I never signed up for HBO ($15/mo), their shows never really drew my interest. Especially not GOT, the setting looked interesting but characters looked way too horrible. I’m curious about the Dune/Bene Gesserit series in development, but that won’t be enough to get me to subscribe.
Streaming subscription fatigue is a real thing. It would be $71/ month to get all those services simultaneously. (I know, some have yearly or with-ad options. Just keeping it simple for discussion.) Starting and stopping subscriptions is an option, but the more networks, the harder it is to manage.
To bring it back to The Orville, I do believe that streaming is a great thing for production and storytelling. The reasons Seth MacFarlane gave sound great, and I look forward to seeing how season 3 develops (somehow, sometime), But I think that overall TV distribution will need to streamline a lot (or lower their prices) before I subscribe to that many channels.
Posted by Hobbes (Member # 138) on :
That's why I go with what I consider the original 2, Netflix and Hulu.
Although I get Hulu with Sprint, I'd still pay for it even if I didn't. I like that Hulu gets TV shows the day after they air and have a good selection of older shows as well. Unfortunately they lost a lot of their older shows from the 80s and early 90s like Quantum Leap or MacGyver. Aside from TV they have a decent movie selection with recent releases. Something I feel Netflix is lacking.
Disney+ is definitely worth the $7. I'm interested in all the MCU series they're creating.
![[Wink]](wink.gif)
![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)